David Joy – photo courtesy Zoe Plowman

This week has been my conference season .  Having tested the waters in Gloucestershire with the PLSA and LGPS, I spent yesterday at the RSA with First Actuarial. Actually I should say I missed the majority of the conference as a I was on what once was called a conference call which was kindly facilitated by the RSA’s head honcho and future Governor of the Bank of England (I hope) – Andy Haldane.

So all I can report on by way of what was said was founder- David Joy’s -introduction , former chief economist at Schroders – Keith Wade and Tom McPhail – standing in for the Pensions Regulator who rounded things off.

Joy reminded me just how much I enjoyed my ten years at First Actuarial, a firm that has resolutely practiced what it preached , pointing out to the world that the pseudo deficits of DB schemes during QE were an accounting production and did not reflect the true state of DB scheme funding. The FABI index has now seen TPR and PPF come round to this view, albeit it cost £166bn to learn that borrowing money to prove a point is an expensive way to run a pension system.

Here’s an early FABI chart – showing what we later found to be the case, that using best estimate funding based on the long-term growth of assets and real liabilities rather than funding discounted by the QE governed gilts rate, gave rise to a 50% spread between doom (PPF) and Joy (the First Actuarial view of things).

It came as no surprise to the full house rammed into the RSA’s Great Room that First Actuarial were right all along.

As I scuttled off to my calls , I bumped into Keith Wade and as I scuttled back into the Great Room I was called out by Tom, it was that kind of event, fun, intimate and friendly.

First Actuarial now has over 400 staff and have just opened a London Office which will be run by long-time friend to the firm , Andrew Alsop. There were faces I missed – Alan Smith and Hilary Salt and I expect more of the Founders will retire over the years to come but this is a business that remains independent of private equity, grows organically and is a true partnership.

It makes the headlines for the right reason – for being right! In a world of fake news and false promises, it remains a beacon of certainty and rectitude.