On 12 January 2023, HHJ Matthews, sitting as a High Court Judge, handed down judgment in SwissIndependent Trustees SA v Sofer [2023] EWHC 12 (Ch). This case involved the construction of a private trust, but the Judge held that the special characteristics of pension scheme documents described by Lord Hodge in Barnardo’s v Buckinghamshire [2018] UKSC 55 apply equally to private trusts, i.e. that they are not negotiated, are intended to endure for many years, and confer benefits on non-party beneficiaries. Although the Judge contrasted this approach with cases on the construction of commercial contracts, he left open the critical question of whether this justifies a different approach, and potentially different outcome, in trust/pension cases compared with commercial contract cases, holding that it would make no difference to the outcome of the case before him.