The Client Challenge

Having had just one single supplier since the 1960s, who managed all aspects of service from actuarial to administration, our pharmaceutical client didn’t have the confidence or independent oversight to identify whether or not they were delivering on their promise to employees of providing the best pension scheme available.

With a global directive to close their DB scheme to future accrual, the promise to staff was to provide the best possible replacement option. An additional complication arose whereby the global group had a master trust in place for their DC scheme. As unions required representation on the DC board and this couldn’t happen in a master trust, they needed another solution.

Our Solution

Our analysis showed that the existing scheme was not optimal, so to meet the key strategic goals of our client a highly innovative and lower cost solution was proposed and a company steering committee put in place to establish the new structures.

In short timeframes, we established a new scheme, got revenue approval and appointed a new administrator. Using our full range of capabilities we introduced a new suite of fund offerings which gave access to many more investment strategies, in a far more cost efficient manner and is expected to deliver greatly improved member outcomes over the lifetime of the investment. We client branded the solution and delivered a suite of smart communications to explain the benefits to staff in plain English, along with providing additional and more extensive one-to-one support to those closer to retirement.

The Results

With generous contributions offered to existing members of the DB scheme, and good contributions to new members, very healthy member retirement funds are anticipated.

A notable improvement in the services delivered has been observed and our client has also achieved the objective of a top class scheme in terms of administration and investment choices. The scheme has made significant savings for the members and governance is now at the high end of the scale. The scheme has now achieved a merit award (Pension Quality Standard) from the IAPF.

What the client said

”Acuvest are the go to people for pensions advice and have given us, through their independence and expertise, the confidence in our belief that we have a high quality DC scheme. Additionally, there has been a notable improvement in the service delivered by the administrator since their involvement.”