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Contact: Lowri Haf Evans 01286 679878
No. | Item | ||
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ELECT CHAIR To elect a Chair
for 2020/21 Minutes: RESOLVED to re-elect Osian Richards (Members'
Representative) as Chair of the Board for 2020/21. |
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ELECT VICE CHAIR To elect a Vice
chair for 2020 / 21 Minutes: RESOLVED to re-elect Councillor Aled Evans
(Employer's Representative) as Vice-chairman for 2020/21. |
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APOLOGIES To receive any apologies for absence Minutes: An apology had been received from Councillor Aled Evans |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive any declaration of personal interest Minutes: None to note |
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URGENT ITEMS To
note any items which are urgent business in the opinion of the Chairman so that
they may be considered Minutes: None to note |
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The Chairman shall propose that the minutes
of the meeting of this committee held
on 20th of July 2020 be signed as a true record. Minutes: The Chair signed
the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee, held on 20 July 2020, as
a true record. |
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MINUTES OF PENSIONS COMMITTEE To submit, for information, minutes of the Pensions Committee meeting held on the 14th of October 2020 Minutes: The minutes of the Pensions
Committee held on 14 October 2020 were accepted for
information. Members had
no further observations arising from the minutes. |
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GWYNEDD PENSION FUND'S FINAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2020 AND RELEVANT AUDIT
Additional documents:
Minutes: Submitted - a
report along with a Statement of Accounts for the Gwynedd Pension Fund 2019/20
(post audit), by the Head of Finance Department providing details of the
Pension Fund's financial activities for the year ending 31 March 2020. Members were reminded that a draft of the accounts had been
submitted to the 20 July 2020 meeting and although the figures had not changed,
attention was drawn to some amendments to the narrative following an audit. It was noted that the Audit Committee bore the responsibility
for formally accepting the accounts and they had been approved on 15 October
2020. Reference was made to additions by the Auditors to note information on
property fund valuations. After property fund trading had
been suspended in March, it was argued that substantial valuation
uncertainty was linked to these funds and, as a result, the property fund
valuations on 31 March could be the subject of a higher level of uncertainty.
In addition, it was reported that although the
Auditors had not highlighted one specific matter in relationo
to the Gwynedd Pension Fund, they had noted three significant matters that were
common across all pension funds, which would be likely to affect the Fund. -
GMP Equalisation -
The McCloud case -
The Goodwin case Gratitude was expressed
for the commitment and the accuracy of the work and the Investment Manager and
the team were thanked for preparing the work in a challenging and difficult
period. In response to a question regarding the use of i-connect, it was noted that 99.9%
of Fund employers were now submitting data via the i-connect
process. It was reported that the Isle of Anglesey
County Council and North Wales Police had now transferred and it was added that
good collaboration had taken place with all employers to ensure use of i-connect, which now provided substantial benefits and
success to the Fund. RESOLVED to accept, for information ·
The Statement of the Accounts 2019/20 (post audit) ·
The 'ISA260' Deloitte report for the Gwynedd
Pension Fund ·
The Letter of Representation |
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WALES PENSION PARTNERSHIP UPDATE To consider the
Investment Managers Report Minutes: Submitted - a report by the Investment Manager stating that
since its establishment in 2017, the Partnership had been going from strength
to strength with officers meeting often. Since the Covid-19 pandemic period, it
was noted all the Partnership's events had been held
virtually, and work to launch new funds and to hold a number of events had
taken place. Attention was drawn to the Global
Growth Fund's performance up to 30 September 2020. It was
reported that the performance of this fund before the pandemic was
higher than the benchmark with a strong performance by Baillie Gifford and
Veritas. It was highlighted that this portfolio had 'deep
value' investments, and due to the impact of the pandemic, it was noted that
recent performance had fallen behind the benchmark. It appeared that the
traditional sectors such as oil and financials had performed poorly and sectors
such as technology had performed relatively well. It was
explained that Russell Investments continually monitored the allocation
of this fund. Reference was made to the transfer
of fixed income that had been transferred in July and October 2020. An
investment of £166,119,549.08 with Fidelity Global Equity had
been transferred to the Multi Asset Credit Fund and an investment of
£291,238,172.22 with Insight had been transferred to the Absolute Return Bond
fund. Attention was drawn to
Representation of the Pension Boards on the Partnership's Joint Committee
noting that this topic had been debated for some time now. It was reported that the Head of Finance Department had
attended a meeting recently on the matter. The outcome of the discussion was
that the Joint Committee would include 8 members of
the Fund (with one vote each) and representation from the Pension Boards
(within the constituent authorities - without a vote). It was
reported that the majority of funds agreed that status needed to be
given to representation of the Board, but a unanimous decision was required
before progressing. It was noted that any change would
involve submitting a recommendation to every individual Council to be accepted
at a meeting of the Full Council. It was reiterated
that one further meeting had been arranged to re-discuss prior to submitting a
proposal to the Joint Committee. Members expressed their thanks for the report. During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were noted: • Accepted
that fees were associated with investments, but it did not reflect the fixed
costs of establishing the Partnership. • Accepted
the transfers but was ending investments with Fidelity a good decision given
that Fidelity's performance had been good? • A more
formal arrangement was needed, which referred observations / reflected the
recommendations of the Board and the way they were referred to the Committee,
and perhaps to the Joint Committee - a suggestion was made to submit a report
by the Board to the Committee or for a Board member to submit an item verbally. In response to the publication of fixed fees, it was noted that the delivery scope of this was in ... view the full minutes text for item 9. |
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GWYNEDD PENSION FUND PERFORMANCE UP TO 30TH SEPT 2020 To consider the
report Minutes: The Investment
Manager submitted a report informing Members on the work of monitoring and the
performance of Pension Fund investments.
It was reported that the Gwynedd Pension Fund
was in a relatively healthy position as the value of the fund had increased
gradually since 2010, but a substantial fall had occurred on 31 March 2020 due
to the impact of the COVID pandemic. There had been a strong quarter 1 performance with markets bouncing back
from the decline seen in the last quarter of 2019/20 with global equity values
continuing to increase, especially in the last few weeks after the news of a
potential vaccine. It was added that fund property
returns had also generally performed well against the benchmark. There was no
trading from March, but the market re-opened in September. It was noted that residential assets and supermarkets had
performed well, but the high street had not performed as well, and there was
uncertainty about the future of offices. Reference was made
to the Lothbury Property Trust, which had performed
below the benchmark because of their high exposure to the retail sector, while
the other Managers had exposure to sectors such as industrial sites and health
centres and had therefore performed better. Members expressed their thanks for the report. In response to a question regarding the impact of Brexit
on the property market, it was reported that the
Gwynedd Pension Fund held some 6% of stock in the United Kingdom and,
therefore, a huge, harmful impact was not anticipated. It was
reiterated that the property benchmark had been set at 10% and moving
funds and underinvestment by the market recently had been very transformational
over time. It was agreed to include details of the
benchmark percentages in future reports. RESOLVED to accept
the information. |
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COMMUNICATION POLICY STATEMENT 2020 To consider the report and to receive feedback from the Board on the new Communication Policy Statement Additional documents: Minutes: Submitted - the report of the Pensions Manager
highlighting a wish to receive feedback from the Board about the new
Communication Policy Statement. It was explained that
the Fund must provide, maintain and publish a communication policy statement in
accordance with Regulation 67 of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)
Administration Regulations. It was added that the
communication policy must be revised and republished following any change in
policy. Following various changes to communication methods recently, the
statement would have to be amended to include current
communication methods and add the use of Microsoft Teams, I-Connect and the
Self-service resource. It was noted that Gwynedd's
policy had not been updated since 2010 and, therefore, feedback on the policy
from the Board would be appreciated prior to its submission for approval from
the Pensions Committee. During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were noted: ·
The amended Policy Statement was clear, fair and
comprehensive. ·
When amending, there was
a need to ensure that no information would be lost. ·
It was important to
listen and respond to users' wishes, e.g. be ready to respond to their wish if
they preferred to receive information on paper. ·
There was a need to refer to the Wales Pension
Partnership - important that the communication procedure between the Fund and
the Partnership was included. ·
Virtual Meetings v
On-site Meetings - a working group had been established
to identify advantages and to consider methods of providing both options in one
meeting. RESOLVED to accept the
information. Attention was drawn to the fact that the
Managers' Survey had not been undertaken as per usual and it was suggested to
hold a special meeting to discuss and share opinions. It was
added that the Board’s work programme also needed to be updated (to
include the Hymans training questionnaire). RESOLVED to ask officers to update the work
programme and share it with Members for observations / additions. |