UK – Pension consultants generally give trustees good advice, says the head of a new firm which tracks the effectiveness of advice.

“We’re getting very positive results from the advice that consultants are providing,” said Roger Brown, managing director of Blacket Research.

He told IPE the firm assesses consultants’ short-lists by analysing the performance of managers that were not selected to see how well the choices would have performed.

Clients include the pension funds of the London Borough of Newham, Scottish & Newcastle, J Sainsbury and ITV. Consultants at the schemes, according to ‘Pension Funds and their Advisors’, include names such as Hymans Robertson, Watson Wyatt and Frank Russell.

Blacket has reviewed manager selection at the £358m (€521m) Newham scheme, although the results have yet to be presented to the investment committee.

Blacket’s analysis “will help improve our decision making, our compliance with Myners and further enhance our scheme governance”, said Newham’s head of finance John Turnbull.

Brown, a former executive at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, added the firm has had a “very warm reception” from the market since it launched last year. In June this year Coal Pension Trustees’ CEO David Morgan joined the firm as chairman.

Elsewhere, Watson Wyatt says it has been appointed by the trustees of the Taylor Woodrow Group Pension & Life Assurance Fund to carry out a review of asset allocation strategy and investment manager structure.

“We are delighted and proud to have been chosen for this mandate to provide investment advice to the Taylor Woodrow trustees,” said Watson’s Kevin Carter, European head of investment consulting.

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