Over lunch a year ago Chris Edge and long-time buddy Jo Welman hatched a plan to create a company to aid UK pension trustees to negotiate the murky waters of pension fund investment.
On February 5, Epic Investment Consulting officially opened its doors to pension schemes. EIC is one of three subsidiaries of Epic Investment Partners, where Welman is chief executive. He will also be chairman of EIC.
The idea sprang from Paul Myners' recommendation in his review of institutional investment in the UK in 2001 that trustees should take increased responsibility for pension fund management. Edge says: "The whole idea is to provide services of investment advice to pension fund trustees."
Myners also suggested that the roles of actuary and consultant be separated. EIC hopes this will enable it to carve out a niche among the big consultancies such as Mercer and Watson Wyatt. "They're qualified actuaries and, in the main, haven't got the same range of experience [as at EIC]," says Edge. In EIC, each of the four involved - soon to be five once the fifth has obtained his FSA certification - have at least 25 years of investment experience.