UK – Hewitt Associates has formed a new consulting team to provide retirement planning and investment strategy for defined contribution pension schemes.

It has hired Andrew Cheseldine from Watson Wyatt and Steve Busby from Prudential for the team, which also includes in-house senior consultants Tony Baily and Chris Cairns.

The team “aims to integrate broader elements of benefits strategy from Hewitt’s other human resources consulting services”.

It will begin consulting with existing and potential clients immediately and be responsible for developing Hewitt’s existing DC consulting resources and helping clients to look at DC pension provision in the context of their broader benefit strategies.

"We are delighted to announce the launch of this dedicated resource, aimed at sharpening our consultancy services to employers setting up or running a DC scheme,” said UK consulting head Yvan Legris.

Elsewhere, an academic has claimed that DC is more economically efficient that defined benefit schemes for most workers.

“At least workers who are exposed directly to investment risk in their DC pensions can see clearly what the risk is and can take steps to reduce it (by, say, investing in low-risk assets,” said Tanaka Business School lecturer David McCarthy in a letter to the Financial Times.

The comments were in the context of resistance to the proposed NPSS by actuaries – which McCarthy says looks “decidedly attractive”.

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