Pensions - Articles - Kingfisher appoints Hymans Robertson as scheme actuary

 The home improvement retailer, which owns B&Q and Screwfix, sponsors one of the UK’s largest DB pension schemes. The scheme has a track record of innovation and award wins – including the Professional Pensions defined benefit scheme of the year award and most recently for ‘Best Long-Term Investment Strategy’ at the European IPE awards.

  

 Kingfisher selected Hymans Robertson following a competitive tender process which initially involved four separate firms.

  

 Crawford Taylor, partner and scheme actuary at Hymans Robertson, said:
 "We're delighted to partner with the trustee on the journey towards their long term objective – sufficient low risk assets to deliver the benefits promised by 2030. Our focus will be on actively improving their chances of achieving this long term goal, capturing opportunities along the way, whilst also looking to build in shock absorbers to protect against adverse events.”

  

 The chair of the trustee, Clive Gilchrist of BESTrustees, commented:
 “Hymans Robertson’s focus was on increasing our chances of success and reducing risk against our long term goals. Their foundation for doing this is a clear focus on improving the accuracy of our scheme’s anticipated pension payments. This really resonated with the trustee board. The approach was simple, yet made uncommonly good sense.”

  

 The Secretary to the trustee, Dermot Courtier, who led the review, added:
 “Ultimately, on behalf of the trustee board, we were looking for two things: fresh ideas and engaging advice. , We’re confident that they’ll deliver on both counts.”