Grant Thornton Pensions Fund has appointed Cardano as its fiduciary manager following a competitive tender process.
As fiduciary manager, Cardano will provide services including investment advice, investment management, and risk management for the £250m (€293m) scheme.
It said that there will be a particular focus on accurately matching liabilities through a segregated liability-driven investment (LDI) mandate, while delivering steady returns through a dynamically managed growth portfolio.
Carl Williams, chair of trustees at Grant Thornton Pensions Fund, said the scheme undertook the market tender as “based on our previous experience, we were not sure if fiduciary management was right for us”.
However, he said that after meeting the Cardano team, it was “clear that fiduciary management was what we needed and they were the right team for us”.
He said: “They were effective in engaging with our trustee board, and it’s already clear that we’ll be getting first class advice and service, alongside their investment capabilities.
“Their client references were very impressive, and the smooth and cost-effective onboarding has been an early validation of our decision to appoint them.”
Steve Berkovi, client director at Cardano, added: “With the assets successfully transitioned, we look forward to working with the trustee, the principal employer and other advisors to help secure members’ benefits,” he said.
Grant Thornton fine
Last week the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issued the accounting company, Grant Thornton, with a fine after its enforcement committee found failures in the audit of a UK local authority pension fund, “which it considered represented a significant departure from the standards expected of a registered auditor and had the potential to affect the public, employees, pensioners or creditors”.
The failures included obtaining insufficient audit evidence that the value of investments was materially accurate.
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