Sarah joined Travers Smith as a consultant in 2013, having previously been a partner at Pinsent Masons LLP.
During her career she has been involved in a number of high-profile pensions matters. These include advising the Bradstock Pension Trustees on the first ever court settlement of a Section 75 debt, advising the pensioner representative beneficiary in KPMG v Aon (HC and Court of Appeal), and co-heading the team advising the Nortel Pension Trustees on the issuance of a financial support direction.
A large part of Sarah's role involves acting on de-risking transactions and she advised the Trustees of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries Staff Pension Scheme on the buy-out and winding-up of the scheme, working with Head of Pensions Daniel Gerring. Sarah also advised the Trustees of the TRW Pension Scheme on a landmark £2.5 billion partial buy-out in 2014, alongside Pensions Partners Paul Stannard and Dan Naylor. This innovative transaction incorporated a pension increase exchange exercise, trivial commutation and an enhanced transfer value exercise in order to maximise de-risking opportunities. Other recent transactions include advising the Trustees of a scheme with multiple benefit problems on an "all risks" buy-out and acting for the trustee on a PPF Plus buy-out following a Regulated Apportionment Arrangement.