Ricardo Plc moves Defined Contribution members into LifeSight Master Trust

London, 25 May 2021 – Ricardo Plc, the global strategic engineering and environmental consultancy, has moved its 2,500 UK defined contribution (DC) pension scheme members, and £125 million in assets, from the Ricardo International Pension Scheme into the LifeSight master trust.

Formerly operating a single-employer trust scheme, Ricardo selected LifeSight in September 2020 to take over its UK DC pension scheme, following a competitive tender. After a period of consultation with affected employees and integration, LifeSight went live for their employee contributions in March 2021 and the transfer of £125 million of all members’ assets was completed in April 2021, ahead of schedule.

LifeSight’s introduction saw strong engagement from members, with over 60% of Ricardo’s employees logging into their new LifeSight account following the launch.

The addition of the Ricardo scheme, along with several other recent client wins, brings LifeSight overall to 235,000 members and £10.5bn of assets under management.

Mark Edwards, Group Head of Treasury at Ricardo, said:

“As a consultancy with a focus on precision engineering, the key things that really stood out to us about LifeSight was its commitment to sustainable investing and its ability to build a bespoke service around the specific needs of our pension scheme members. The close support we received from their dedicated onboarding team and experienced workstream leaders at LifeSight led to a very smooth and efficient implementation process and a very positive experience for our members.”

Fiona Matthews, Managing Director of LifeSight said:

“We are so thrilled to have won the mandate from Ricardo, particularly in these challenging times for all pension schemes. Despite our rapid growth, we have been very selective about which companies we work with; this enables us to partner very closely with our clients and deliver a hugely positive experience to all their members. I felt strongly from the beginning that the culture at Ricardo, its commitment to long-term sustainability and its membership profile, would be a great fit for LifeSight.”

Jane Platt, Chair of the LifeSight Trustee Board said:

“We are very excited to welcome Ricardo and its members into LifeSight. The LifeSight Trustee is committed to providing all participating employers with a pension arrangement that has truly robust and independent oversight and we take our responsibility very seriously. Through our tailored approach, Ricardo’s members will have a truly personalised experience, with an opportunity to voice their opinions on our future agenda on important real-world issues directly affecting their retirement savings, such as sustainability. Like our other employers, we know this was a key reason why Ricardo chose to partner with LifeSight.”