An end-to-end service aimed at helping small pension schemes with risk transfer and investment challenges has been launched by Hymans Robertson.

The new service, branded TRUST, is designed to address the needs of smaller schemes against a backdrop of surging demand in the sub-£150m transfer market.

According to Hymans Robertson, almost 300 transactions were completed in 2024. The firm said deals worth £150m or less made up some 80 per cent of completed transactions last year, with bulk annuity purchase the most significant financial transaction these schemes will ever undertake.

TRUST will combine specialist risk transfer and investment expertise at Hymans Robertson, creating a single integrated service, which the firm said would allow for the best pricing premium negotiation and asset realisation strategies.

Hymans Robertson’s head of core transactions and risk transfer specialist, Iain Church, said: “Buy-in broking processes, particularly for smaller schemes, risk narrowly focusing on how to deliver the best possible price from an insurer.

"Whilst price is certainly important, this approach misses the other side of the equation. Placing equal focus on how to realise the best value from the scheme’s assets makes a real difference to the end financial outcome.”

He added that the service would ensure “smaller schemes benefit from the best of both worlds, by utilising a single risk transfer and investment team that speaks the same language as insurers and uses these insights to tailor the advice to clients accordingly.”

Hymans Robertson investment consultant, Russell Oades, added: “A single source of risk transfer and investment advice ensures schemes are primed to quickly and efficiently capture value when a market opportunity presents itself.”

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