Agenda and minutes

Surrey Pension Fund Committee - Monday, 26 March 2018 10.00 am

Venue: Committee Room C, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2DN

Contact: Richard Plummer  Email: richard.plummer@surreycc.gov.uk

Note: Extraordinary Meeting 

Items
No. Item

16/18

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from Margaret Janes. 

17/18

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING: 9 FEBRUARY 2018 pdf icon PDF 448 KB

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    To agree the minutes as a true record of the meeting.

    Minutes:

    The Minutes were approved as an accurate record of the previous meeting.

18/18

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter

    (i)            Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

    (ii)           Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting

    NOTES:

    ·         Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest

    ·         As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)

    ·         Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

    Minutes:

    There were none.

19/18

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS

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    To receive any questions or petitions.

     

    Notes:

    1.  The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (20 March 2018).

    2.  The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (19 March 2018).

    3.  The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.

     

    Minutes:

    There were none.

20/18

ACTION TRACKER AND FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 55 KB

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    An action tracker is attached, detailing actions from previous meetings. The Board is asked to review progress on the item listed.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Members noted and approved the Actions Tracker and Forward Work Programme.

21/18

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

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    Recommendation: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

     

    Minutes:

    Resolved:That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

22/18

APPOINTMENT OF PENSION FUND ACTUARIES

    Purpose of the report: To set out the assessment criteria, scoring and recommendation of the procurement exercise to appoint a firm of actuaries for the Pension Fund. Hymans Robertson are the Fund’s incumbent actuary.

     

     

Minutes:

Declarations of interest:

 

None

 

Witnesses:


Neil Mason, Head of Pensions
Kevin Kilburn, Deputy Chief Finance Officer

 

Key points raised during the discussion:

 

1.    There was a discussion regarding the appointment process and the scores given to each bid received.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Committee:

 

1.    Noted and approved the assessment criteria by which an actuary may be appointed; and

 

2.    Approved the re-appointment of Hymans Robertson as the Fund actuary, as the supplier that achieved the highest score, on a 6 year contract with an option to extend for 1 year, with effect from May 2018, in line with the LGPS Frameworks document.

 

 

 

23/18

EXTENSION OF DOWNSIDE EQUITY PROTECTION

    Purpose of the report: This report provides an update on downside equity protection strategy and considers the case for extending the equity protection to UK equities in the portfolio.

     

Minutes:

Declarations of interest:

 

None

 

Witnesses:

 

Neil Mason, Head of Pensions
Hemal Popat, Mercer

Key points raised in the discussion:


1.    There was a discussion regarding the protection of equities in the fund and whether the appropriate timescales and situation in which to enter such protection.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Committee:

 

  1. Noted the progress on the downside equity protection strategy for developed market global equities.

 

  1. Agreed to define the levels and triggers for downside equity protection for the European equities offside in stage two and UK equities in stage three of the strategy as follows:

 

·         An acceptable put spread between 70-90 and 75-90

·         A minimum upside call of 101%

·         The index levels must be within 5% of the 28 November 2017 levels (as measured by Mercer/LGIM).

 

  1. Approved the extension of a downside equity protection strategy to also include UK and European equities, to be carried out by Mercer, subject to Section 151 officer, the Chairman of the Pension Fund Committee and Independent Advisor, agreeing the associated fees and within agreed levels and triggers.

 

  1. Agreed to additional collateral required for this third stage to be generated through synthesizing some of the Fund’s passive equity exposure.

 

 

24/18

PUBLICITY OF PART TWO ITEMS

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    To consider whether the item considered under Part 2 of the agenda should be made available to the Press and public.

     

25/18

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

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    The next meeting of the Surrey Pension Fund Committee will be on 8 June 2018.

    Minutes:

    The date of the meeting was NOTED.