UK university scheme appoints Towers Watson as delegated CIO and actuary

UK - The University of Warwick pension scheme has appointed Towers Watson as delegated CIO and scheme actuary, adding itself to the consultancy's growing list of fiduciary management clients.

The consultancy said the joint appointment would lead to a combined approach to investment and actuarial services for the university scheme, which has assets of £120m (€150m).

It is the latest in a number of similar appointments that have boosted assets under advice in its delegated investment services to more than $50bn (€40bn) worldwide, it said.

Chris Ford, EMEA head of investment at Towers Watson, said consultants were explicitly accountable in the role of fiduciary manager, and this was very appealing for many funds.

"This appointment also shows how a flexible delegated service can be effective and relevant for funds with £100 million of assets as well as for funds with over £3 billion of assets," he said.

In February, Towers Watson won the role of delegated CIO of carmaker Jaguar's UK pension scheme, joining the Land Rover pension scheme, which already had a delegated mandate with the consultancy.

The Jaguar appointment meant Towers Watson would oversee £4.1bn of assets for the UK business of Jaguar Land Rover, it said at the time.

Towers Watson said its delegated investment services provided an "integrated approach to managing assets against liabilities in the context of a journey plan to full funding".

It continued: "Under this approach [...] clients delegate the fund structure and manager selection responsibility, allowing them to concentrate on determining appropriate risk and return parameters and monitoring." 

Ford said the service offering addressed the gap between the capabilities of the largest schemes with internal management resources and the governance capabilities of more typical schemes.

A delegated solution left trustees free to concentrate on the more critical strategic aspects of the management of their scheme, he said.

Towers Watson said late last year it had created a fiduciary management team for its delegated investment business, separate from its advisory team.