Hymans Robertson, the UK’s leading independent experts in benefits and investment, has been pleased with pension fund trustees’ enthusiastic response to its offer for pension schemes to participate in its ‘Club Vita’ (Notes to Editors) pilot programme.

Hymans Robertson’s initial objective – to enrol a minimum of 100 large workplace pension schemes in Club Vita’s pilot – has been realised and the firm has now closed its free offer to potential Club Vita founding members.  The data set is rich in its diversity, with great spread across the UK and different occupations.  There are broadly equal numbers of schemes drawn from the public sector and the private sector including a number of FTSE 100 companies.

Partner Douglas Anderson said:  “We have exceeded our goal of pooling data on the life histories of more than one million pensioners, making this one of the largest and most rigorous research studies into the impact of longevity on occupational pension schemes.   We are now on track for analysing the data and publishing our findings before Club Vita’s formal launch later this year.

“I believe that there is currently no other service that matches Club Vita’s analytic capabilities.”

Membership of Club Vita (involving an annual subscription) will be open to all schemes with more than 1,000 pensions in payment.

Notes to Editors

Life expectancy is increasing but there is still considerable variation around the calculation of ‘average’ longevity.  Pension funds require a large databank which is rich in the diversity of member information and stretches back as far as possible.  This insight is what Hymans Robertson is offering, for the first time, to its Club Vita members.

 The ‘club’ aspect is key to the concept.  Members will be able to pool their longevity experience and see how this compares with other schemes.  Club Vita is all about the capture and rigorous analysis of real data on real people.  By grouping pensioners together with similar characteristics – e.g. salary before retirement, location and industry – patterns start to emerge.  Members will be able to join forces to gain deeper insight on issues affecting longevity.

Membership benefits:

• Longevity analysis – in a matter of weeks rather than years later – of actual rates of reduction in death rates from occupational pension schemes: not simply information from insurance companies or general population data.
• Whole age spectrum – from 16 to 116 – not just pensions in payment.
• Access to models of longevity improvement focusing on ‘real world’ developments (e.g. healthcare spending and smoking prevalence) rather than generic mathematical models.
• Scheme data enriched with information such as regional socio-economic indicators.
• Access to the UK’s leading experts on longevity risk.

Hymans Robertson partner Douglas Anderson explains:  “With an estimated £1 trillion invested in UK pension funds, and an average of 10 weeks more life being added every year, lengthening life-spans are a £5 billion a year issue.  Reserves for longevity exist but trustees find it difficult to gauge their adequacy.  Club Vita’s quick research and practical tools will make pension promises more durable, delivering greater confidence to trustees and their scheme members.”

Hymans Robertson, founded in 1921, is a limited liability partnership and is one of the longest established independent consulting and actuarial firms in the UK.  The firm has developed a full range of services including the provision of actuarial, investment consultancy, administration and general consultancy services to defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes