About the Scheme

My role

Actuaries are experts in risk, finance and statistics. Every UK pension scheme must have a Scheme Actuary who advises and assists trustees on all aspects of their pension scheme. I am the Scheme Actuary for a number of pension schemes including UMSS and some others in the Higher Education sector. I have been Scheme Actuary for UMSS since 2024 when the previous Scheme Actuary retired.

I am supported by another actuary, Ruth Eccleston, who has many years’ experience working with UMSS. Ruth provides actuarial as well as broader consulting assistance to UMSS.

A large part of my job is to consider risk. Pension schemes invest in a portfolio of investments which carry risk because the price of investments can go up and down. Some investment risk can be good as it may offer higher returns over the longer term. On the member payments side, there are risks linked to how long members will live, and what their pensions and other benefits will be in the future. We model possible outcomes and make assumptions about how cashflow in and out of the pension scheme is likely to develop. We use this to assess what the finances the pension scheme will need now and in the future.

Actuarial valuations

Every three years I help carry out an actuarial valuation of UMSS. This is an assessment of its financial position, and it recommends the contributions that the University, and members, must pay to UMSS to ensure that benefits can continue to be paid. If there is a deficit in UMSS, the Trustees and the University must agree on the period over which the deficit will be repaid, and the Scheme Actuary then calculates the amount of the deficit payments that the University must pay.

The actuarial valuation is our primary way of assessing the health of the Scheme. We compare the assets of UMSS with its obligations to pay benefits to members and we report on how well funded it is. The other key factor in considering the security of members’ benefits is the strength of the University. A strong University means UMSS is better able to ride out the ups and downs of global investment markets and will be able to pay additional deficit contributions if that’s ever necessary. In the very unlikely circumstance that the University isn’t able to continue paying into UMSS, members are also protected by the Pension Protection Fund, which guarantees that the large part of members’ benefits can be paid.

About me

I joined a pensions consulting firm called Noble Lowndes and Partners in 1992 after completing a degree in actuarial science at the London School of Economics. Noble Lowndes became part of Mercer Limited in the late 1990s. As well as working with pension schemes in the UK I spent some time with Mercer in Canada from 1999 to 2002. I qualified as an actuary in the UK in 1996 and in Canada in 2000.

I have worked specifically with universities and their pension schemes for many years, and I set up Mercer’s Higher Education Group to ensure that as a company Mercer gives our Higher Education sector clients the best possible service that’s tailored to them.

As well as my role as a Scheme Actuary I do a lot of work with my clients on climate change related risk issues and have a keen interest in diversity issues as well as anything to do with the Higher Education sector.

I am married with two children and we live to the North West of Leeds on the edge of Ilkley Moor. I enjoy running, medieval history and playing the piano which I only started later in life – achieving grade three with a merit in 2024!