WTW has secured five UK defined benefit (DB) investment advisory appointments over the past nine months, totalling £30bn in assets.

These appointments covered UK DB plans from the insurance, energy and technology sectors, including the IBM UK Pension Plan.

WTW said the pension schemes shared a common objective, having reached a high level of benefit security, these schemes desire a more “relevant and robust” risk management framework to achieve self-sufficiency and provide a better solution for all stakeholders. 

The firm also noted that as pension scheme funding levels had improved “significantly” over the past year, maturing DB pension funds were weighing up the merits of long-term run on strategies while considering surplus-sharing flexibilities. 

WTW said it has seen a change in the market with increased demand for new strategic DB advice, aimed at enabling innovation for clients seeking resilient investment portfolios and liability hedging frameworks.

“Trustees and sponsors are beginning to recognise that a continued drive to reduce investment returns may be counterproductive,” WTW head of Great Britain investment strategy, Alasdair Macdonald, commented.

“There is good logic to retaining a modest amount of investment return as part of a broader risk management framework which accounts for funding risks.” 

Adding to this, WTW Investments managing director, Dave Aleppo, said: “We are delighted to have received the support and validation of our new strategic proposals from such high-profile UK pension schemes.

“In partnering with more DB schemes, we are confident that, together, we can provide greater security for members and certainty for sponsors.”

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