IE
Pensions & benefits
Employer covenant consulting
Pragmatic and focussed advice from market-leading covenant and regulatory experts, helping clients to make the best decisions around risk.
The support we provide helps our clients make better strategic decisions across their scheme’s journey plan
Understanding prospects for sponsors and how much reliance DB schemes can place on the employer covenant can be challenging in today’s uncertain world. We offer tailored advice to schemes of all sizes, their sponsors, investors and lenders, focussed on understanding the key financial and non-financial risks facing the sponsor, and how these interact with the risks facing the scheme.
Our award-winning covenant consulting team enhances trustee and corporate approaches to DB schemes by analysing a sponsor’s financial performance, position and prospects.
We are experts in assessing business and sector-specific information and explaining it in simple and actionable terms, empowering clients to make effective decisions.
Working within a pensions consultancy, we take a bigger-picture perspective when providing advice, with a heavy focus on how our reporting can contribute to an effective integrated risk strategy. We focus our work on financial and non-financial indicators including longer-term sector trends. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and sustainability risk assessments come as standard in our advice and we utilise the innovative technology we have developed to drive engagement around key issues (for example Beacon – our intuitive climate risk review tool).
Our covenant assessments for triennial valuations help set funding and investment strategies. Sponsor strength can also change quickly, triggered by a range of events such as fluctuations in trading performance, changing market dynamics or matters impacting upon the economic environment more generally. We therefore provide tailored covenant monitoring to fit with specific requirements, ranging from media monitoring to preparing periodic integrated financial updates. As well as trustee advisory work, we assist many sponsors in understanding their DB risk to help solve their pension problems. Working for both trustees and sponsors really helps us to see both sides of the story and ultimately achieve outcomes which work for both stakeholders.
We are also specialists in providing covenant advice when corporate transactions occur, to help our trustee clients negotiate any necessary mitigation and to help our corporate, investor and lender clients navigate the risks created by the Pension Schemes Act 2021.
Moving from a traditional employer covenant to an insurer covenant via a buy-in or buy-out can also be a big change for a scheme’s security, and we are market leaders at guiding key stakeholders via our Insurer Financial Risk Review service, as well as helping trustees to understand how the strength of an insurer or superfund compares to their existing covenant support.
Streamlined Covenant Advice
The new DB funding regime places greater emphasis on clear, evidence-based covenant assessments that are fully integrated into trustees’ journey planning.
Our streamlined covenant service is designed for schemes where the covenant is not complex to help trustees meet these new regulatory expectations efficiently and with confidence. By grouping schemes into three categories - Low risk/Small, Fast Track compliant with no recovery plan, and Fast Track compliant with a recovery plan - we focus on the key issues that matter for your scheme. This tailored, proportionate approach makes high-quality covenant advice more accessible, ensuring trustees can meet their obligations without unnecessary complexity.
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Use intuitive technology and real-time analysis of your DB scheme’s funding and investments to help you make quicker and better decisions.
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If you would like to know more about our services and how we can help you with pensions and benefits.
