UK - The City of Westminster Council has initiated a search for providers of investment and actuarial advice to its local government pension scheme (LGPS).
The local authority revealed in a tender notice it is offering three contracts relating to the £642m (€701m) pension fund and a further consultancy service for its investments outside the pension scheme.
Westminster, which currently employs Mercer as its independent advisers on investment strategy and Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow as its actuarial services provider, is seeking:
Under the terms of the contracts on offer, the responsibilities of the investment consultancy would include reporting on fund performance, investments and financial position; the monitoring of fund managers and advising on suitable investment strategies.
The specialist investment consultancy would meanwhile be required to provide core services of custodian and investment operations monitoring, including quarterly monitoring reports and an "analysis of the custodian's performance [currently BNY Mellon] against defined key performance indicators (KPIs)".
Details of the tender notice showed the successful actuarial provider would have a range of duties including undertaking the triennial valuation of the fund; producing quarterly funding level updates and work relating to the additional voluntary contribution (AVC) arrangements.
In addition, the council is also looking for a treasury consultancy and investment advisory services for its investments held outside of the pension fund, although the tender notice highlighted the same supplier would not be appointed for all four contracts.
It noted the same company would not be awarded the combination of the investment consultancy and actuarial services contracts, or a joint contract of the actuarial services and custodian monitoring.
The search for investment and actuarial advisers follows the recent tender by Westminster council for providers to take on the administration and accounting services of the pension fund. (See earlier IPE article: Westminster seeks admin and accounting provider)
The closing date for applications to all four contracts is 28 April 2009 and further information can be obtained from Westminster City Council.
If you have any comments you would like to add to this or any other story, contact Nyree Stewart on + 44 (0)20 7261 4618 or email nyree.stewart@ipe.com
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