If there is one group in the investment chain I imagine ending up in the stocks with rotten eggs being thrown at them, it is the consultants. I have never known a group to be so unpopular, particularly with the asset managers who depend on them for the bulk of their institutional business. For pension funds consulting services are often a grudge purchase, which they might not need if they had the in-house resources. Some large funds, such as the Government Employees Pension Fund, make little use of consultants, except when they are required by law to go through an actuarial valuation every three years.Ironically, people predicted the demise of the consultant after the wholesale switch from defined-benefit funds, which need the help of a firm of consultants and actuaries, to far simpler defined-contribution funds. But they have adapted and grown, even though there have been casualties, as more purist actuarial firms have not survived in the more commercial environment.I’ve always tho...
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