Adviser review and procurement

Good governance demands that pension schemes regularly review their service providers and advisers to ensure that they are fit for purpose and are adding real value for money.

Not only should a service provider or adviser be able to show how they add value, they should also be able to demonstrate that they are most appropriate for a scheme of your size and type. Spending some time on selecting third party organisations to work with your scheme can therefore add considerable value if done properly. In addition there may be opportunities to “bundle together” services with one provider to maximise service efficiency and reduce overall costs.

Our approach to managing the adviser and service provider procurement process ensures that our clients get the best  firm at the right price. Our full procurement support service typically follows the following 10 step process:

  1. Facilitation of discussion to establish priority requirements from your actuary, administrator, investment advisor or covenant review specialist
  2. Drafting the Invitation To Tender (“ITT”) document, ensuring that the questions included test the ability for providers to meet your own specific priority requirements, as determined in step 1
  3. Advice on a long list of providers, and distribution of the ITT to this list
  4. Collation and production of summary of responses from the long list on a like for like basis
  5. Facilitation of discussion with you to determine a short list to invite for beauty parade interview
  6. Organisation and facilitation of the beauty parade day to provide the opportunity for you to meet shortlisted firms and ask further questions
  7. Facilitation of the final decision process
  8. Co-ordinating reference clients where appropriate
  9. Assistance in final fee negotiation with chosen provider
  10. Assistance in hand over process including review of new contracts

We also provide stand alone benchmarking services, efficiency testing and adviser transition management and would be very happy to discuss these further with you.