Mercer has appointed Brian Henderson as UK leader for the company’s entire Defined Contribution (DC) and Workplace Savings (MWS) offering in the UK, following a restructuring of the company’s services.
Based in Edinburgh, Mr Henderson, a Partner, will take responsibility for developing Mercer’s DC services across its client base in the UK. He was previously the DC leader for Investments in the UK and a member of Mercer’s European and Global DC Leadership teams. As a consultant he has advised some of the largest DC schemes in the UK.
According to Fiona Dunsire, Mercer’s UK Chief Executive, "The DC market is growing rapidly: Auto-enrolment legislation is bringing a large number of new savers into the pension system and we continue to see companies move away from DB in favour of DC plans. This change creates new challenges for clients. The creation of this new group will support clients by bringing together Mercer expertise in benefits, savings, contract and trust based DC consulting and implementation."
According to Brian Henderson, “Our DC proposition is relatively simple; everything we do is focused on enabling better member outcomes. We do this through our advisory services, using some of the most talented DC minds in the industry, or through our cutting edge DC solutions, such as the MWS offering which already has over $5bn of assets committed.”
“Putting members at the heart of what we do will help keep us firmly grounded when developing our latest thinking. Our new DC group brings together specialists from Mercer's Retirement, Investment and Employee Health & Benefits (EH&B) businesses and will result in one of the largest dedicated DC groups in the UK. This gives us a fantastic platform from which to provide the full spectrum of DC services to clients from within a single dedicated team."
“Mercer estimates that DC assets will double over the next 5 years. The role of DC pensions and wider savings will rise in importance for employers developing their broader benefits strategy. The new DC team positions Mercer to better advise employers of all sizes in this respect.”
A number of leading DC specialists from across Mercer have been involved in building the new team and strategy; including Paul Macro (Retirement), George Fowler (Investments), Emma Douglas (Retirement), Roger Breeden (EH&B), Jeremy Milton (EH&B) and Tony Pugh (Retirement).
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