Agenda item

Report attached.

Officers had reported that they had carried out a review of the services provided by the Pension Fund’s Investment Advisor, Hymans Robertson, for the period September 2014 to September 2015.

Myner’s principles number 2 recommended that the Committee, in setting out its overall objective for the Fund, should take proper advice and appoint advisors in open competition. Hymans Robertson had been appointed in 2012 and the contract ran until 31^st March 2017 unless terminated or extended by the Council in accordance with the terms of the contract.

The contract could be extended for an additional period of up to two years with the written consent of both parties, no later than three months before expiry.

The services provided by Hymans Robertson had been generally in relation to the core services which included production of quarterly monitoring performance reports, attendance at Pensions Committee and providing questions for officer meetings with fund managers, investment advice and monitoring of fund managers. Additionally, Hymans Robertson had carried out a due diligence review of the London CIV (Collective Investment Vehicle) prior to the initial transfer of assets to the London CIV and provided advice on the purchase of additional units in the Fund’s property portfolio. These additional tasks represented an extra cost to the fund.

The assessment of the service was against a set of criteria defined as part of the tender specification as set out below:

·      Attendance at Committee Meetings;

·      Investment Advice;

o  Setting Investment Strategy;

o  Investment Management structure;

o  Appointing an investment Manager;

o  Monitoring an investment Manager;

o  Other responsibilities (advising on statement of investment principles, custody, setting investment guidelines etc.);

·      The value they will/could add to the decision making process;

·      The level of Pro-Activity expected from the adviser; and

·      Support arrangements.

The cost of the Investment Advisor for the period October 2015 to September 2016 has been £32,755, £28,255 for core services and £4,500 for the additional services. The cost of the additional services had been kept within budget.

Both officers and the Committee had indicated that they were satisfied with the service provided by Hymans Robertson and had continued confidence in the advice being given.

The Committee had two options with regard to the current contract:

·         Grant contract extensions for any period up to two years from 1 April 2017 on the existing contract; or

·         Re-tender for a new contract to commence from 1 April 2017.

Officers had advised the Committee that the 1 April 2017 deadline conflicted with a number of external priorities (pooling, MiFDII and new investment regulations) and therefore they were recommending that the existing contract be initially extended for a period of one year.

The National LGPS Framework were about to commence appointing to a new investment consultancy contract and this was likely to be made available from April 2017. The contract would be for a period of at least seven years and likely to be broken up into separate lots to make the new contract more flexible and more future proof. If the Committee extended the existing contract for one year it would give officers the time to consider the flexibility of the variety of lots on offer and assess whether there was merit and value for money in undertaking this process jointly with our oneSource partners whose own Investment Advisor contract would be considered for renewal in the same time frame.

The Committee:

1.    Noted the report; and

2.    Approved a one year extension of the existing contract for the provision of Investment Advice from Hymans Robertson LLP for the period April 2017 to March 2018.