The Cheviot Trust is headquartered in Southend on Sea
Cheviot has formed a strategic collaboration with Spence & Partners and Van Lanschot Kempen (VLK) to change its operational and investment model.
The defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) scheme master trust said the new model was designed to meet the evolving demands of the pensions landscape and would help Cheviot deliver a "sophisticated, scalable solution to schemes of all sizes".
Cheviot said its renewed proposition aims to support clients seeking to consolidate under a flexible full-service model – including options to maintain continuity with an existing trustee or adviser and access fiduciary management, while enhancing governance, navigating a path to buyout without in-house resource strain, or transition from underperforming administration providers.
As a result of the move, Spence & Partners will become administrator across all of Cheviot's schemes. The scheme was previously administered on an in-house basis and 11 of Cheviot's staff will move to Spence as a result of the partnership.
Cheviot said the new model will also offer direct access to real-time data and funding updates via Spence's Mantle technology.
This follows the master trust's 2024 appointment of VLK as its fiduciary manager.
Cheviot Trustees chief executive and co-opted director Elspeth McKinnon said: "Our new model gives schemes access to an efficient and specialist pensions arrangement that provides an end-to-end solution for all aspects of pension delivery.
"We achieve this by leveraging scale, high quality governance and appointing award-winning partners for investment and administration. Our approach reduces risk and costs and takes governance off the table, whilst delivering on a scheme's long term scheme objectives."
Spence & Partners managing director Alan Collins commented: "We are thrilled to be appointed as pensions administration provider for the Cheviot Trust and to welcome their staff that will be joining us.
"As an authorised master trust with DC and DB sections, Cheviot has ambitious growth plans in the operational consolidation market that we are excited to be supporting. At Spence, we have developed a smarter approach that re-imagines how pensions are delivered leveraging the unique Mantle technology that we use to provide the Cheviot Trust's members a highly digitised service across their DB and DC pension savings, whilst also making liability cashflows and data available to the trust's other advisers."
VLK executive director Arif Saad added: "VLK is excited to partner with Cheviot Trust and Spence & Partners to offer integrated investment, administration and governance services.
"This collaboration with an authorised DB and DC master trust has the ambition to offer members, trustees and sponsoring employers market leading services. Van Lanschot Kempen with its longstanding track record in fiduciary management and sustainability credentials is the investment engine for this innovative offering."
The Cheviot Trust was established in 1930, initially focussing on the legal profession but now open to employers and individuals from all sectors. It introduced DB schemes in the 1970s and its current DC arrangement in 2000.
The master trust's board includes both employer and member representatives, together with four professional trustees. It is chaired by Sir Derek Morris, the previous chair of the UK Competition Commission (now the Competition and Markets Authority), and chair of the Morris Review of the Actuarial Profession in 2004-5.
