Collective defined contribution pensions (CDC)

If you’d like to talk about how CDC could work for your organisation, please get in touch with one of our team.

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CDC presents an opportunity to deliver better pensions for millions of savers.

We believe CDC has a major role to play in the future of UK retirement savings.

Turning that opportunity into a successful scheme requires careful design, strong governance and clear communication. If you'd like to talk about how CDC could work for your organisation, please get in touch with one of our team.

Get in touch

How we can help

CDC combines features of defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB). Contributions are fixed, but benefits are paid as an income for life from a collective fund. Investment and longevity risks are shared across members.

We support clients across:

Explore CDC design options and measure impact
Detailed Scheme design and benefit optimisation
Authorisation and implementation support

Compare projected member outcomes for a range of benefit designs
Model cost savings and / or benefit uplifts against your current design
Assess CDC feasibility and implementation requirements

Scheme Actuarial services
Strategic asset allocation development
Governance and design advice

How we do this

Our teams combine actuarial, investment and longevity expertise with active engagement across policy and regulatory developments.

Our CDC Applied Integrated Risk™ (AIR) model underpins our CDC design advice. CDC AIR™ is available under a licence agreement or as part of a wider consulting project. Providers can use this to:

Explore CDC design options and measure impact
Regularly benchmark your retirement proposition against common alternatives
Stress test benefit design in different market conditions

Collective Defined Contribution AIR™ model

This model has the benefit of:

Higher expected pension
Secure pension for life
Trustee led

Benefits

Investments

Beliefs | Strategy | Asset allocation | Manager selection | Monitoring

Actuarial and structuring

Setting and achieving member expectations | Member cross-subsidies | Discount rate approach | How structure impacts risks shared

CDC: The Complete Picture

As the UK enters the next phase of CDC regulation, our latest publication explores how these changes could reshape retirement outcomes across the industry.

Why Hymans?

Clients choose us because we combine policy insight with practical delivery. We bring:

Deep experience across DC, risk sharing and at retirement solutions

Robust asset and liability modelling capability

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Practical experience of scheme design and regulatory engagement

Clear, member focused communication

Website Rebuild Bluegreen Strategy Planning

A strong focus on delivering better retirement outcomes

Marketing-leading longevity insight from Club Vita™

Meet our team

Paul Waters

Partner, Head of DC Markets

Jon Hatchett

Senior Partner

Kathryn Fleming

Partner and Head of DC Consulting

Lisa Deas

Senior Actuarial Consultant

Anthony Ellis

Partner and Head of DC Trustee

Mark Stansfield

Senior Actuarial Consultant

Lauren Branney

Senior Actuarial Consultant

Samer Hafiz

Partner & Senior Actuary

Related insights

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Blog

What is a multi-employer CDC scheme and what opportunities does it offer?

Collective Defined Contribution pensions are gaining momentum in the UK. Learn how single and multi-employer CDC schemes could benefit employers and staff.

Blog

CDC and the future of defined contribution

Our reflections on DC challenges, member outcomes and why collective defined contribution (CDC) is gaining momentum across the pensions industry.

Publication

Mythbusting CDC: what employers need to know

In this publication, we explore common misconceptions employers have about CDC, including concerns about setup burden, accounting treatment, inflexibility, comparisons to With‑Profit funds, overseas examples, and fears of the impact of future legislative change.