Our Team | Pensions Actuary Services Ltd

Mark Stocker MA FIA PTPMI (Accred)

A leading UK pensions actuary
36 years’ experience
Advises a wide range of clients
One of a handful of UK actuaries providing expert witness services
Accredited by the Pensions Management Institute as a Professional Trustee
Represents the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) internationally
Worked for 4 of the top 10 firms most recently as head of Retirement and Investment at Buck Consultants
Graduate of Oxford University

Mark qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1990 after graduating with a degree in Mathematics from Oxford University in 1984.

He has worked since that time as an actuary providing advice to pension plan trustees (acting as a Scheme Actuary – continuously holding a practising certificate since their introduction in 1997 until 2018) and employers on the management of occupational pension plans, primarily in the UK. He has substantial experience advising trustees and employers on matters such as scheme valuations and recovery plans in the context of the applicable statutory and regulatory regimes.

He was accredited by the Pensions Management Institute as a Professional Trustee shortly after accreditation was launched in 2020.

In October 2017 he established Pensions Actuary Services Limited to provide expert witness services together with a range of complementary services to sponsors, trustees and other stakeholders in DB pension arrangements.

Prior to this he was at Buck Consultants Limited since 2008 (trading since January 2017 as Conduent HR Services) where he was a Board Director and Chief Actuary for its UK operating company.

Prior to this, he was a partner at Lane Clark & Peacock LLP from 2006. Prior to that, he was a Principal at Mercer Limited having worked there since 1987.

He was elected to Council of the Institute of Actuaries in 2007 and remained a member of the Institute and Faculty Council following the merger of the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries until the expiry of his second term of office in 2014. He was a member for several years (until 2020) of the profession’s Regulation Board which is responsible for the professional and regulatory aspects of the actuaries’ work. He was also chair of the Education Board for many years which is responsible for maintaining the standards of knowledge and competencies of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ qualification process. He was Chair of the Board of Examiners from 2006 to 2008 responsible for all examinations for both the Institute and the Faculty of Actuaries and he was the lead examiner in pensions from 2000 to 2003. He has been involved in all aspects of the education of actuaries over the past 27 years.

At Lane Clark & Peacock he was the partner with executive responsibility for professional standards and at Mercer he was UK Retirement Practice’s Professional Leader and chair of its Professional Standards Committee having particular responsibility for the internal audit of actuaries’ work.

In previous years, he has served on several industry committees including the Pensions Board of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

He has been providing expert opinions on actuarial matters for over ten years. This has involved contentious and non-contentious issues in relation to the funding of UK pension plans including the utilisation of funding surplus and what constituted generally accepted UK actuarial practice at the time in question. This has included experience of testifying on UK actuarial practice in the Ontario Superior Court in relation to Nortel Networks in the matter of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and in the matter of a plan of compromise and arrangement.

Mike Hammer MA FIA

A senior pensions actuary
32 years’ experience
Provides advice to trustees and sponsors
Worked alongside Mark on all his expert cases over the last 7 years
Chair of the Exam Board at the IFoA
Worked for 4 leading firms most recently as a Senior Consulting Actuary at Buck Consultants
Graduate of Oxford University

Mike Hammer qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1992 after graduating with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Oxford University in 1988.

In November 2017 he joined Mark Stocker when Mark established Pensions Actuary Services Limited to provide expert witness services together with a range of complementary services to sponsors, trustees and other stakeholders in DB pension arrangements.

From 2013 he worked at Buck Consultants Limited (trading since January 2017 as Conduent HR Services) where he was a Senior Consulting Actuary until October 2017.

Prior to this, he was a Principal at Mercer Limited from 2005. Prior to that he held a number of actuarial positions working at Aon Hewitt, Willis Towers Watson and again at Mercer.

He is currently Chair of the profession’s Board of Examiners responsible for all examinations for the Institute and the Faculty of Actuaries and he was the lead examiner in Risk Management for a number of years. He is also an independent examiner for university degrees in actuarial science.

Mike is a member of the Financial Reporting Council’s actuarial disciplinary tribunal panel and a director of the Pensions Research Accountants Group (PRAG).

He has been working on expert opinions on actuarial matters for over seven years. This has involved contentious and non-contentious issues in relation to the funding of UK pension plans including the utilisation of funding surplus and what constituted generally accepted UK actuarial practice at the time in question. This has included recent experience of working with Mark Stocker on a number of expert cases in particular on UK actuarial practice in the Ontario Superior Court in relation to Nortel Networks in the matter of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act and in the matter of a plan of compromise and arrangement.