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The National Trust Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (NTRDBS)
The National Trust Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (NTRDBS) is the legacy defined-benefit pension arrangement for employees of the National Trust,...
The National Trust Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (NTRDBS)
The National Trust Retirement and Death Benefits Scheme (NTRDBS) is the legacy defined-benefit pension arrangement for employees of the National Trust, Europe's largest conservation charity by membership. The scheme is overseen by a corporate trustee board chaired by Janet Thomson, with Giles Hunt — the Trust's Land and Estates Director — serving as a trustee director. The National Trust itself acts as the principal sponsoring employer. NTRDBS has pursued a deliberate liability-driven investment strategy, culminating in a sequence of full-scheme buyout transactions with insurers. These buyouts transfer the scheme's pension obligations to a regulated life insurer, removing longevity, investment, and inflation risk from the sponsor's balance sheet. Before entering the insurance endgame, the scheme maintained exposure to global renewable infrastructure funds and a dedicated liability-driven investment (LDI) portfolio of UK gilts and credit instruments. The geographic footprint spanned global infrastructure holdings alongside the concentrated UK sovereign and investment-grade credit exposure required to match sterling-denominated liabilities. Juana Tinn chairs the investment committee and Ross Russell chairs the risk management committee, with Judith Alborough serving as secretary to the trustee. Professional and total asset figures remain undisclosed, consistent with a closed, insured DB scheme where the trustee board's role has shifted from strategic allocation to monitoring the residual insurance wrapper. The structural differentiator is not asset selection but termination architecture: NTRDBS represents the endpoint of the UK defined-benefit lifecycle. Rather than competing for alpha or managing a multi-asset pool, the trustee now administers a contract with an insurer. This posture makes it a case study in pension risk transfer — a fully de-risked corporate scheme with no ongoing active investment program, only legacy oversight and compliance.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
Swindon
Corporate office
Swindon, United Kingdom
Principals
Juana Tinn
Chair of the Investment Committee
Janet Thomson
Chair of the Corporate Trustee Board
Judith Alborough
Secretary to the Trustee
Ross Russell
Chair of the Risk Management Committee
Giles Hunt
Trustee Director and Land and Estates Director of the National Trust
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is a full-scheme buyout and what does it mean for NTRDBS members?
A full-scheme buyout transfers all of a pension scheme's assets and liabilities to an authorized UK life insurer in exchange for a premium. The insurer becomes directly responsible for paying member benefits, eliminating investment, longevity, and inflation risk for both the scheme and the sponsoring employer. For NTRDBS members, this means their pension is now an insurance policy obligation rather than a trust-based scheme promise.
Who advises or governs the scheme's remaining assets?
The corporate trustee board, chaired by Janet Thomson, governs the residual scheme structure. Juana Tinn chairs the investment committee and Ross Russell chairs the risk management committee, with Judith Alborough serving as secretary. Giles Hunt, the National Trust's Land and Estates Director, brings employer-side governance as a trustee director. Their primary role today is overseeing the insurer relationship and any residual winding-up activities.
Is NTRDBS still an active allocator for new investments?
No. A fully bought-out defined-benefit scheme no longer makes new fund commitments, direct investments, or asset allocation decisions. The scheme has completed its transition from a going-concern investor to a contract beneficiary, a terminal state in the UK DB pension lifecycle increasingly common among well-funded charitable and corporate plans.
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