If you’re currently a generalist/trustee consultant, why would you spend the next few years specialising in GMP rather than remaining on your current path?

In a traditional consulting role, whilst this is the path that many choose to take, there is a risk factor. That is you can quite easily fall into a pattern of working on the same 5-10 clients year-in, year-out from when you qualify onwards. You give the same kind of advice. You crunch the same kind of numbers. You meet the same people and present them with the same sort of results. You get a little older and wiser as you go along, you might get your scheme certificate, but are you really gaining the breadth of experience a career as a pensions actuary can offer? Are you gaining new levels of insight & responsibility which are essential to jumping up the career ladder and keeping your salary on the increase rather than levelling out in the 80 or 90Ks? Some of you are, but some aren’t unfortunately.

Now if you’ve only experienced a bit of GMP work here or there alongside your normal duties, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s not for you. However, if you work for the right team with the right structure and leadership, it can seriously help you avoid falling into this salary barrier. When you join the right team, some of your work will be GMP focussed, some won’t. But the GMP aspect will be working much more broadly across a wide range of clients, and rather than getting bogged down in the technical, you’ll be out networking with trustees, corporates, the IPTs, you’ll be working on clients approaching buy-ins and buy-outs, looking at PIEs and ETVs, you’ll be pitching for new business, leading teams etc. etc. The client work is much more about project management, so you are far more involved with them and so you’ll see and learn things you’d not come across in a narrow role.

So 2 or 3 years down the road, you’ll have covered far more ground. You’ll be promoted. You’ll have broader vision and will be better equipped to apply your new experience in many more ways. You’ll be one of the people who others turn to for help on their own work. You’ll be first in line for more diverse roles – BPA broking, investment solutions, non-pension scheme liability work, and you’ll help to create new opportunities for pensions actuaries to branch into new fields.

Let the actuary in you be an actuary, and let the consultant in you reach new heights!