EY appoints Associate Partner in pensions covenant team

EY has appointed Jane Evans from rival firm PwC, as the firm looks to bolster its pensions covenant practice. Evans becomes an Associate Partner at EY, bringing more than two decades of experience to the role.

Against a backdrop of volatile pension deficits, both trustees and sponsors are continually looking for ways to reduce or remove pension risk. As a result, the pensions consulting sector is currently experiencing high demand, with clients keen to safeguard their funds against an uncertain economic outlook.

Driven by market demand and an increasingly complex regulatory environment surrounding pensions, professional services giant EY has been no exception to this over the last 12 months, seeing rapid growth and an increasing demand for its services. As EY looks to meet these heightened expectations, it has appointed Jane Evans as an Associate Partner in its pensions covenant practice.

Evans joins from PwC, having spent the last 21 years with the Big Four firm. After joining the financial advisory wing of the firm in 1998, Evans shifted across to its pensions credit advisory arm in 2011. Since then, she worked on a diversity of projects, specialising in analysing the impact of financial restructuring and other corporate transactions for pension scheme trustees and companies with pension responsibilities. In her new role with EY, she will draw on this expertise to fulfil a similar set of responsibilities.

Senior partner Taylor Dewar said, “With over 20 years’ experience, Jane has recently advised on some of the industry’s most complex and high-profile schemes. She has a track record of working collaboratively with her clients to integrate covenant considerations into their business planning and helping them to simplify the challenges they are experiencing.”

Another of EY’s rivals, KPMG, recently agreed a deal for the buy-out of its UK pensions division, which will continue to serve clients under the ownership of its current management team. The management buy-out is understood to have been backed by Exponent Private Equity, the private equity firm which entered into exclusive talks with KPMG for the purchase in October.