Following a competitive tender, Hymans Robertson, the independent pensions and benefits consultancy, has been appointed to provide actuarial, investment consultancy and administration services to the trustees of the DB scheme of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the Scottish Government’s economic and community development agency for the Highlands & Islands of Scotland. With 300 staff located from Shetland to Argyll, HIE delivers projects and programmes which drive regional growth through developing businesses and sectors, investing in infrastructure, and strengthening communities. The DB scheme has assets of £80m and 875 members.

This win represents the 19th of 23 new appointments for Hymans Robertson’s Trustee DB business since January 2015. In total these wins have brought a total of £28.4bn new assets under advice to the firm.

Zahir Fazal, BESTrustees, Chair of trustees of the scheme, said:

“We appointed Hymans Robertson as we believe its approach to funding - which integrates investment, contributions and covenant - would result in a partnering approach between the trustees and our sponsor, HIE. We were also impressed by the collegiate and enthusiastic style of the team, who working together as one, evidenced how they would add value through its member-focussed administration services. All of this was underpinned by its understanding of our marketplace and the similar work it has undertaken for other schemes in our sector.”

The trustees of the scheme said:

“Zahir’s experience and support through the tender process was invaluable.  We now look forward to working closely with Hymans Robertson, Zahir and HIE to help bring a truly integrated risk management approach to our scheme’s funding strategy and provide a high quality administration service to our members.”

Commenting on the appointment, Calum Cooper, Partner and Head of Trustee DB, commented:

“We’re delighted that HIE chose to partner with us. To meet pension payments both in the near term and into the future, trustees need to ensure their schemes have the assets in place to back cashflow requirements. We take an objective-led approach, with a focus on understanding and managing the cashflows, structuring investments in a way that balances the need to generate required returns but avoiding exposure to capital losses. We believe this is essential to ensure schemes can meet the pensions promised to members, and we look forward to working together with the trustees of the HIE scheme to do that in a risk-controlled and cost effective manner.”

Discussing the team’s wins over the last year, he added:

“We’re delighted that so many Trustees are looking to partner with us. From the feedback we’ve received, one of the main drivers behind our unrivalled success winning appointments in the Trustee space has been our focus on meeting the promised pension payments. This is the foundation for all our funding and investment advice.

“DB schemes are viewed as providing certainty that the pension will be paid, but since 2006 approximately 230,000 pensioners in UK DB schemes have lost on average around £25,000 of their benefits. Few schemes in the UK explicitly measure or have a real handle on the probability of paying the benefits promised to members. Our approach does that.

“It’s only through being able to measure the risks that you can manage them. We aim to give trustees a more complete picture of their funding situation, incorporating the key long term investment, contribution and covenant dimensions. This improves strategic decision making.

“We look forward to working in partnership with all our new clients to help them meet their pension commitments.”