Build a Pensions Team
Build your pensions team in India
From your first specialist hire to a full capability centre, we help pensions and retirement businesses build expert scheme actuarial, longevity, risk settlement, investment and analytics teams in India, on the ground where we are deepest, and in the actuarial disciplines the firm was built on.
How we help you build
Capability Build Recruitment since 2014, built on actuarial recruitment, from first hire to full centre, with deep pensions actuarial, longevity and risk expertise. India is our home and deepest market.
Since 2014
built on actuarial recruitment
80%
screening ratio, candidates we submit get interviewed
85%
joining ratio, offers that become joiners
Scheme actuary
the distinctive pensions anchor
The answer
How do you build a pensions team in India?
You build a pensions team in India the way you build any centre of expertise: with the right anchor hires first, the right specialists around them, and the right leadership to hold it together, recruited by people who understand both the actuarial work and the Indian talent market. EliteRecruitments does exactly this, and the firm was built on actuarial recruitment. Through our Capability Build Recruitment work, we help pensions and retirement businesses build specialist teams in India from the first hire upward, whether you need a pensions actuarial team, a longevity and risk function, a risk settlement and bulk annuity team, or a full pensions capability centre. We focus on the actuarial, longevity, risk settlement, investment and analytical work, which is exactly where our depth lies.
The signature
The actuarial engine of retirement
The most successful pensions capability centres are built around the actuarial and analytical disciplines that decide whether retirement promises can be kept. Scheme actuaries, longevity and mortality specialists, risk settlement and bulk annuity analysts, pensions investment specialists and pensions analytics experts form the actuarial engine of retirement. These are the teams we help build, in the disciplines the firm was founded on, where genuine specialists are scarce and the right hire is hardest to get right.
The teams we build
The pensions teams we help build
Pensions teams are rarely built all at once. Most begin with a small group of highly specialised professionals, often scheme actuaries, longevity specialists, risk settlement analysts or pensions investment leads, and grow into broader centres of expertise over time. Whether you are establishing a new presence in India or expanding an existing capability centre, the challenge is usually the same: finding scarce specialist talent in precise, technical, deeply actuarial disciplines, and assembling it in the right order.
We work with pension providers, insurers and consultancies building in India for the first time, and with those who already have a centre, often an administration centre, that they want to extend into genuine actuarial, longevity and risk expertise. Both come down to the same thing, hiring the right people in the right order, in disciplines where genuine specialists are scarce.
Typical engagements
Typical team building engagements
Most engagements take one of a few recognisable shapes. Whichever one fits, the approach is the same: the right specialists, in the right order, with the leadership to hold the team together.
Building a pensions actuarial team
Scheme valuation, funding and actuarial reporting specialists.
Building a longevity and risk team
Longevity, mortality and risk modelling specialists.
Building a risk settlement team
Bulk annuity pricing and risk transfer specialists, one of the fastest growing areas in pensions.
Building a pensions investment team
Asset liability management and liability driven investment specialists.
Extending an administration centre
Adding the actuarial and risk expertise an administration centre lacks.
Adding leadership
The senior and leadership hires that let a centre take ownership of its work.
How we build
How we build your team
Building a team is different from filling a single role, and we approach it that way. We start by understanding what you are building and why: the function, the seniority, the timeline, and how the team fits your business. We then recruit in the right order, often starting with the anchor hires and senior specialists who set the standard, then building the team around them. Throughout, we assess on real capability, not job titles, because the early hires in a capability centre shape everything that follows. Our full process, from briefing to onboarding and aftercare, is on our how we work page
Not traditional recruitment
Capability building is not traditional recruitment
Most recruitment fills a vacancy: a role opens, and it is filled. Capability building starts with the team you are trying to create and works backwards to the hires that build it, in the right order. Building a centre of expertise is an exercise in team architecture, not a series of unconnected hires.
The roles we build around
The specialist roles we build around
Pensions teams in India are built around the disciplines we specialise in. Our focus is the specialist actuarial, longevity, risk settlement, investment and analytical side of pensions, not high volume member administration or servicing.
Actuarial
Scheme valuations, funding, longevity and risk settlement pricing.
Actuarial practiceRisk and Financial Advisory
Longevity, risk modelling and the investment and ALM work pensions relies on.
Risk practiceLeadership
The leaders who turn specialists into a centre of actuarial expertise.
Leadership HiringWhy pensions businesses choose us
Why pensions businesses choose us to build in India
Pensions and retirement businesses choose us to build their India teams for three reasons. We have genuine depth in the disciplines these teams do, across scheme actuarial, longevity, risk settlement and pensions investment, the actuarial work the firm was built on, which is precise and technical and hard to assess without specialist knowledge. India is our home and deepest market, so we know the talent, what good looks like, and what it takes to attract it. And our placements last, which matters enormously when you are building a team where the early hires set the standard for everyone who follows. We are also honest about what we do: we build specialist teams through recruitment, we do not provide volume hiring or run the centre for you.
The first hires
Typical first hires in a pensions capability centre
Most pensions capability centres begin with a combination of hires who set the standard for everything that follows. The exact sequence varies, but the pattern is consistent: actuarial and technical credibility first, scale second.
A senior pensions actuary
Scheme actuarial credibility at the core, the discipline the firm was built on.
A longevity or risk modelling specialist
The longevity and risk expertise that pensions work depends on.
A risk settlement specialist
The pricing and risk transfer capability behind a fast growing market.
A pensions investment or ALM specialist
Asset liability management expertise, connecting liabilities and assets.
A pensions data specialist
Accurate member and scheme data at the heart of actuarial and risk work.
A people leader
Someone to build and scale specialist teams once the actuarial core is in place.
Built right
How we make sure the team is built right
Because the early hires in a capability centre shape everything that follows, we hold a high bar. We assess on real capability rather than job titles, we screen at an 80 per cent rate, our candidates join at an 85 per cent rate, and since 2014 we have had to return fewer than fifteen fees because a placement left early, backed by our 90 day replacement guarantee. When you are building a team for the long term in work this technical and this actuarial, that is the discipline that protects it. See how we work
Founder led
A founder close to the work
EliteRecruitments is led by its founder, Shagun Gupta, who built the firm in India on actuarial recruitment and stays closely involved in capability building engagements. When you are building a team in India, that means a firm whose founder understands both the work and the market, and who treats building a capability centre as the strategic decision it is.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
How do you help build a pensions team in India?
Can you build a full pensions capability centre, or just individual roles?
Do you handle high volume pensions administration?
Do you only recruit, or do you also run the centre?
Do candidates pay any fees?
Start a conversation
Talk to us about building your team
Building a pensions team in India is a strategic decision, and it comes down to hiring the right specialists, across scheme actuarial, longevity, risk settlement and pensions investment, in the right order. If you are ready to build, or just starting to think about it, we would like to help you do it well.
Thank you, we will be in touch shortly.
Your note goes to Shagun directly.