Partners in Confidence: Pragmatic oversight for a Scheme with £100m of assets
Sponsoring employer: Large, multi-national industrial testing company
Quantum Advisory was appointed to provide independent oversight of the trustee board’s fiduciary management arrangement, strengthening trustee confidence in the governance framework while preserving the efficiency and decision-making benefits of delegation.
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The challenge
The trustee board of a £100m defined benefit pension scheme, targeting a buy-in transaction in the short to medium term, sought independent oversight of its fiduciary management (FM) arrangement. While recognising the benefits of delegation, the trustees were conscious that effective oversight requires access to high-quality market insight and the ability to challenge fiduciary managers on an informed and credible basis.
The trustees aimed to enhance the quality and depth of oversight without increasing governance burden, disrupting existing arrangements or incurring excessive costs. Success was defined as improving transparency of FM activity, strengthening engagement and challenge, and ensuring continued confidence that implementation remained aligned with the scheme's objectives, journey plan and prevailing market practice.
Our approach
Quantum delivers regular oversight reports to align with the trustee meetings, leveraging the expertise gathered through the production of the FM Dashboard, our deep fiduciary market knowledge and long‑standing relationships with fiduciary managers.
While Quantum completed a comprehensive review of the Scheme’s fiduciary mandate, the regular report is split out into the following key high-level areas:
- A summary of the Scheme’s current position along with Quantum’s up to date views on focus areas
- Key considerations and actions highlighted to enable the trustee board to prioritise the main areas of concern or impact. Complicated considerations are further drawn out to explain Quantum’s views and facilitate the trustee board’s understanding of the issues
- High level funding positions are outlined within the context of the Scheme’s objectives, avoiding unnecessary details or “noise”
- Manager specific updates are raised, highlighting and discussing Quantum’s views on any changes.
The impact – Outcome and results
- Enhanced trustee governance through independent market insight and manager expertise.
- Greater transparency of fiduciary activity and implementation decisions.
- Clear framework for trustees to assess outcomes against objectives and market practice.
- Informed challenge and constructive engagement with the fiduciary manager.
Trustees gain a stronger understanding of how the investment strategy is being implemented, and greater confidence in assessing whether outcomes remain aligned with their objectives and broader market expectations.
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