Dweenisha Caleechurn has joined PwC as a Director. Working within the firm’s pensions risk transfer advisory team, she will focus on advising clients on pensions risk transfer and consolidation options.
Commenting on her appointment, Caleechurn said, “I am delighted to be joining PwC’s pensions advisory team at a time of unprecedented activity in the risk transfer market. I look forward to enhancing the innovative work PwC is doing to help both corporates and trustees manage and mitigate complex pensions issues, and bringing my risk transfer expertise to the business and its clients.”
Risk transfer is a risk management and control strategy, hinging upon the contractual shifting of a pure risk from one party to another. One example of this would be the purchase of an insurance policy – passing a specified risk of loss from the policyholder to the insurer. As the global economy continues to encounter major uncertainty, risk transfer strategy is becoming increasingly important, to firms looking to insulate themselves from sudden market shocks. To that end, demand for risk transfer advisory is also rising.
PwC’s pensions risk transfer advisory team provides multidisciplinary expertise from across its practices. Its team of pension risk transfer specialists have supported deal outcomes worth a combined £20 billion for over 50 clients.
Caleechurn brings significant experience in pension risk transfers, an area which is experiencing strong demand as many pension schemes find themselves better funded than ever before. She brings deep market knowledge and pensions and risk management expertise including advising companies and trustees to mitigate the risks associated with defined benefit pension schemes, and supporting them to help set their long-term strategies for managing these risks.
Steven Kirkpatrick, Head of UK Pensions at PwC, noted, “I am excited to welcome Dwee to the PwC pensions advisory team. The current risk transfer market means corporates and trustees will need expert support more than ever before to better manage and mitigate the complexities placed on them and the knowledge and experience of our expanding risk transfer team enables us to continue to provide market leading advice.”
Caleechurn’s arrival is the latest in a number of significant investments into PwC’s pensions business, as it looks to compete with other leading firms for new work. Most recently, Caleechurn was employed by PwC’s Big Four rival EY, where she advised UK and international companies, including FTSE100 firms, on the risk transfer of pension schemes. Prior to this, she also spent six years at KPMG.
Swapnil Katkar, Head of Pension Risk Transfer at PwC, added, “We are seeing increasing demands for strategic advice from corporates and trustees as schemes who are increasingly focused on transferring their risk to insurers and Dwee’s experience across many areas of risk transfer will further enhance our expertise. We expect the next 12 months to be an interesting and busy period across the buy-in market and the expansion of our team will allow PwC to continue to provide fresh and independent advice.”
