UK - Two Scottish local authorities have appointed Hymans Robertson as investment consultants, while pension advisers and investment consultants have also been chosen by Amey and Thomson Reuters.

And The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has also published a second 'bite size' e-learning module as part of its good governance campaign.

Shetland Islands Council has reappointed Hymans Robertson to provide investment consultancy services to its £158.1m (€181.7m) pension fund, after it re-tendered both its investment and actuarial contracts in July 2009. (See earlier IPE article: Shetland Islands tenders investment and actuarial services)

The £20,000 five-year contract was awarded to Hymans Robertson out of five submissions, based on a range of criteria including price and the quality and depth of resources. The pension fund's current investment strategy comprises of 38.75% in UK equities, 38.75% in overseas equities, 10% in bonds, 10% in property and the remainder in currency.

Minutes from a special meeting of the £8.4bn (€9.7bn) Strathclyde Pension Fund committee in January showed it had also reappointed Hymans Robertson to deliver investment consultancy services.

Glasgow City Council initiated a search for a provider to help the fund in setting its investment strategy and investment management structure, along with manager selection, monitoring and retention and the termination of contracts. (See earlier IPE article: Strathclyde to appoint manager selector)

At the meeting in January, the committee interviewed representatives from the three short-listed companies of Hewitt, Mercer and Hymans, before choosing to award the contract to the latter. 

Elsewhere, the Pensions Regulator has issued a new e-learning module on record-keeping, as part of its increased focus on good governance.

The new 'bite size' module is made up of two overviews that highlight to trustees the impact of missing or inaccurate scheme data. In addition, TPR said the process would help users to think about the key questions they need to ask in connection with data, and to think about the importance of accurate data in their own scheme.

This follows the decision by TPR earlier this month to consult on plans to regulate standards of scheme data, after a survey found one-third of member records had less than 80% of the common data fields completed. (See earlier IPE article: TPR cracks down on poor pension admin)

Meanwhile, Barnett Waddingham was awarded the role of investment consultant for two pension schemes run operated by Thomson Reuters.

The firm will provide investment advice to both the defined benefit (DB) Reuters Supplementary Pension Scheme and the defined contribution (DC) Thomson Reuters UK Retirement Plan.

Paul Jayson, partner at Barnett Waddingham, said: "Both of these Thomson Reuters schemes operate independently, so it is extremely pleasing that both sets of trustees decided that Barnett Waddingham is best-placed to serve their needs."

Public service provider Amey, which is involved in infrastructure projects around the UK, has appointed Hewitt Associates to provide a full range of corporate pension advice to its pension fund.

Mark Bradshaw, head of reward and policy at Amey, said: "Hewitt clearly understood the details of our pension arrangements and displayed evidence of giving clear and innovative advice on the issues and challenges which face organisations with regard to pensions today."

If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com

Topics