The trustee of the £850m Merchant Navy Ratings Pension Fund (MNRPF) has appointed Towers Watson as fiduciary manager.
Towers Watson will be responsible for the day-to-day management of assets against MNRPF’s strategic goals as well as offer advice on and execution of strategy.
MNRPF investment committee independent chairman Chris Wagstaff (pictured) said: “After a comprehensive process to identify our investment beliefs and the best governance structure for the fund, we are pleased to have Towers Watson as our fiduciary manager. As a result of this approach, we believe we have the governance structures and working arrangements in place to build an investment portfolio consistent with our investment beliefs to deliver optimal fund performance for our members.”
The trustee has also appointed an independent intermediary, David Clare of Barnett Waddingham, to work with Wagstaff to oversee the mandate.
Towers Watson UK head of Delegated Investment Services Pieter Steyn said: “We are delighted to have been part of this thorough and intermediated process and to be given the opportunity to convert the trustees’ very clear investment beliefs directly into an investment portfolio. The construction and investment of this portfolio make us explicitly accountable for performance versus liabilities and frees up the Trustees to concentrate on strategic decision making and oversight.”
This follows last week’s announcement that MNRPF will cease receiving trustee support and secretariat services from Ensign Pensions from 31 March 2016.
Ensign Pensions has provided support services to the MNRPF trustee board since September 2011, but also to the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund (MNOPF) and the recently-formed maritime industry DC scheme, the Ensign Retirement Plan.
It said as the MNRPF moves into a new stage in its journey with a strong emphasis on the collection of deficit contributions, it was “very aware of the potential for conflicts of interest where it is already responsible for the collection of deficit contributions from many of the same employers on behalf of the MNOPF”.
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