Speaker: Marian Elliott
Across the world, various regulatory frameworks are in place for appropriate measurement and management of risk; indeed IORPII mandates a separate risk management function as well as an “own risk assessment”. But how should this be implemented in practice, and what does it mean for the way actuaries conduct and present their work?The pensions industry in the UK has been the focus of intense scrutiny over the past two years. This largely relates to the ability of those managing pension schemes to adequately identify and manage risk.The UK Pensions Regulator issued guidance for trustees and sponsors of defined benefit schemes in 2015 which advocated an Integrated Risk Management (IRM) approach to taking funding and investment decisions. Whilst not a ‘new’ concept, it has triggered renewed focus on how pensions actuaries should be advising their clients and how to integrate risk management across the three key areas of pension scheme management – namely funding, covenant and investment risk.A working party sponsored by the Pensions Board of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries was set up in 2015 to develop practical ways in which pensions actuaries could implement integrated risk management with their clients, recognising the varying circumstances which will be presented by different pension schemes and scheme sponsors.The output produced by the working party is a paper setting out the ’10 Commandments’ of Integrated Risk Management, a discussion on tools and process, as well as 4 distinct case studies outlining how IRM can be applied to a variety of pension scheme issues.This presentation covers those case studies and lessons learnt, and would be relevant to a wide range of actuaries from varying juristictions with an interest in taking a more integrated approach to helping their clients manage risk.