Defined Contribution Pensions Consultancy
The UK’s defined contribution (DC) pension landscape continues to evolve due to regulatory changes, economic pressures and growing employee expectations. Expert DC consulting can help navigate the complexities and empower your employees’ future, through ensuring cost-effective, compliant strategies that enhance employee engagement, boost retirement outcomes, and reduce risks for employers.
Partners in Confidence: Empowering your employees' futures
At Quantum Advisory, we understand these challenges, priding ourselves on delivering effective, innovative and cost-effective DC advice that delivers measurable returns, whether that be improved member engagement, reductions to time and cost expenditure, or improved financial futures. We stand in our clients’ corner as the reassuring partner they can trust to care deeply about delivering superior service and outcomes.
Big name service on a first name basis
Our approach to DC consultancy is based on:
- Expertise: Our consultants each possess a wealth of experience and technical knowledge, with an average industry experience of over 15 years. We stay on top of regulation and industry change and how it impacts your scheme, so you don’t have to.
- Flexibility: We understand that no two pension schemes are the same, so take the time to listen, understand our clients and formulate our advice based on what you really need. Clients can be sure issues will only be raised if they are relevant to that pension scheme, without the hard sell.
- Simplification: We prefer to keep things simple, using clear, straightforward language to explain our thinking and when communicating with members.
By taking the time to understand your specific circumstances, we can deliver high-quality, relevant advice, at a price you can believe in. Helping you and your members feel calm, in-control and confident in your decision making.
Everyone agrees that making adequate financial provision for retirement is important, but we understand that most members do not find pensions particularly interesting! Clear, concise, and targeted communications are vital to engage your membership, improve their contribution rates and increase the value they place upon the benefits provided by their employer.
Our specialists can design and draft communications in the employer’s or scheme’s brand style, offering project management, timing plans and technical input for all your communication exercises. This can include paper-based communications, online messaging, face-to-face group presentations or individual member surgeries.
Our suite of online tools gives members access to:
- Benefit options portal for membes to:
- View their personal details
- Review their chosen investment strategy and monitor historic fund performance
- Obtain live annuity quotations
- Model the effect of contribution changes, changes to target retirement date or economic performance
- View their contribution history, transfer-in details and investment performance
- Obtain both projected annuity and income drawdown pension figures
- Review income drawdown calculators
- Member and scheme specific online booklets
- Modelling tools and 'what if' scenarios
- Online links to contact the administration team.
Good governance of your pension scheme will deliver significant benefits to employers, trustees and members. We can support all aspects of good governance for your DC pension scheme encompassing:
- Robust governance processes and procedures
- Provision of appropriate investment options
- Competitive charging
- Engaging member communications.
Unlike Defined Benefit pension schemes, members of Defined Contribution pension schemes bear the investment risk themselves. Therefore, it is vitally important that members have:
- An investment strategy appropriate to their needs; and
- Are fully supported and informed to assist in their decision making process.
Our Defined Contribution investment expertise enables us to deliver scheme specific investment advice and ongoing monitoring services that reflect the trustees’ objectives and needs of their membership.
Read more about our DC Investment services here
What is a defined contribution pension?
A defined contribution (DC) pension is a workplace pension where employer and employee contributions are invested in an individual member's pot. Unlike defined benefit (DB) schemes, the retirement income depends on contributions made, investment performance, and choices at retirement such as annuity purchase or income drawdown. Auto enrolment compliance has made DC pensions the default workplace arrangement, with minimum pension contribution rates set by law. Members bear the investment risk, making an appropriate default investment strategy and member engagement essential for good retirement outcomes.
What's the difference between DC and DB pensions?
The key difference is who bears the investment risk. In DB schemes, employers promise a specific pension based on salary and service, bearing all investment risks. In DC schemes, contributions are invested individually, with final value depending on contributions, investment returns, and retirement choices - members bear the risk. This shapes everything from governance requirements to the role of your defined contribution consultant, making what is defined contribution consulting distinct from DB schemes.
Should we stay as a standalone trust or move to a master trust?
Concerns about losing control are understandable. Standalone trusts give you complete autonomy over investment strategy, provider selection, and governance – you remain in control. However, they require dedicated resources and can face higher costs. Master trusts offer economies of scale, professional governance, and reduced burden, but with less flexibility. The decision requires a thorough governance review examining your scheme's size, trustee capability, and costs. A defined contribution consultant can help you objectively assess both options, ensuring any transition preserves what matters most to you and your members.
How can DC investment consultants improve member outcomes?
Defined contribution investment consultants design and monitor investment strategies that balance growth with risk management. This typically involves creating a lifestyle investment strategy that automatically adjusts asset allocation as members approach retirement or selecting funds that do this automatically. Consultants can
- evaluate fund performance
- assess charges
- ensure options suit your membership
- help create tools like income drawdown calculators
- conduct regular governance reviews ensure arrangements remain competitive.
The goal is combining technical expertise with practical understanding of member behaviour to deliver better retirement outcomes while maintaining strong member engagement.
What support do trustees need to maintain good DC governance?
Effective DC governance requires monitoring pension contribution rates and auto enrolment compliance, conducting reviews of investment performance and value for money, maintaining member engagement, and ensuring robust processes. A defined contribution consultant can support trustees with these, as well as provide service reviews, and advice on issues like DC consolidation or regulatory changes. For smaller schemes, a governance review might reveal whether remaining standalone or exploring consolidation would better serve members. Access to expert defined contribution investment consultants who provide proportionate, cost-effective advice tailored to your scheme's circumstances is essential.
Talk to our team
Get in touch with our friendly team today to talk about how we can help your business.