Stichting Pensioenfonds voor de Architectenbureaus, the Dutch pension fund for architect practices, has appointed F&C Netherlands as its fiduciary partner.

F&C will provide asset allocation and strategic advice including asset liability management. It will also be responsible for manager selection and monitoring, and risk management and reporting.

“We want to implement a high-quality pension scheme at the lowest possible cost. To this end, we’ve defined a number of basic principles such a scheme should meet, which are to ensure robust risk insight and control and to mitigate our dependence on our external providers,” said Willem Jan Boot, chairman of Stichting Pensioenfonds voor de Architectenbureaus.

“A rigorous process of selection has led us to F&C as the fiduciary manager best placed,” he added, describing F&C as “a proactive and decisive partner with a keen understanding of matters that we trustees need advising on”.

The fund is responsible for the pension scheme of some 46,000 employees and former employees, and manages total assets of €3.2bn ($4.2bn). It is looking to put in place more professional investment management in an increasingly complex arena and has therefore decided to separate fiduciary management from asset management and reporting & control.

The fiduciary manager tender process was carried out under the guidance of consultant Avida International.