Mercer has established a new leadership position in its investment consulting division in order to help its superannuation fund clients crack the post-retirement space.
Graeme Mather has filled the newly-created role of head of superannuation investments to enhance Mercer’s consulting capability in the areas of defined contribution investment options and strategy design.
He will also be responsible for reinforcing the firm’s capabilities in the asset liability management of defined benefit schemes, Mercer investment consulting business leader in Australia and New Zealand Simon Eagleton told InvestorDaily.
“We have a big superannuation client base and we do see further growth in that area, but we’ve not to date had a leadership structure to support that. So given the growth in the business and the prospects, I felt that we needed to have a serious organisational structure with someone who has got capacity,” he said.
“We’ve taken advantage of Graeme joining us and he’ll take carriage of some refined thinking around how we approach superannuation investments.”
Mather has moved across from Mercer’s UK business and has significant expertise in the pre-retirement space, Eagleton said.
“An area that Graeme will be working on is the whole post-retirement piece, which I think is a sleeper issue. So we’re currently working with our super fund clients and others to help them crack the post-retirement nut,” he said.
“That whole area needs a lot more thought and I’ve not seen any evidence that anyone has really done a good job in that area. So we’ve got some very serious firepower now with Graeme on board to be able to dedicate some time to properly researching that.
“We’ve already got a number of client engagements where we are helping them build very sophisticated post-retirement solutions.”
