Top three consultancies see 10.8% rise in revenues in 2021

Combined pensions turnover of Mercer, WTW and Aon grew to £1.35bn at the end of last year

Jonathan Stapleton
clock • 2 min read
Top three consultancies see 10.8% rise in revenues in 2021

The revenue of the three biggest pension consultancy firms in the UK increased by 10.8% in 2021, increasing from £1.22bn in the 2020 financial year to £1.35bn in 2021.

PP's analysis of company accounts - found the main UK pensions entity of Mercer - Mercer Limited - posted a 20% increase in revenue from £446m in the 12 months to 31/12/2020 to £537m in the year to 31/12/2021.

Willis Towers Watson's UK pensions business - Towers Watson Limited - saw a 5.8% increase in turnover from £486.5m in 2020 to £514.5m in 2021.

Aon's UK business - Aon Solutions UK Limited - also saw a rise in revenue, from £286.1m to £298.5m.

The next biggest five firms - Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP), Capita Pension Solutions, XPS Pensions Group, Barnett Waddingham and Hymans Robertson - all posted strong revenue growth, although most had different year end dates to the big three consultancies, which all report on 31 December.

LCP saw its revenue rise from £126.5m in the 12 months to 31/03/2020 to £142.1m in the year to 31 March 2021. It has also released revenue figures to the end of March this year, which show turnover of £149.0m.

Capita Pension Solutions saw a sharp rise in its revenue from £87.4m in the 12 months to 31 December 2020 to £128.2m in the year to 31 December 2021 - but the firm did restructure its pensions businesses in 2020.

XPS Pensions Group saw its turnover rise from £119.8m in the year to 31 March 2020 to £127.9m in the year to 31 March 2021. It has also published 2022 figures, showing further growth to £138.6m in the 12 months to the end of March this year.

Barnett Waddingham posted a rise in revenue from £107.9m in the year ended 31 May 2020 to to £112.9m in the year ending 31 May 2021.

Hymans Robertson saw its revenue fall slightly from £96.0m in the year to the end of March 2020 to £95.6m in the year to the end of March 2021. Its 2022 figures show income of £103.0m to 31 March 2022.

In total, the 14 consultancy firms analysed by Professional Pensions posted total revenues of £2.21bn in the 2021 financial year, up 13% from £1.95bn the previous year.

View the analysis in full here

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