Key Takeaways
- • Mercer has hired two pensions experts from KPMG, Stephen Budge and Tejas Patel, as part of its UK expansion, which has added sixteen people in recent months.
- • Stephen Budge joins as a Principal in Mercer's London team after serving as Principal and Head of DC Investment at KPMG Pensions UK.
- • Tejas Patel re-joins Mercer as a Principal in the Midlands DC & Savings practice, leading DC Investments from Birmingham after six years as an investment consultant at KPMG.
- • Mercer attributes its hiring partly to client demand following the Freedom and Choice in Pensions reforms, which took full effect on 6 April 2015.
Summary
Mercer has poached two pensions specialists from rival KPMG as part of its UK expansion, a push that has seen the firm hire sixteen people in recent months, according to the source article. Stephen Budge joins Mercer as a Principal in the London team and Tejas Patel re-joins as a Principal in the Midlands' DC & Savings practice, where he will lead DC investments from the Birmingham office. Both are titled Principals of UK DC and Financial Wellness.
Budge was most recently Principal and Head of DC Investment at KPMG Pensions in the UK, where he led the Investment Advisory team, responsible for research and key client relationships. Before joining KPMG UK in 2011, he spent more than a decade with Aon Hewitt and its legal predecessors, Bacon & Woodrow and Hewitt Associates, working as a DC consultant.
Patel served as an Investment Consultant at KPMG for six years from 2009, advising defined benefit and defined contribution schemes on investment strategy, manager and fund selection, transitions and investment monitoring. Before KPMG, he spent over seven years as an Investment Analyst at Mercer, which explains the description of his move as a re-joining. He is a member of the CFA Institute.
Brian Henderson, UK Head of Mercer's DC & Savings Team, said the expansion was driven in part by client demand following the Freedom and Choice in Pensions reforms, which gave members three options for taking their benefits at retirement. Henderson said Mercer is helping clients educate members on those choices and cited a sharp increase in interest in its Mercer Master Trust. He also noted that employers are increasingly seeing value in integrated investment and communication design for engaging employees on pensions and benefits.
Budge was most recently Principal and Head of DC Investment at KPMG Pensions in the UK, where he led the Investment Advisory team, responsible for research and key client relationships. Before joining KPMG UK in 2011, he spent more than a decade with Aon Hewitt and its legal predecessors, Bacon & Woodrow and Hewitt Associates, working as a DC consultant.
Patel served as an Investment Consultant at KPMG for six years from 2009, advising defined benefit and defined contribution schemes on investment strategy, manager and fund selection, transitions and investment monitoring. Before KPMG, he spent over seven years as an Investment Analyst at Mercer, which explains the description of his move as a re-joining. He is a member of the CFA Institute.
Brian Henderson, UK Head of Mercer's DC & Savings Team, said the expansion was driven in part by client demand following the Freedom and Choice in Pensions reforms, which gave members three options for taking their benefits at retirement. Henderson said Mercer is helping clients educate members on those choices and cited a sharp increase in interest in its Mercer Master Trust. He also noted that employers are increasingly seeing value in integrated investment and communication design for engaging employees on pensions and benefits.
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