A key challenge for pension scheme trustees is to ensure that members are offered a full range of appropriate investment funds together with an appropriate default investment strategy. This year, to meet this challenge, Irish Life Corporate Business (ILCB) worked with Irish Life Investment Managers and  Morningstar OBSR, an independent investment research and consultancy business which has one of the largest and most experienced fund research teams in the UK market, to introduce the Guided Architecture Range of funds.

These funds are available to Trustees of our Defined Contribution (DC) and Additional Voluntary Contribution (AVC) schemes and have been selected in order to complement the existing investment options.

We believe that these new funds, in addition to the Personal Lifestyle Strategy (PLS) and the large range of funds from Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM), will allow Trustees to provide members of their pension schemes a comprehensive selection of investment options

We have put a structure in place to support the trustees and consultants who decide on making these extra funds available to pension scheme members.  The advantages of this structure include:

Due Diligence

• All funds offered under the Guided Architecture range have been thoroughly evaluated by Morningstar OBSR, who are also responsible for reviewing the performance and management of these funds on an on-going basis.  Only those funds with a rating of Gold, Silver or Bronze are made available on this range.

• Irish Life have completed due diligence on all of these funds to ensure that they meet all of the operational and tax requirements necessary for Irish pension schemes.  This would include such factors as being priced in Euro, having daily prices and excellent liquidity.

• If a fund is not meeting its mandate and Morningstar OBSR lose confidence in the fund, they will change their rating of the fund.  ILCB will notify trustees and consultants of any such change and offer an alternative fund.  Any such fund will then be removed from the Guided Architecture range and will not be open for future contributions.

Operational simplicity

• Once the trustees allow access to these funds, they simply become part of the fund choice available to members. 

• There is no need for the trustees to split the monthly contributions between the different investment managers as ILCB will take care of this.  Upon receipt of the monthly contribution we will arrange to forward the relevant portion to the other fund managers and will update the records to reflect this purchase once we receive confirmation of the price for that transaction.  The contribution in respect of Irish Life funds will be invested as at the date of receipt.

• Scheme and member paper and on-line communications such as benefit statements and our online system, Pension Planet Interactive, will reflect all units held regardless of where they are invested.

• ILCB will be the point of contact for any fund switches or claims involving the new externally-managed funds.

We believe that this comprehensive range of funds supported by a thorough due diligence process and a simplified administration approach offers trustees an ideal opportunity to access international specialist fund managers.

For more information on the funds made available to date click on the link below:

http://www.irishlife.ie/corporatebusiness/resources-tools/guidedarchitecture.html

Keep an eye on our monthly newsletter as we will continue to provide information on the Guided Architecture range of funds when appropriate.

Please contact your Financial Advisor or Irish Life Corporate Business Account Manager if you wish to find out more about these funds.