MBW International, a joint venture between UK consultancy Barnett Waddingham and US firm Milliman, has added Lurse, a German consultancy, as a partner to become MBWL International.

MBW International, as it was then called, was established in 2017 to co-ordinate global retirement benefits programmes for companies with headquarters in the UK, or multinational companies with UK operations. Milliman provides pension and employee benefit services globally and Barnett Waddingham provides them in the UK.

Joel Wehner, principal and consulting actuary at Milliman, said that, with Lurse on board, MBWL could “provide clients with expert advice of the sophistication demanded by multinational organisations on their German pension and benefit issues, through a single co-ordinated team”.

This in turn “opens the door to be able to help a wider pool of clients with their global challenges,” he added.

Lurse is an HR strategy consultancy with a focus on compensation, pensions, and “talent”. Earlier this year it acquired Deutsche Pensions Group, a specialist in digital pensions administration and actuarial and asset consulting.

MBWL positions itself as “the leading alternative independent alternative” to the big three consulting firms Aon, Mercer and Willis Towers Watson.