Redington widens investment governance service

Investment consultant Redington is offering its investment governance business, which aims to help schemes improve their decision-making, to a wider pension fund market.

Redington said its governance service aims to help schemes navigate an increasingly challenging regulatory environment. It includes governance reviews, strategic advice and solutions to help investors improve decision-making. Redington head of governance and decision research, Paul Richards, commented: “There are many potential structural solutions being considered to drive up governance standards, from scheme consolidation to a renewed focus on the composition of trustee boards. Something that is within our power right now is for Chairs of Trustees to ask for feedback and for advisers to give it, even if that might be uncomfortable.”

In the last few months the Pensions Regulatory and the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association have expressed concerns that investment governance needs to be improved at many schemes. Research by Redington in conjunction with Chris Hogg, CEO of Royal Mail Pension Trustees and incoming chair of the PLSA DB Council, found that 95% of consultants agreed that honest conversations were essential to identifying and recognising areas of weakness in scheme governance. However, professional trustees said that this happened in only 15% of schemes that they worked with.