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The challenges faced by Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) are often unique, usually significant and regularly complex.

 

You need to deliver a top quality customer service to your members in the face of an ever-increasing number of changes made to the LGPS benefits, and the wider pensions sector. You also need to manage a large and diverse group of employers and engage with all your other stakeholders - from Local Pension Boards to the national Scheme Advisory Board, to Asset Pools and the Government. And you need to do all of this whilst setting and controlling your scheme’s funding, investment and risk strategies.

 

Succeeding in this landscape requires agility. You need an approach that can be adapted to ensure you effectively manage the risk in, and cost of, your scheme that continues to put your people first.

 

 

£107bn

LGPS assets under Mercer advisement

 

2.2m

LGPS members benefit from Mercer advice

 

50%

of all LGPS have chosen Mercer to help them meet their challenges

Who we are

Mercer’s dedicated LGPS team provide clients with clear, outcomes driven advice and services. They are supported by a team of over 80 experienced consultants, analysts and specialists, who together provide LGPS funds with dynamic solutions in a range of areas.

 

We also provide advisory services directly to employers that participate within the LGPS through our separate employer advisory teams.

 

How we help 

How we help


The specialist areas where we can provide you with support are:
 

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    Actuarial, risk and benefits

      


    Our expert actuarial and benefit teams provide the following services to LGPS funds:

    • Actuarial valuations, including Funding Strategy Statement reviews, and termination valuation assessments
    • Interim funding reviews and inter-valuation employer contribution assessments
    • Online employer funding monitoring and asset tracking (using PFaroe)
    • Full risk advisory services, including financial risk monitoring, bespoke employer investment “bucket” strategies and flightpath “trigger” and hedging frameworks
    • Pension fund accounting disclosures and advice for funds and their employers
    • Individual employer contribution assessments on joining and leaving funds, together with reviews
    • Employer covenant and Deferred Debt Arrangement exit risk assessments
    • Cash flow projections and budgetary planning
    • Demographic analysis, data quality improvement plans and liability impact analysis
    • Liability risk transfer programmes including buy-ins and bulk transfers
    • FCA authorised and regulated AVC reviews, monitoring and advice (via our LGPS AVC Club)
    • Individual member calculations and support on benefit design changes e.g. McCloud
    • Fund and Employer policy development, consultation and communication
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    Investments

      


    We provide comprehensive advisory services, training and tools to LGPS Funds (and Asset Pools) across the full spectrum of investment areas, including:

    • Investment Strategy (including asset-liability modelling)
    • Tactical Asset Allocation
    • Private Markets and Alternatives research
    • Risk Management
    • Manager selection and monitoring
    • Performance monitoring
    • Cash flow modelling and monitoring
    • Technology solutions (e.g. MercerInsight, Strategic Research Community)
    • Transition management and monitoring
    • Asset Pooling Support (e.g. Portfolio Mapping Analysis)
    • Responsible Investment (including carbon footprint analysis, strategic climate change analysis, legislative guidance, support in TCFD reporting, manager ESG ratings and net zero roadmap design)
    • Investment Governance (e.g. drafting of Investment Strategy Statements, Responsible Investment Policies)
    • Ad-hoc projects (e.g. treasury management solutions)
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    Governance

      


    We provide a wide range of governance support services, including:

    • Working with Pension Fund Committees and Local Pension Boards to assess knowledge and skills, and consider training needs
    • Planning and delivery of stakeholder training plans and education sessions
    • Development of focused and well defined pension fund business plans
    • Support on the use of risk registers and mitigating options
    • Operational support including Project Management activities
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    Administration projects

      
     
    • Backlog projects – our experienced LGPS administrators work with you to ring fence and clear your backlogs, particularly deferred, refund, aggregation and concurrent calculations, but can be extended to other calculations
    • Data Cleanse projects
    • Address Tracing and Mortality screening
    • Administration reviews – we can audit your structure, process and procedures

  • Specialist services

      

     

    Areas of support in other specialist disciplines include:

    • Review of pension fund and employer discretions within the LGPS

    • FCA authorised and regulated individual member financial advice, on matters such as pension tax planning and retirement planning

    • Standalone employer covenant assessments and analyses

    • Communication strategy development and implementation

    • Dedicated online training resources

We understand the unique, significant and complex challenges you face as a Local Government Pension Scheme and are proud that half of all LGPS funds have chosen us to help them meet theirs.

 

To find out how we can curate our expertise to support you, please fill in the form below.


Our insights
 

Webinar

LGPS: The 2022 Valuations – are you ready?

Our panel debate the key issues that are likely to emerge from the 31 March 2022 actuarial valuation for English and Welsh LGPS Funds.


View recording
Article

LGPS: Equity protection strategies – De-stress don’t distress

Nick Page explains how making an equity protection strategy part of your strategic plans can help your fund tailor its risk and return profile to your specific needs.


Find out more
Article

LGPS: Setting a course to net zero

We held a webinar attended by representatives from 40 funds to discuss the road to net zero for LGPS funds and asked attendees three questions to gauge how ready funds are. The results produced a couple of surprises.


Find out more

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