Mercer’s global assets under management reached GBP250 billion as of 30 September, 20201.“Portfolios today require higher levels of diversification, requiring more asset classes, more investment managers, and overall, more operational management to contend with. This increased complexity, coupled with challenging market conditions and fee pressures, also means investors are looking for a more dynamic approach to managing portfolios. All of these requirements are driving interest in investment solutions across our client base and the broader market,” says Mick Dempsey, Global Head of investment solutions/OCIO services at Mercer.
“As governance has been tested this year, we have been seeing investors across the institutional marketplace such as pension schemes, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries, as well as not-for-profit entities, adopt investment solutions to support the operational management of their investment portfolios,” adds Dempsey.
In March 2020, Pensions & Investments ranked Mercer first by worldwide, outsourced assets under management. In a separate survey by CIO magazine, Mercer was also rated first for global assets under management, as of March 20203. Pensions & Investments also named Mercer first by global assets under advisement as of 30 June, 20204.
“In the UK we have seen strong demand for fiduciary management services continue throughout the year as Trustees, and other asset owners, seek robust governance solutions amidst challenging market conditions and ongoing uncertainty,” says Dan Melley, UK Head of Fiduciary Management. “The majority of our defined benefit clients are on long term de-risking journey plans. Those clients that have been with us for a while therefore entered 2020 with lower exposures to more volatile growth assets and were better prepared to withstand the pandemic-induced market volatility of Q1. As markets have rebounded in Q4, our daily funding monitoring has helped capture opportunities to de-risk further. The asset allocation switches we have made have also helped push these clients further towards their funding goals.”
