PTL selects Barnett Waddingham for Standard Life master trust roles

Barnett Waddingham has been appointed to provide independent investment consultancy services to the trustees of the £2bn Stanplan A DC master trust and the £800m Standard Life DC Master Trust.

Stanplan A and the Standard Life DC Master Trust are industry-leading DC arrangements for multiple, non-associated employers. PTL, independent trustee to both arrangements, have appointed Barnett Waddingham to provide investment consultancy services from January 2015.

Alex Pocock said: “I am excited to be working with Richard and the PTL team in ensuring strong governance of the Standard Life master trusts. Standard Life represents another excellent client win for our rapidly-growing DC investment consultancy practice.”

Richard Butcher, PTL said: "Investments are a key component to the delivery of good member outcomes – whether that be the design of the default or the range of “self select” funds. Good governance around those has always been demanding for trustees, but the bar is being raised even higher, right now, by the government’s and regulator’s quality standards agenda.

We wanted to ensure we were ahead of the game on this and so made the decision last year to appoint an independent investment consultant. Standard Life were 100% behind our decision.

We chose Barnett Waddingham because they showed the greatest insight to our needs, probably as a result of their experience with other commercial DC master trusts. Their appointment is great news for members and for good member outcomes.