UK – The 700 million pound (1.02 billion euro) Dorset Council Pension Fund in southern England has appointed a subsidiary of South Africa’s Sanlam to provide actuarial services.

Punter Southall & Co. said in a statement that the fund “is the first local authority fund to appoint a firm outside the four traditional firms for actuarial services”. It added that its Psolve investment consultancy arm now provides services to almost 10% of UK local authority pension funds.

Punter Southall and Psolve are both part of South African financial services group Sanlam.

Financial terms of the appointment were not disclosed.

The firm’s chairman, Stuart Southall, said: “We are delighted that Dorset has appointed us to provide actuarial services to their fund.”

Peter Lewis, the pension fund administrator at Dorset, said the council sees the appointment as an “opportunity to develop with them a fresh and innovative approach to local authority actuarial business”.

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