A group of local government pension schemes hired nine providers of transition management and implementation services for a new framework , confirmed Nigel Keogh, National LGPS Frameworks operations and development manager.
The new framework is available for the procurement of three types of contracts.
BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Group, Legal & General Investment Management, Macquarie Capital, Northern Trust and Russell Investments were appointed to a panel of providers of transition management and implementation services, and for a panel of transition execution services.
Hired for transition management advisory services in the framework were MJ Hudson Allenbridge, Hymans Robertson and Mercer.
"The process of transition to the pools is set to be a very testing one for all of us, and LGPS funds and pools face an array of complex legal, technical and governance issues," said Nicola Mark, head of Norfolk Pension Fund and chairwoman of the National LGPS Frameworks collaboration, in a news release outlining the hires. "The establishment of this new transition management and implementation services framework has enabled individual funds and pools to focus on the other critical challenges required for the April 2018 deadline and will continue to deliver savings in both time and money in the years ahead."
By April 2018, the 89 England and Wales LGPS funds are required to have pooled a certain set of assets, creating eight larger funds.
The National LGPS Frameworks team — a collaboration between LGPS funds to help in public fund procurement processes — along with procurement and legal specialists from Norfolk County Council supported a number of U.K. public pension funds and asset pools in the search.
The new framework is the outcome of the first collaboration between representatives of the £43 billion ($59.6 billion) Borders to Coast Pensions Partnership, South Shields, England; £28 billion Brunel Pension Partnership, Bristol, England; £43 billion LGPS Central Pool, Wolverhampton, England; £5 billion London Collective Investment Vehicle; and £42 billion ACCESS Pool, Suffolk, England.