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(April-2003) Towers Perrin to launch master trust
Towers Perrin plans to launch a master trust aimed at satisfying the special needs of large corporate funds wanting to take the full outsourcing plunge.
Towers Perrin managing director David Solomon declines to reveal much about the new offering, but he does say: “We’ve got some surprises in store for the market.”
He says the master trust will be launched in the “near term”, possibly by the middle of the year, but the timing will depend on clients’ needs.
“It will have a different focus to other master trusts… Our master trust will be driven by the needs of large corporate funds. We are more likely to have a master trust with a few very large funds than one with many small funds in it,” he says, noting the offering will have a top-down new design that meets the needs of large clients.
Larger corporations, says Solomon, are increasingly looking for specific tailored solutions and often need assistance with defined benefit funds, which are much more complex to administer.
“Outsourcing is a progressive thing rather than an all-in-one thing,” he says.
He notes that bigger funds first outsourced their administration because of the technology and costs involved. They later began outsourcing investment decisions through implemented consulting and fund-of-funds arrangements. The next step was to outsource the trusteeship of their funds and the final step is into a master trust.
Solomon says Towers Perrin has always catered for its large clients as they took these steps. For those that wanted to outsource trusteeship it started Super Solutions in 2000 and last year, it formed an implemented consulting alliance with the Frank Russell Company.
“There are funds that will take the next step and that will be to master trusts. Towers Perrin tailors solutions to meet its clients and so we will have a master trust,” he says.
AUTHOR
Zilla Efrat
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