A message from Frances Hinden

Welcome to my first edition of the Source as President of the Board of Trustees. 

My first priority is to thank Ian Robertson who has chaired the Board for the last 10 years. As we said in last year’s edition, Margaret Powell in Bermuda has also retired and we are now pleased to have Jennifer Adams join us in Hamilton as our Board Secretary. Alongside those changes, you may spot from the team’s details here that many of the senior staff in the Trustee Services Unit have moved roles and we recently welcomed Louise Lane as our new Actuarial and Funding Pensions Manager.

I’ve been a member of the SOCPF for over 20 years (and the SCPF for longer) and it feels very much like the French proverb ‘plus c’est change, plus c’est la meme chose’ (the more things change, the more they stay the same), as the Fund continues in a very secure position. There will be a fully updated valuation next year, and in the meantime the Fund’s assets continue to be higher than the liabilities under the various ways of measuring them. You can see more details on the current funding position of 105%, followed by commentary from Greg Tucker, our actuary from Aon.

There’s a snapshot of the investment performance of the Fund’s assets while Ed Francis, from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), introduces himself and gives his thoughts for the coming year. As we explained previously, GSAM took over as investment manager on 1 October 2025. Now the transition is complete, we can start to work with Ed and his team on the future investment strategy for the Fund.

I don’t like saying that I am ‘retired’ (the Spanish ‘jubilada’ is a much better word) when I feel busier than ever with a mix of professional, charitable and personal activities. But it only took days after I’d announced I was leaving full-time work on LinkedIn before I received multiple emails from financial “advisers” and “headhunters” all desperate to help me plan the future, make the most of my pension or take on a well-paid non-executive role. Sadly, not only were most of these scams of one sort or another, but some of the most convincing ones were AI-generated. These don’t have some of the obvious tell-tale signs of bad grammar and spelling mistakes, but there are usually still ways to tell. This page gives a few hints on how to identify scams, but the simplest and most important is simply to check email addresses and phone numbers are genuine before you give anyone any personal information, never mind any money.

I’m looking forward to working more with the great group of Board members, advisers, service providers and Shell people who support the SOCPF. I hope all of the members of the SOCPF continue to go from strength to strength in the next 10 years – just like the Fund.

Frances Hinden

President of the Trustee Board