Press Releases

Hymans Robertson has appointed Susan Black into the new role of Head of GAP (Governance, Administration and Projects) within its LGPS team. Against a backdrop of structural and regulatory change and enhanced scrutiny from Scheme stakeholders, Susan will lead and develop the services offered by the leading pensions and financial services consultancy’s expert team of integrated Governance, Administration and Projects specialists to support LGPS its clients.

Hymans Robertson is to offer all its employees more flexibility about the amount of time they spend in the office, with the opportunity to work in a hybrid way post pandemic. The leading pensions and financial services consultancy’s new approach will allow all staff, if they choose, to benefit from a mixture of remote and office working. The new hybrid working approach has been developed by the firm, after extensive consultation with employees, through its ongoing ‘Reimagining Working Life’ project.

Hymans Robertson has appointed Leonard Bowman to the new role of Head of Corporate DB Endgame Strategy, recognising the increasing importance for companies with DB schemes to strategically plan their journey over the next decade as they enter the final stages of their lifecycle. Leonard, already a Partner at the leading pensions and financial services consultancy, joined the firm earlier this year as part of its acquisition of Bath Actuarial Consulting (BAC).

Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, today announces that it has completed a £230 million bulk purchase annuity transaction with the Trustee of the Agfa UK Group Pension Plan.

This buy-in is the Plan’s first transaction, covering 70% of its pensioner liabilities. As part of the Trustee’s long term de-risking strategy, the Company provided additional funding support which facilitated a pensioner buy-in, increasing the long-term security of all members’ benefits.

This latest transaction is in line with Phoenix’s ambition to become a market leading BPA franchise, with a continued focus on value not volume.

Lead advisers to the Trustee for this transaction were Hymans Robertson.

Hymans Robertson, the leading independent pensions and financial services consultancy, has promoted eleven colleagues to Partner. This is the highest number of new Partners in the firm’s history and comes as it celebrates its 100^th birthday and reaches the milestone of 1000 employees.

Those newly promoted to Partner are Ailsa Dunn, Alan Garbarino, David McGruther, Jitske VanLonden, Joanne Gyte, John Pyburn, Karen Gilchrist, Lucy Steers, Robert Bilton, Sally Eagers and Shoko French.

Commenting on the DWP Consultation “Stronger nudge to pensions guidance” Michael Ambery, Partner, Hymans Robertson says:

“We warmly welcome the DWP Consultation “Stronger Nudge to Pensions Guidance” and fully support the use of signposting. We believe signposting would likely improve outcomes for individuals and ensure products meet an individual’s needs, as well as providing awareness of other pensions and savings products. Signposting would also provide much needed awareness and education on options at the point of retirement, and stop a generation from sleepwalking into making default decisions that may be detrimental.”

Commenting on GMP Equalisation Working Group’s “Guidance Note on GMP Conversion”, Matt Davis, Head of GMP Equalisation, says:

“Resolving GMP equalisation has involved just over thirty years of hurt for the industry, so today’s release of the GMP Equalisation Working Group’s “Guidance Note on GMP Conversion” will be welcome news, as will the update from PASA on upcoming guidance. The guidance sets out practical examples based on approaches developed for some conversion projects for early adopters."

Commenting on the Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) Call for Input on Staging as it reaches the deadline for response, Karl Lidgley, Client Manager Third Party Administration at Hymans Robertson, says:

“We fully support the PDP’s aim of “enabling individuals to access their pension’s information online, securely and all in one place which will help supporting better planning for retirement and growing financial wellbeing."

“The fact that a vast number of pension plans are lost or unclaimed is a vital factor in the timing of the stages for the rollout. The ABI estimated that there are 1.6m lost pensions plans with the Government predicting there will be 50 million dormant and lost pensions by 2050. This orphaned pension problem is only going to increase due to a rise in job changing, particularly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, making it an even more urgent issue."

Hymans Robertson is supporting and driving a new action group, The Climate Impact Initiative, which aims to encourage providers to make climate friendly impact investment options available for all savers regardless of plan size. The newly formed Initiative is seeking the support of pension plans, with no cost or contractual commitment, to help grow the voice of asset owners to compel providers to address the needs of defined contribution pension savers.

Commenting in response to the DWP consultation on 'simpler annual benefit statements' on the deadline for submissions, Greer Flanagan, Senior Consultant, Hymans Robertson, says:

“We welcome this consultation and fully support the ambition for the proposed simplicity of benefit statements and the advantages that go alongside this. The consultation proposes a two-page benefit statement and with our experience of moving some of our clients to this already we can see both advantages and disadvantages. The proposed content is excellent but the challenge is to contain any supplementary information whilst keeping it on two pages. While we applaud the aims of the consultation, we also have some concerns around the proposed timescales."

Commenting on the public service pensions consultation: discount rate methodology, Robert Bilton, Head of LGPS Valuations, commented:

“We welcome today’s consultation on the SCAPE discount rate methodology as it affects one of the most important assumptions used to determine how much employers should pay into the unfunded public sector pension schemes. The consultation, and its focus on stability, is not surprising after the significant increases in employer contribution rates to these schemes after the last round of valuations at 2016."

“It is good to see that the DWP is progressing with plans around the assessment of fees for private markets investments. We remain concerned, however, that these changes do not appear to be in the interest of improving outcomes for members and feel these will stifle, not support, innovation. We feel the changes will perpetuate the industry’s focus on costs and charges, and not on improving member outcomes."