Publication: IPE (Investment & Pensions Europe)
Date: 7th September 2010
Author: Jonathan Williams
CPI switch could decrease deferred liabilities by 7.9% for a typical UK scheme
UK – Calculating pension increases according to the consumer price index (CPI) would reduce liabilities for deferred members by around 7.9% for a typical UK scheme, according to PensionsFirst.
However, the switch from the retail price index (RPI) may have exactly the opposite effect than originally intended by the government, the organisation warned.
James Mushin, director of professional services at the firm, said that unless legislation was introduced that would allow for retroactive application of CPI use across the board, then deferred scheme members would feel the effect while waiting for pension payments, but likely not when they receive their benefits.
Mushin noted that the government’s reasoning for introducing CPI was that it fairly reflected pensioners spending habits, as it took mortgage increases out of the equation.
"Actually we’re seeing the opposite [effect], because CPI is replacing RPI for those in deferment, leading up into retirement and then you're still getting RPI in retirement. So it’s a bit of a twist there," he commented.
He said that while RPI is mostly specified as the measure by which schemes needed to increase pension payments, scheme rules will often only refer to the statutory revaluation for any increases to deferred members accrual.
If government plans go ahead, then the statutory revaluation rate would be the consumer price index from next April.
In figures calculated for IPE, PensionsFirst estimated that a representative UK pension scheme, with 10,700 members and total liabilities of £2.065bn, would see liabilities for deferred scheme members drop by £35m, or 7.9% from £402m, once CPI was introduced.
He further expected total scheme liabilities to fall by almost 10% if the government introduced legislation allowing for the retroactive worsening of accrued benefits.
Based on his estimation, scheme liabilities would therefore fall to £1.865bn.
However, Mushin conceded that any such retroactive attempt by the government would be fraught with legal problems.
Publication: Pensions Week
Date: 6th September 2010
Author: Maxine Kelly|
Double hire a boon for PensionsFirst
PensionsFirst has hired Johanna Garner and Simon Robinson as vice-presidents, as part of an "aggressive recruitment plan".
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Publication: FTfm
Date: 23rd August 2010
Movers & shakers
PensionsFirst has appointed two vice-presidents in professional services. Johanna Garner joins from Goldman Sachs and Simon Robinson from Towers Watson.
Publication: European Pensions Award Winners Brochure
Date: August 2010
Author: Francesca Fabrizi, Editor European Pensions
PensionsFirst was one of the few companies to go home with multiple trophies at the European Pensions Awards 2010 – the Pensions Technology Provider of the Year award and the European Pensions Innovation award.
One judge commented that this firm “had a clear and unrivalled recognition of the needs of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes today,” and was excited by the dramatic improvement the PensionsFirst approach could have on the global pensions sphere.
Fracesca Fabrizi, the Editor of European Pensions interviewed Benjamin Reid, PensionsFirst Analytics' CEO and Fiona Page CTO to learn more about the background and aims of the firm. Please click below to download and read the full article.
Publication: IPE (Investment & Pensions Europe)
Date: 18th August 2010
PensionsFirst - Johanna Garner and Simon Robinson have joined as vice-president in professional services and vice-president in client relations, respectively. Garner has worked for Goldman Sachs, while Robinson joins from Towers Watson, where he was senior investment consultant.
Publication: Global Investor
Date: July/August issue
Author: Matthew Bale, Vice President of Client Solutions, PensionsFirst
More sophisticated pension risk hedging
For pension funds to execute more efficient hedging strategies, they need more comprehensive pension cashflow information.
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Publication: FTSE Global Markets
Date: July/August issue
Author: Matthew Bale, Vice President of Client Solutions, PensionsFirst
IASB changes will aid risk management
Much has been written about the detrimental effects that proposed changes to IAS 19 (the international accounting standard for employee benefits) will have on the profit and loss accounts of defined benefit (DB) pension scheme sponsors, potentially wiping a reported £8bn of profit off the value of the FTSE 100 alone. Yet few have stopped to consider how the recent proposals from the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which may ultimately be adopted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), will remove a significant barrier to companies' effective pension risk management.
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Publication: TMI (Treasury Management International)
Date: June 2010 (Issue 185)
Author: Matthew Bale, Vice President of Client Solutions, PensionsFirst
Breaking Down Barriers: More efficient de-risking of defined benefit pension schemes
Amid the furore surrounding the negative effect that proposed changes to the international accounting standard for employee benefits (IAS 19) may have on companies' profit and loss accounts, it is worth highlighting the positive long-term impact. The changes will remove a key barrier to the efficient de-risking of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.
[Please click below to download the PDF and read the full article]
Publication: Pensions Insight
Date: May 2010
Companies in the news
State Street Corporation has taken a minority stake in PensionsFirst Analytics, in a bid to gain access to PFaroe, a web tool which provides trustees with daily reports of actuarial valuations.
Publication: Pensions News
Date: 19th April 2010
Author: David Rowley
State Street swoops to strike deal on pension risk tool
A pensions risk measurement tool that is in contract negotiations with 70 leading employers has entered into an exclusive deal with State Street
PFaroe, which allows finance directors and trustees to view the interaction between liabilities and assets on one system, is being marketed as a basis for making smarter and more timely derisking decisions.
Under the terms of the deal, PensionsFirst Analytics, the creators of PFaroe, can sell the tool to individual employers, but the cannot enter into a deal to offer it to any other fund manager.
State Street hopes PFaroe will give it a competitive edge as a provider of derisking optionsfor pension schemes and endowment plans worldwide.
Joseph Antonellis, vice-chairman of State Street, said "With the difficulty of accurately measuring liabilities, this innovative product provides an enhanced level of transparency and insight into pension risk."
In the UK, PFaroe is currently being sold directly to company treasurers and finance directors, with the pitch that it is the last area of business risk not to have a handy and simple technology measure.
The tool is designed to help both sponsor and trustee to agree asset allocation, buy-outs and hedging policies.
PensionsFirst Analytics says its stream of business will lead to PFaroe being used on pension fund assets worth £30bn by this summer.
Publication: Pensions Week
Date: 19th April 2010
Author: David Rowley
State Street bags derisking tool deal
A pensions risk measurement tool, in contract negotiations with 70 leading employers, has entered into an exclusive deal with State Street
PFaroe, which allows finance directors and trustees to view the interaction between liabilities and assets on one system, is being marketed as a basis for making smarter and more timely derisking decisions.
Under the terms of the deal, PensionsFirst Analytics, the creators of PFaroe, can sell the tool to individual employers, but the cannot enter into a deal to offer it to any other fund manager.
State Street hopes PFaroe will give it a competitive edge as a provider of derisking optionsfor pension schemes and endowment plans worldwide.
Joseph Antonellis, vice-chairman of State Street, said "With the difficulty of accurately measuring liabilities, this innovative product provides an enhanced level of transparency and insight into pension risk."
In the UK, PFaroe is currently being sold directly to company treasurers and finance directors, with the pitch that it is the last area of business risk not to have a handy and simple technology measure.
The tool is designed to help both sponsor and trustee to agree asset allocation, buy-outs and hedging policies.
PensionsFirst Analytics says its stream of business will lead to PFaroe being used on pension fund assets worth £30bn by this summer.
Publication: GT News
Date: 16th April 2010
State Street and PensionsFirst Analytics to offer defined benefit pensions industry solution
State Street Corporation and PensionsFirst Analytics (PFA) has announced a strategic alliance marked by State Street's minority equity investment in PFA.
PFA recently launched PFaroe, a web-based service that it expects to enhance the measurement and management of defined benefit (DB) pension risk. The solution provides an actionable view of plan assets and liabilities on a single platform believed to be unique in the industry. The vendor says that this new capability will enable pension scheme sponsors, trustees and advisors to access detailed cash flow projections and scenario analysis. With this expanded analytics toolset, sponsors, trustees and advisors will be able to make better-informed and more timely investment and de-risking decisions.
As part of State Street's investment in PFA, Joseph Antonellis has joined PFA's board as a non-executive chairman. Separately, Amelia Fawcett, a State Street board member since 2006, resigned from the board of PensionsFirst Group in March 2010, effective upon the selection of her replacement. PensionsFirst Group is the majority equity owner of PFA.
Publication: Professional Pensions
Date: 15th April 2010
Author: Rachel Pichardo-Allinson
State Street takes minority stake in PensionsFirst Analytics
State Street Corp. has taken a minority stake in PensionsFirst Analytics, which offers a web tool that can provide actuarial valuations on a daily basis, and has plans to take the London-based firm global.
State Street now owns less that 50% of the firm, but details of the deal were not released.
State Street was lured by PFaroe, the company's web-based service that allows plan sponsors to evaluate asset and liability scenarios on a single platform, said State Street Global Advisors managing director and head of liability driven investing Joe Moody. PFaroe was launched in November 2009 and can deliver actuarial valuations as often as the trustee requires - daily, monthly, yearly etc - and is said by the companies to be the first of its kind.
In an interview with Global Pensions Moody said "The pieces of information have existed, but they've never really existed in a way that allows (trustees) to really make informed decisions at the right time."
"They're seeing the picture for the first time," Moody added.
PensionsFirst Analytics chief executive Benjamin Reid said it allows trustees to stress test allocation scenarios in different ways and can provide cash flow details down to the individual member level.
Reid said he expects to launch PFaroe in the US in the third quarter of the year, a move that was previously announced at the launch of the platform. But through its partnership with State Street, Reid expects to expand to Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. Combined with the UK and the US, these five countries account for 65% of all pension liabilities worldwide, said Reid.
Reid said the platform is already modelling £13bn (US$20bn) of liabilities in the UK and is in final negotiations with pension plans that will bring the total to £30bn.
Moody said the two firms had been in discussions about the product for a year. "It's just a natural fit. We're a global organisation with global relationships and this is something we can bring to our clients."
Publication: IPE (Investment & Pensions Europe)
Date: 15th April 2010
Author: Julie Henderson
State Street and PensionsFirst alliance to provide pensions risk testingGLOBAL – State Street Corporation and PensionsFirst Analytics are teaming up to provide State Street’s clients with access to PFaroe’s online software, to allow trustees and corporates to run real-time diagnostics and testing on defined benefit pension fund risk.
PFA’s PFaroe will be promoted to State Street’s pension fund clients as the service helps trustees, sponsors and advisers to understand the fund’s cash flow position and test investment scenarios on a daily basis.
One of the key difficulties pension fund executives faced during the recent economic crisis was the ability to get up-to-date valuations on assets and understand how changes might affect assets and liabilities if, for example, bond yields rose by 50 basis points. This is even when clients had access to online services from custody providers, such as State Street, detailing regular changes to valuations and counterparty risk.
State Street has itself faced several legal action suits by defined benefit pension funds since the credit crunch surfaced, relating to securities lending and other concerns about the information delivered to clients about their investments.
Pfaroe, meanwhile, was launched in the UK last year to bridge a gap in information delivery as it allows pension funds to run virtually any investment or risk scenario which might affect the pension plan, so officials can be better equipped to tackle problems as they arise or tap investment opportunities.
Joe Moody, managing director and head of liability-driven investing State Street Global Advisors, said the aim of the strategic alliance is therefore to introduce existing clients to the PFaroe tools and then allow them to be used via a single platform, through State Street’s existing tools.
“People realise they are going to have to be more proactive about managing their way out of the problems they are in,” said Moody.
“There is a window of 2-3 years where pension fund officials will act. They can see the decisions being taken, the managers appointed, they will be able to appreciate the risks they are running through the economic cycle. It is in the interests of the corporates and trustees to share this common tool.
He continued: “It drives efficiency for the customer as it makes more information available. We will introduce existing clients to PensionsFirst Analytics, and if they set up they will receive other benefits and be able to use them together on one service,” he added.
Benjamin Reid, partner at PensionsFirst Analytics, said its service will remain totally independent of State Street, but is teaming up with State Street in part because of its focus on global pension fund business.
“We see the [defined benefit] issue as being a global issue, concentrated mainly in the US, UK Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. We were clearly looking for a strategic partner to allow us to make the most of the opportunity we have created with PFaroe, and State Street has a global footprint with a strong leaning towards pension funds. It was also the breadth of its products which attracted us,” he continued.
Pfaroe is already available to UK pension fund executives but in some cases is already being used on a global scale to assess a company’s global pension fund risk and liabilities.
The service is expected to be rolled out to the US market in Q3 2010, closing followed by Canada, said Reid.
Publication: Securities Industry News
Date: 15th April 2010
Author: Chris Kentouris
State Street takes minority stake in pension risk analytics firm
State Street Corp., one of the world’s largest custodian banks, on Thursday said it has taken a minority stake in PensionsFirst Analytics, a London-headquartered risk management advisory firm for defined benefit plans.
PensionsFirst’s PFaroe allows plan sponsors and trustees – who don’t have actuarial training – to do the same type of analysis. That means evaluate asset and liability scenarios for the plan on a single platform to project its potential to become underfunded.
Launched in November 2009, the product can deliver actuarial calculations as often as the defined benefit plan requires – monthly, yearly or even daily. It allows trustees to stress test allocation scenarios and can provide cash flow levels down to the individual member level.
PensionsFirst Analytics’ chief executive officer Benjamin Reid, who took on that role with the launch of PFaroe, said that he expects to launch PFaroe in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year. Through its partnership with State Street, Reid also expects to expand into Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. Those countries, along with the U.K. and U.S. account for an estimated 65 percent of all pension liabilities worldwide.
According to PensionsFirst Analytics, PFaroe is already modeling about 13 billion British pound sterling ($20 billion) in the U.K. and is in final discussions with U.K. pension plans to bring that total to 30 billion British pound sterling shortly.
Publication: Global Pensions
Date: 15th April 2010
Author: Raquel Pichardo-Allison
State Street takes minority stake in PensionsFirst Analytics
UK/US - State Street Corp. has taken a minority stake in PensionsFirst Analytics, which offers a web tool that can provide actuarial valuations on a daily basis, and has plans to take the London-based firm global.
State Street now owns less that 50% of the firm, but details of the deal were not released.
State Street was lured by PFaroe, the company's web-based service that allows plan sponsors to evaluate asset and liability scenarios on a single platform, said State Street Global Advisors managing director and head of liability driven investing Joe Moody. PFaroe was launched in November 2009 and can deliver actuarial valuations as often as the trustee requires - daily, monthly, yearly etc - and is said by the companies to be the first of its kind.
In an interview with Global Pensions Moody said "The pieces of information have existed, but they've never really existed in a way that allows (trustees) to really make informed decisions at the right time."
"They're seeing the picture for the first time," Moody added.
PensionsFirst Analytics chief executive Benjamin Reid said it allows trustees to stress test allocation scenarios in different ways and can provide cash flow details down to the individual member level.
Reid said he expects to launch PFaroe in the US in the third quarter of the year, a move that was previously announced at the launch of the platform. But through its partnership with State Street, Reid expects to expand to Canada, Japan and the Netherlands. Combined with the UK and the US, these five countries account for 65% of all pension liabilities worldwide, said Reid.
Reid said the platform is already modelling £13bn (US$20bn) of liabilities in the UK and is in final negotiations with pension plans that will bring the total to £30bn.
Moody said the two firms had been in discussions about the product for a year. "It's just a natural fit. We're a global organisation with global relationships and this is something we can bring to our clients."
Publication: Insurance ERM
Date: 14 April 2010
Author: Darren Best, Director of Client Solutions, PensionsFirst
DB pension risk management needs a revolution
Timeliness of information is a major issue but new technology is now available to address this.
Stricter accounting and funding rules, low interest rates, improving life expectancies and volatile stock markets have now, more than ever, brought DB pension risk management to the forefront of corporate thinking. Yet surprisingly, given the volatility and fast-moving nature of many of these risks, and the economic environment upon which they depend, de-risking strategies continue to be developed and executed on outdated and inaccurate information.
This is especially pertinent given the potential impact risk management can have upon a plan's funded status and consequently the sponsoring company's balance sheet, cash flow, and income statement. Most trustees and sponsors now realize that the unique liability and investment position of pension schemes needs to be evaluated more accurately and much more frequently if they are not to simply destroy the entire financial viability of the sponsoring company.
[Please click below to download and read the full article.]
Publication: Fin Extra
Date: 9th April 2010
PensionsFirst Analytics makes IT appointments
Launched in November 2009, PFaroe allows DB pensions trustees and sponsors to manage and measure risk precisely, and means non-technical users can analyse pension assets and liabilities in a timely manner.
Dean Newman is PFA's new IT Director and is tasked with building an infrastructure fit for a global business. Having previously led infrastructure projects for companies such as Barclays and Alliance Boots, Newman brings a wealth of experience around building scalable and robust technology.
Comments Newman: "I am very excited about joining PensionsFirst, having the opportunity to work in an environment that constantly challenges the norm, pushes the boundaries of technology and has a team of highly talented people working to a common goal".
Nick Francis joins PFA as a Director of Product Development to lead the development of PFaroe, after a period consulting for the company. He joins after successfully running Sentient for 17 years - a well respected IT consultancy that partnered with Microsoft to work with blue-chip clients on enterprise projects. Francis used his experience in massively parallel processing while he worked closely with the Microsoft product team on their Windows Azure cloud computing platform and produced the first commercial application hosted in Azure.
"My motivation was to stay with a fantastic team to further develop this ground-breaking project," says Francis. "This is data-warehousing on a vast scale - multiprocessing major industry names. This really is a cutting-edge platform."
Finally, Matthew Seymour joins as a Director of Product Development. Formerly the CTO of FundWorks, a global SaaS provider to the asset management industry, Seymour has joined PFA to lead the growth and delivery of PFaroe.
"After seeing the transformative potential of PFaroe," says Seymour, "I thought the opportunity too good to pass up. PFA has a unique mix of being entrepreneurial, flexible and dynamic enough to cope with change, but sufficiently well-resourced to deliver an uncompromised solution."
All three will report to Fiona Page, Partner and CTO at PFA.
"These three appointments will help PFA continue towards its goal of transforming defined benefit pensions risk management. We are delighted to have attracted three individuals of such high calibre."
Publication: Banking Technology
Date: 8th April 2010
Appointments: PensionsFirst Analytics names three senior IT staff
PensionsFirst Analytics has appointed an IT director and two product development directors - all of whom have been instrumental in developing PFA's web-based platform PFaroe. Launched in 2009, PFaroe helps defined benefit pension trustees and sponsors to manage and measure risk precisely, and means non-technical users can analyse pension assets and liabilities in a timely manner.
Dean Newman is PFA's new IT Director and is tasked with building an infrastructure fit for a global business. Having previously led infrastructure projects for companies such as Barclays and Alliance Boots, Newman brings a wealth of experience around building scalable and robust technology.
Nick Francis joins PFA as a Director of Product Development to lead the development of PFaroe, after a period consulting for the company. He joins after successfully running Sentient for 17 years - a well respected IT consultancy that partnered with Microsoft to work with blue-chip clients on enterprise projects. Francis used his experience in massively parallel processing while he worked closely with the Microsoft product team on their Windows Azure cloud computing platform and produced the first commercial application hosted in Azure.
"My motivation was to stay with a fantastic team to further develop this ground-breaking project," says Francis. "This is data-warehousing on a vast scale - multiprocessing major industry names. This really is a cutting-edge platform."
Finally, Matthew Seymour joins as a Director of Product Development. Formerly the CTO of FundWorks, a SaaS provider to the asset management industry, Seymour has joined PFA to lead the growth and delivery of PFaroe.
All three will report to Fiona Page, Partner and CTO at PFA.
Publication: IPE (Investment & Pensions Europe)
Date: 7th April 2010
People roundup
PensionsFirst Analytics - Nick Francis has joined as a director of product development to lead the development of PFaroe, after spending 17 years running consulting firm Sentient. He will be accompanied by Matthew Seymour, who is also a director of product development, having previously been CTO at FundWorks.
Publication: Insurance ERM
Date: 7th April 2010
PensionsFirst Analytics hires senior IT people
PensionsFirst Analytics (PFA) has appointed an IT director and two product development directors to work on developing PFA's web-based platform, PFaroe, which allows defined-benefit pensions trustees and sponsors to manage and measure risk more precisely.
Dean Newman is the new IT director. He previously led infrastructure projects for companies such as Barclays and Alliance Boots.
Nick Francis joins PFA as a director of product development to lead the development of PFaroe, after a period consulting for the company and previously running IT consultancy Sentient for 17 years.
Matthew Seymour also joins as a director of product development. He was formerly the chief technology officer (CTO) of FundWorks, a global SaaS (software as a service) provider to the asset management industry.
All three will report to Fiona Page, partner and CTO at PFA.
Publication: Pensions Age
Date: April 2010
Author: Darren Best, Director of Client Solutions, PensionsFirst
Timing is Everything
Scheme information must be both timely and accurate for defined benefit pension risks to be managed effectively.
The management of defined benefit (DB) pension risk is likely to become the major pension story of the next decade. Left unmanaged, these risks can seriously impact the future profitability or even viability of a company, with significant implications for both shareholders and scheme members.
While many scheme sponsors and trustees recognise the need to improve scheme management, significant barriers exist when attempting to calculate a successful de-risking strategy. Indeed, in the vast majority of cases, de-risking strategies are developed and executed based on outdated and inaccurate information. Yet in today's environment of stricter accounting and funding rules, as well as volatile reported funding levels, it is simply no longer appropriate for schemes to rely on inaccurate risk management techniques and data.
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Publication: Pensions Management
Date: 30 March 2010
Author: Darren Best, Director of Client Solutions, PensionsFirst
All in the timing
Effective management of defined benefit scheme risk requires both timely and accurate information - which is rarely to the found
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Publication: FTfm
Date: March 2010 (Issue 394)
Movers & shakers
Matthew Bale has joined PensionsFirst Analytics as vice president of client solutions, having spent the past three years at Citibank's insurance and pension structured solution group.
Pensions Insight, 1 January 2010
Fast Forward
PensionsFirst can provide full formal valuations of a company’s pension scheme on a monthly basis, within 24 hours. Many actuarial consultants have expressed criticism of this claim in the belief that this short turnaround time is the result of carrying out “roll-forwards” using potentially outdated assumptions.
However, this is not the case; full and accurate 24-hour valuations are enabled by PFaroe®, PensionsFirst’s proprietary software package, developed and tested in conjunction with a number of beta customers. Geoffrey Staines, pensions director at DMGT Pensions, one of these beta customers, comments "This is in my view industry-changing software…it allows us to optimise the decision-making on transferring the risk away from our balance sheet to the market. It allows us to ask what-if questions and to really integrate some very deep information into the risk strategy – the kind of information we don't usually have on the table to make these decisions."
HFM Week, 10 December 2009
People Moves
Rob Stuart has joined PensionsFirst as general counsel from hedge fund MKM Longboat.
Financial Times (Fund Management supplement), 07 December 2009
Movers & Shakers
PensionsFirst has recruited Simon Parr from IAG-UK as finance director and Rob Stuart from hedge fund MKM Longboat as general counsel.
Financial News, 07 December 2009
Trading Places - Asset Management
Simon Parr, formerly group financial controller at IAG-UK, has joined PensionsFirst Group as finance director. Rob Stuart has left multi-strategy hedge fund provider MKM Longboat to become PensionsFirst’s general counsel.
Pensions Management, 01 December 2009
PFaroe unravels mystery of valuations
PensionsFirst has launched PFaroe, an online asset-liability application for defined benefit (DB) schemes which produces full actuarial scheme valuations within 24 hours. It enables schemes to be analysed at the level of individual members and assets, and is the first system to combine analysis of assets and liabilities together.
Financial News, 23 November 2009
Trading Places
PensionsFirst Analytics has appointed Benjamin Reid as its chief executive. Prior to the launch of PensionsFirst in 2007, Benjamin was a director at Wachovia Securities in New York.
Professional Pensions, 19 November 2009
PensionsFirst launches web valuation tool for sponsors
PensionsFirst has launched a web-based service – PFaroe – that aims to deliver accounting, actuarial and solvency valuations on demand within 24 hours, regardless of scheme size. The service is designed for users with no actuarial expertise, and enables them to perform sensitivity testing on assets and liabilities, conduct standard VaR analysis and scenario testing. PensionsFirst believes that the tool will help in negotiations between sponsors and trustees.
FT Adviser, 19 November 2009
PensionsFirst unveils PFaroe
PensionsFirst has launched PFaroe, web-based service to help manage defined benefit pension risk by analysing and reporting on scheme assets and liabilities on a single risk management platform. It also gives customers the opportunity to receive valuations on funding, accounting or solvency bases within 24 hours.
Click here for the full article>
Pensions News, 17 November 2009
PensionsFirst launches online risk model system
PFaroe, a new web-based service is being offered to schemes, allowing daily asset and liability valuations and reducing reliance on actuaries. It is designed to enable pension scheme managers, trustees and finance directors to make forecasts based on alternative assumptions for inflation, longevity or investment growth. It also has applicability in making pricing decisions for buyouts, buy-ins and longevity swaps, and in costing of one-off enhanced transfer exercises and redundancies.
IPE.com, 16 November 2009
PensionsFirst adapts to launch 24-hour valuations
PensionsFirst has unveiled the first known technology system to deliver actuarial valuations within 24 hours – regardless of scheme size. Most UK pension funds conduct valuations on a triennial as required, but it has so far been impossible to carry out regular checks on asset holdings and strategies, to determine whether improved strategies are possible. The additional functionality is seen as a major benefit by customers testing the system, because it substantially increases their knowledge of their pension plans.
The Independent (Main), 16 November 2009
PensionsFirst shakes up market
PensionsFirst unveiled a service which could radically shake-up the pension buyout market by enabling companies to get an immediate valuation of the liabilities of their retirement funds. Recent volatility in investment and bond markets has made it almost impossible for company final salary pension schemes to understand their funding position. PensionsFirst can now change this by providing a monthly valuation.
Professional Pensions (Web), 16 November 2009
PensionsFirst launches web valuation tool for sponsors
PensionsFirst has launched a web-based service – PFaroe – that aims to deliver accounting, actuarial and solvency valuations on demand within 24 hours, regardless of scheme size. The service is designed for users with no actuarial expertise, and enables them to perform sensitivity testing on assets and liabilities, conduct standard VaR analysis and scenario testing. PensionsFirst believes that the tool will help in negotiations between sponsors and trustees.
The service has been tested with a number of companies, with schemes accounting for £8bn of liabilities and 150,000 members.
Click here for the full article>
Pensions Week, 16 November 2009
PensionsFirst launches online risk model system
PFaroe, a new web-based service, is being offered to pension schemes, allowing daily asset and liability valuations and reducing reliance on actuaries. It is designed to enable pension scheme managers, trustees and finance directors to make forecasts based on alternative assumptions for inflation, longevity or investment growth. It also has applicability in making pricing decisions for buyouts, buy-ins and longevity swaps, and in costing of one-off enhanced transfer exercises and redundancies.