Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has launched a technology-driven solution aimed at helping smaller UK defined benefit (DB) schemes achieve better outcomes.

The asset manager said the service, dubbed ‘NavGuide’, was designed specifically to help these schemes improve funding levels, control costs and risks, and secure members’ pensions.

It uses a proprietary technology platform to help LGIM analyse individual schemes’ unique circumstances. The asset manager can then provide schemes with tailored investment advice, the initial design and then constant evolution of a bespoke portfolio, online monitoring and funding level tracking, and “seamless” transition to buyout.

LGIM also said the service allowed smaller schemes – of which there are some 2,000 in the UK – to pool all their assets using its pooled fund range, gaining access to LGIM’s economies of scale, and expanded affordable access to fiduciary management.

Mark Johnson, head of insitutional clients at LGIM, referred to NavGuide as a “one stop cost-effective solution” for an “often overlooked” part of the DB market.

Tim Dougall, head of fiduciary management at LGIM, added: “The pandemic has increased pressure on DB pension schemes and highlighted the need to better-manage risks and make assets work harder, whilst still controlling costs.

“Solutions exist, but have previously been very difficult for smaller schemes to access.

“NavGuide aims to change that, and bring the benefits of highly efficient diversified portfolios, bespoke risk management, and stress-free buyout to schemes of all sizes.”

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