TPT Retirement Solutions has received regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority to create a commercial investment company that enable the provision of fiduciary management and consulting to DB schemes. Cliff Speed will head up the new investment arm.

  

The newly formed TPT Investment Management will also manage its parent company’s £10.4bn master trust assets. The firm will underpin a new DB proposition by TPT covering investments, actuarial advice, administration and covenant advice, expected to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, which will run alongside its DB master trust and allow schemes to retain trusteeship. 

 

TPTIM will build on TPT’s in-house investment management function, with current TPT chief investment officer Cliff Speed becoming the investment arm’s CEO. Speed was leading BlackRock’s UK fiduciary service for pension schemes before joining TPT. 

 

“We are thrilled to be launching our new investment company. This marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter for TPT,” said TPT CEO David Lane. 

 

"Through our new offering, we will offer trustees the ability to retain legal responsibility for the overall delivery of member benefits, whilst generating efficiencies through scale and access to best-in-class pension scheme investment management capability," said Lane. 

  

By transitioning the existing investment management capability into a separately regulated investment management entity, TPT says it can give schemes that are not part of it access to a range of investments not otherwise available to them.  

 

“This includes greater exposure to alternative investment assets, such as infrastructure and broader private market assets, as well as TPT’s leading Responsible Investment capabilities,” the provider said. 

  

TPTIM is launching a series of collective investment vehicles as Alternative Investment Funds.  

  

TPT’s revamp of its DB offering follows plans for a new at-retirement solution for defined contribution members, announced in March and due to launch later this year or early next year.  

   

   

TPT has roots in the social housing sector. While as a firm it is repositioning itself in the market, in March, a judgment was still outstanding on whether the inflation index used for uprating certain benefits was changed correctly over a decade ago. If the court rules that the trustees did not have that power, it could add roughly £233m to employers’ liabilities, with the largest affected scheme being the Social Housing Pension Scheme.  

 

    

Will more multi-employer schemes offer third-party services?