Investment consulting
We work in partnership with defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, delivering independent advice and solutions. Our award-winning service is focused on helping schemes and members achieve their objectives and manage risk, thereby receiving the best outcomes and security in retirement.
Award winning
Partnership
We work in partnership with our clients, reflecting our belief that we have a key role to play in ensuring all schemes meet their objective to pay all members their benefits in full and on time. A true partnership is built on trust, and to achieve this we are open and honest. Our clients’ objectives are our objectives.
We believe that working together delivers the best results. Our experience of advising both trustees and sponsors helps us find areas of consensus, allowing schemes to move confidently through challenging situations.
We are always looking for ways to make our clients’ lives easier, whether that’s implementing decisions quickly and efficiently through our XPS Concierge service, utlilising award-winning technology such as Radar to help understanding and decision making, or just our preference for providing simple solutions where complexity has little benefit.
Independent
We are free to advise on the best solutions for our clients and we are not tied to pre-determined strategies. We know that this leads to stronger and longer partnerships with our clients. We don’t push schemes in one direction because of our own commercial interests and go out of our way to avoid any conflicts of interest to preserve our independence. For example, we do not offer both fiduciary management and advisory services, so we never experience the conflict of recommending our own funds as we don’t have any. This enables us to be completely unbiased in delivering FM Oversight services.
Our independence also empowers us to share our views and be directive. If we see a problem, we’ll come up with a solution and give you our view in the spirit of our partnership. That’s how our XPS Concierge service came about. COVID-19 lockdowns made it challenging to get investment decisions implemented and get documents signed, so we developed XPS Concierge, which prepares paperwork for us to sign on behalf of trustees and manages the whole execution process.
Tailored
Every scheme is unique, and we are very focused on being able to help all clients solve the challenges they face, whatever their size and complexity. We advise schemes ranging from £1 million of assets to over £60 billion, and advise both trustees and corporate sponsors. We have solutions and innovations available for all schemes. If a new client challenge emerges without a solution, we’ll apply our collective expertise and talent to find one. We also work with clients on specialist projects as well as ongoing appointments.
All our advice is tailored and built on our deep understanding of the broad range of investment options available to pension schemes. It is built on our clear principles and preferences; for example we believe that ESG and strong stewardship are fundamental elements of risk management, and that sustainable approaches improve outcomes.
Improving outcomes
We recognise our wider role in trying to improve our industry for the better, for example by using our influence with fund managers for the good of our clients. Whether it’s sharing our research analysis and ratings with fund managers to help them better understand what schemes want, pushing for lower fees, or raising the bar on ESG risk management within a fund manager’s investment process, we will drive positive change.
400+
clients advised
£110bn
of assets under advice
99%
of clients agree we are collaborative in our approach and enjoy working with us
