Pension Accounting and Actuarial Governance Adviser

The mandate

The Adviser will address a standing question: does accounting leadership receive enough transparent evidence to challenge pension assumptions, plan-event analysis and the financial-statement bridge without outsourcing judgment to actuarial specialists? The appointment will sharpen governance over selected defined-benefit and other long-term obligation matters. It will not produce the actuarial valuation or administer benefit plans.

The agreed cadence comprises a monthly assumption and movement review, a fortnightly case session during reporting preparation and one scheduled governance meeting each month. Management will provide approved plan information, event notices, actuarial outputs and its proposed accounting. The Adviser will interrogate reconciliation, internal consistency and the accounting significance of changes rather than independently reperform specialist modelling.

The work should make ownership clear. Actuaries own specified calculations and expert assumptions; reward or plan authorities own benefit decisions; management owns accounting conclusions; the Adviser supplies independent challenge. Particular attention will fall on changes described as routine that may constitute settlements, curtailments, past-service cost or plan amendments, and on unexplained experience movements.

No line authority or approval right accompanies the role. Advice will identify decisive facts, plausible alternatives and recommended governance action. If management chooses another defensible path, the Adviser records the disposition without becoming an assurance provider or public advocate for the conclusion.

After seven months, the expected legacy is a better assumption-challenge protocol, event-screening checklist, movement bridge and committee-ready paper standard. The Adviser must disclose relationships with benefit advisers, actuaries, trustees, plan counterparties and relevant financial interests before restricted information is released.

What you will own

• Assess whether actuarial assumptions are supported, internally coherent and appropriately challenged by accountable management.
• Review liability and expense movement bridges for unexplained changes, classification errors and missing plan events.
• Establish an event-screening protocol for amendments, settlements, curtailments, special contributions and other accounting triggers.
• Challenge accounting papers for completeness of facts, specialist dependencies, alternatives and disclosure consequences.
• Prepare concise questions for governance forums while leaving decisions and representations with management.
• Create a recurring calendar that aligns plan facts, actuarial production, accounting review and disclosure preparation.
• Advise on appropriate use and evaluation of specialist work without assuming the specialist’s responsibility.
• Decline plan-design, administration, valuation execution or assurance requests inconsistent with adviser status.

Candidate qualifications

• Demonstrate senior pension accounting experience across assumption review, movement analysis and significant plan events.
• Describe an actuarial movement you challenged and the accounting or data issue ultimately identified.
• Show how you recognised that an operationally described change required settlement, curtailment or amendment analysis.
• Evidence effective challenge of specialists while respecting the boundary between expertise and management judgment.
• Explain a governance paper you improved so that decision makers understood uncertainty and financial consequence.
• Provide an example of influencing a conclusion without line authority or ownership of the valuation.
• Disclose how you have managed conflicts involving actuaries, trustees, reward advisers or plan investments.

Working terms and boundaries

• The seven-month retainer covers two days weekly, fortnightly case sessions and the scheduled monthly governance meeting.
• Management and appointed specialists remain responsible for plan facts, valuations, assumptions and accounting conclusions.
• The Adviser will not design benefits, administer plans, act for trustees, prepare entries or issue assurance.
• Urgent plan-event attendance is accommodated only through reprioritisation or a signed fee amendment.
• Conflict clearance is required before named plans, advisers or counterparties are disclosed.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 7 October 2026. Mandate reference FNA-ADV-2026-MEX-19.