RSM Tenon continues strengthening in Birmingham
PROGRESSIVE accountants RSM Tenon have strengthened its presence in Birmingham with the appointment of two industry experts in audit and pensions.
Christian Holyhead takes up the post of associate director in the audit, tax and advisory team in the firm’s Birmingham office having joined from his role as director in one of the Big Four firms. He has 17 years’ experience in providing audit and advisory services to both local and international businesses.
Mr Holyhead is joined by John Pollard, who comes from a specialist benefits consultancy in the West Midlands. He has around 25 years’ experience of the pensions market.
The appointments are the latest in a series aimed at boosting the firm’s share of the West Midlands markets. They follow those of Steve Thornhill, James Carnegie and Kerry Lane in the corporate finance team and Bev Marsh, who is the new head of the Birmingham corporate recovery team.
Mr Pollard is an expert in defined benefit pensions (also known as final salary pension schemes). It is an important field as many public and private sector schemes are currently struggling with deficits.
“It is a difficult time for the public sector, in particular, in all sorts of ways. There are relatively few people working and contributing into these schemes to support the massive number of pensions being paid out, which is the reason most schemes are in deficit,” he said.
“The challenge is how we tackle those deficits, and there are no pain-free answers. We have seen the Government’s Hutton Report suggest a number of potential solutions, including increasing member contributions, reducing pensions in payment, or working longer. I suspect we may end up with a combination of all three of these solutions.”
He added that the past few months had seen changes in the rules which govern pensions and the demand for advice to ensure schemes satisfy the requirements of the pensions regulator was expected to increase.
Alan Webb, regional head of RSM Tenon in the West Midlands, said: “We have appointed a series of regional heavy weights to further enhance our offering in the Midlands region. The arrival of Christian and John has added more expertise to our teams and boosts our offering across the region as well as on a national level.”
