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Pensions Actuarial Technical Committee PATC
Danny Wilding and Paul Hamilton introduce Barnett Waddingham's Pensions Actuarial Technical Committee.
Barnett Waddingham's Pensions Actuarial Technical Committee - known internally as PATC (pronounced "Patsy") - was set up in 1994 to establish a firm-wide view on how to calculate pension scheme transfer values in the light of the revised Guidance Note published by the Actuarial Profession on the subject. The first ever PATC minute describes the purposes:
"Mark Underwood opened the meeting, which is the first in a proposed series of meetings to be held by the committee on various pensions actuarial topics. The purpose of this and subsequent meetings is to co-ordinate practice between Chalfont, Leeds and Tufton Street and to share ideas on various topical issues. The purpose of this first meeting is to try and co-ordinate an approach to transfer values and to comment on the recently revised guidance note GN11."
(Note that Barnett Waddingham only had three offices in those days - Tufton Street in Westminster being the location of the London office in 1994.)
Since those early days many technical topics have been discussed including:
- Several subsequent changes to the Guidance Note on transfer values - soon to include the changes suggested in the latest DWP Green Paper.
- The latest developments in the "Financial Economics vs Traditional Actuarial Techniques" debate.
- Developments to Barnett Waddingham's in house software for actuarial valuations, cashflow analysis, and asset-liability modelling software.
PATC also monitors new pensions legislation and co-ordinates the Firm's response to consultation papers. Changes in legislation has therefore keep the committee particularly busy, and over the years PATC have presented views on the Pensions Act 1995, the Pensions & Divorce Green Paper, the 1999 Green Paper, Member-Nominated Trustees, the Minimum Funding Requirement, Financial Reporting Standard 17, the 2002 Green Paper, and the IR simplification review.
The only surviving founder member - Danny Wilding - is the current Chairman. The rest of the committee is made up of members of all five offices - Louise Witts, John Harrison, Paul Hamilton, John Carter, Nick Griggs, and Paul Houghton.
Nowadays the full force of current technology backs up PATC's work - they have their own area of the Firm's intranet where staff can look at past minutes (all the way back to that first meeting) and suggest items for the next agenda. They also supervise a system of shared email folders containing conversations and debates about technical issues.
PATC organise training days for the Firm's actuarial staff working in pensions, and edit Barnett Waddingham's quarterly "Current Pensions Issues" newsletter for clients.
Further pensions consultation papers, impending changes in legislation, debate within the actuarial profession as to the most appropriate valuation techniques to apply; this all means that the next year is going to be another busy time for PATC, and their role within the pensions actuarial practice remains as important than ever.
Danny Wilding & Paul Hamilton, June 2003.