On the go: Asset management consultancy MJ Hudson has announced the creation of an investment decision-making tool for pension schemes, which will be headed by the Pensions Regulator chair Sarah Smart.
The tool, called FidesIQ, will help decision-makers within pension schemes improve the way they monitor and evaluate the success of the investment decisions they make and the advice they receive.
Users of FidesIQ will be able to compare the outcome of decisions they have made against benchmarks, which accurately reflect their original objectives regularly and in a fully tailored manner, through a low-cost and easy-to-implement online tool, MJ Hudson said.
The project is in collaboration with SmartCats Consulting.
Smart, who was appointed as the permanent chair of TPR in May, has spent more than 20 years in the investment management and pensions industries in a variety of different roles, including acting as an independent trustee on several major schemes.
“I am delighted to be partnering with MJ Hudson to bring this simple, yet highly effective evaluation solution to the UK market,” she said.
“My years as a trustee of pension schemes of all sizes, and previously as an investment manager, have shown me how difficult it is to keep track of whether key strategic investment decisions are meeting their objectives and of whether the strategic advice provided is delivering against the promises made.
“Our ambition is that the clarity and insight delivered by this tool will lead to improved accountability and decision-making through all stages of the institutional investment chain,” she added.
Magnus Spence has joined as a director of MJ Hudson to help oversee the launch and development of the FidesIQ tool and customer base. He has 30 years of experience in data and analytics in the institutional investment sector.
He said that testing of the FidesIQ tool in a beta form during the past year, among UK defined benefit schemes and advisers, has “revealed that this innovation will be welcomed as a way of better identifying excellent investment outcomes on a recurring basis, and of contributing to improved governance in the pensions sector”.
Odi Lahav, chief operating officer and head of MJ Hudson’s data and analytics division, said: “FidesIQ will provide decision-makers with a toolkit that delivers clear and transparent measures of effectiveness.
“This will not only assist pension fund trustees in meeting their governance responsibilities, but also the requirements of the Competition and Markets Authority directive for the evaluation of their investment advisers.”
