Pensions Advisory Service

Fathom’s Pensions Advisory Service responds to UK local authorities’ concerns over upcoming reforms to Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS). This service is designed to help clients navigate the rapidly evolving landscape, providing the independent insight and advice that 87% of respondents to the government’s consultation on the ‘Fit for the Future’ reforms anticipate they will need. The service also includes training, to equip your team as they step into their new roles.

Our service offers:

Training covering real-world topics in macroeconomics and financial markets, aimed at upskilling elected members and officers

Independent advisers providing the macroeconomic, geopolitical and financial market landscape to help you make more informed decisions

Advice on investment strategy, using Fathom’s proprietary suite of tools, including its model of a UK defined-benefit pension scheme (FIRM-DB)

Fathom on-call, giving you the option to email or pick up the phone with questions

Monitoring of fund performance, and identification of possible future risks

A newsletter service, including monthly UK updates and a comprehensive quarterly outlook on the global economy, including scenarios

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Why this matters

The government’s ‘Fit for the future’ reforms will dramatically change the landscape for the LGPS. Administering authorities will lose a substantial degree of control over their investments, delegating much of what they did before to the pools. These changes coincide with a period of heightened macroeconomic, financial-market and geopolitical uncertainty.

Against this backdrop, local government schemes that responded to the consultation on the reforms emphasised the importance of having the ability, knowledge and information to hold their investment managers, and therefore the pool, to account.

Fathom’s Pensions Advisory Service provides rigorous, unbiased advice and guidance to help local government pension schemes navigate the challenges and uncertainties of these reforms with confidence.

Read our case study to see how our Pensions Advisory Service has already supported local authority pension schemes and significantly improved funding positions.

 Client testimonial

“Fathom Consulting has supported the Newham Pension Fund by delivering independent economic research, scenario modelling and stress testing tailored to the Fund’s long-term objectives. Their expert analysis has helped the Fund to better understand global macroeconomic risks, inflation dynamics and asset allocation challenges, providing clear insights to inform investment strategy and governance.”
Rakesh Rajan, Pension Fund Manager, London Borough of Newham Pension Fund

Enquire about Fathom’s Pensions Advisory Service

Data, models and tools

FIRM-DB, Fathom’s Integrated Risk Management model of a UK defined benefit (DB) pension scheme, has been developed over a period of more than ten years. FIRM-DB can be used to assess the outlook for either an individual scheme or the whole pensions landscape, under a variety of macroeconomic scenarios and funding strategies.

The fan chart is an example of the insight that can be derived from FIRM-DB. It illustrates the funding outlook for a local authority that is facing a challenging macroeconomic and financial market environment, with each band representing 5% of the possible outcomes for scheme funding so that the whole chart covers 90% of the possible outcomes. FIRM-DB can be used to demonstrate to the client how the funding outlook shifts as alternative investment strategies are deployed.

Modelling changes in the federal funds rate

Meet the team

Andrew started his career at the Bank of England and joined Fathom over 20 years ago. Since then he has carried out research and consultancy relating to a wide range of issues confronting the global economy and its financial markets. He developed and continues to maintain Fathom’s proprietary FIRM-DB model, which is used when advising local authorities on their defined-benefit pension schemes.

Erik is responsible for designing and implementing the company’s strategy. This means guiding its macro research, and winning and leading major projects in macro, finance and political analysis, and ensuring those projects are completed to the highest possible standard. Early in his career, he worked at the Bank of England where he ran the Bank’s UK macroeconomic model and coordinated its international forecast.

Joanna plays a central role in overseeing client relationships and the delivery of bespoke consultancy projects. Since joining Fathom over ten years ago, Joanna has spearheaded projects for public-sector clients and has helped position Fathom as a key provider of China-related economic analysis and policy insight. Her work spans global investment, trade, economic interdependence and geopolitical risk, with a particular emphasis on China’s role in the world economy.

Dimos specialises in quantitative market research across equities and global asset classes, with a focus on econometric modelling, regime analysis and cross-asset allocation. He manages the development of Fathom’s dynamic investment barometer, FARM, which identifies macro-financial regimes in real time by matching current conditions with close historical analogues, generating forward-looking expectations for asset returns. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed finance and accounting journals.

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