Pension fund trustees in danger

THE trustees of Irish pension funds could be in breach of their fiduciary responsibilities, if they permit the funds they oversee to hold billions of euro in equity investments in electronic form, it emerged last night.

Fine Gael TD and lawyer Jim O’Keeffe said the difficulties for all trustees of funds with assets invested in shares arises from a High Court judgement handed down by Mr Justice Roderick Murphy.

He ruled that shares held in trust for individuals by liquidated stockbroker W&R Morrogh can be sold to pay some of the €3 million plus cost of receiver Tom Grace of PricewaterhouseCoopers.