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Stuart McDonald joins LCP partnership to develop innovative approaches to understanding and managing longevity risk, and tackling the long-term pandemic fallout

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LCP has hired industry longevity expert and founder of the COVID-19 Actuaries Response Group, Stuart McDonald. He will be joining in October as Head of Longevity and Demographic Insights. Stuart will develop the firm’s longevity expertise, helping clients estimate the lasting impacts of the pandemic on mortality, population morbidity and inequalities, within the DB pensions market and the health care sector.

Stuart will work across LCP’s Actuarial and Health Analytics teams as the firm looks to take innovative approaches to helping all its clients understand and manage the long-term health and economic implications of the pandemic. 

Stuart joins from Lloyds Banking Group where he is currently Head of Demographic Assumptions and Methodology. He also sits on the Executive Committee of the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI). In 2022 he received an MBE for services to public health for his volunteer work during the crisis. As well as the Actuaries Response Group, which has made good use of data to shed light on the pandemic’s impacts, Stuart led IFoA volunteers supporting the Department for Health and Social Care with analysis of health Impacts, for a paper commissioned by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

In his role at LCP, Stuart will help trustees and sponsors understand and navigate longevity and demographic trends, so they can better understand implications for their schemes. 

He will also be working with LCP’s growing Health Analytics team to lend his expertise to the development of ways to track and analyse disease, and help develop solutions to tackling key public health issues. LCP’s Health Analytics team have been at the forefront of estimating the indirect effects of the pandemic, such as on heart disease, diabetes and elective waiting lists, on the population’s health and inequalities. The multi-disciplinary team leverages LCP’s actuarial track record alongside epidemiology, data science and technology, putting us in a position to have a real positive impact on the population’s health.

Stuart McDonald commented: “This is an exciting role for me. LCP have a unique combination of actuarial expertise alongside a growing health team who understand how our health system works, and the long-term challenges it faces. The pandemic has brought questions around public health to the top of the political and social agenda. I’m looking forward to working with people across the firm to quantify the impact of recent events, and develop ways for clients to understand and mitigate these risks - ultimately creating better health and retirement outcomes for our society.”

Michelle Wright, Partner and Head of Pensions Strategy at LCP, commented: “The pandemic has brought into focus the importance of combining forward-looking insight and judgement with actuarial analysis to help make sense of emerging longevity trends. Stuart is a well-respected industry figure whose unique expertise and passion make him perfectly placed to leverage LCP’s health expertise to the work we do with our DB pensions clients. The Actuaries Response Group brought us clear, rational and up to date information at a time of great upheaval. I know that our clients will hugely value his insight and clarity as they work through the impact of shifting longevity trends, and big issues like the cost of living crisis, on their scheme funding, journey plans and de-risking decisions.”

Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, Head of LCP’s Health Analytics practice, added: “The challenges to health systems are increasingly complex and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this further. Innovative approaches that embrace novel collaborations of skills and thought will be vital to address these challenges, improve the population’s health and reduce inequalities. Stuart will be a real asset to the team, helping us to develop new approaches to understand the lasting impacts of the pandemic and crucially enable decision makers to combat these effectively.’