Milk Pension Fund is latest Crowe audit win

The Manchester office of national audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, has been selected as auditors to the Milk Pension Fund.

The Milk Pension Fund is a multi-employer fund which grew out of the original Milk Marketing Board scheme.

The defined benefit (DB) scheme was established in 1955 and is sponsored by three non-associated employers linked to the UK dairy industry. It has more than 4,500 members across the UK.

Richard Thornton, Secretary to the Milk Pension Fund, said: “We were seeking auditors who not only understood the workings of Pension schemes but also had a national presence.

“We were impressed not only with the technical knowledge and experience of the team at Crowe, but also the understanding Michael Jayson and Darren Eagles demonstrated of the challenges facing defined benefit pension schemes.”

Michael Jayson, managing partner of Crowe’s Manchester office, said: “We are very pleased to have been selected by the Milk Pension Fund. The scheme will benefit from our strength and depth of expertise and client service culture.

“We have spent 20 years building a specialist pensions team and this is paying dividends, with new clients choosing to work with us in addition to the strong retention of our existing clients.”

Nationally, Crowe currently acts for more than 280 pension schemes in the UK, across a range of sizes and complexity, from smaller schemes with few employees to those with more than £1bn of assets.