Pensions and Retirement GCC
Pensions and Retirement Capability Centres in India
Pensions and retirement run on actuarial science and longevity, and a growing share of that work, from scheme actuarial and longevity to risk settlement, investment and analytics, is now built in India. We recruit the specialist talent behind pensions capability centres, and we help pensions and retirement businesses build them.
Why pensions businesses hire with us in India
Specialist BFSI recruiter since 2014, built on actuarial recruitment, with deep pensions actuarial, longevity and risk expertise, and a specialist partner for pensions capability centres in India.
Since 2014
built on actuarial recruitment
80%
screening ratio, candidates we submit get interviewed
85%
joining ratio, offers that become joiners
Actuarial
the engine of retirement, our foundation
What it is, and why India
What is a pensions and retirement global capability centre, and why India?
A pensions and retirement global capability centre is a team a pensions provider, insurer or consultancy builds in India to run specialist work, from scheme actuarial, funding and longevity to risk settlement, investment and pensions analytics, as an integral part of how the business runs. These centres concentrate on the actuarial, longevity, risk and analytical work that decides whether long term retirement promises can be kept, rather than on high volume member administration. India leads because it combines one of the world’s largest pools of actuarial and analytical talent with a strong cost advantage, a maturing leadership base, and deep experience of pensions and retirement work. EliteRecruitments, which was built on actuarial recruitment, recruits the specialist talent these centres rely on, and helps pensions and retirement businesses build them from the first hire upward.
Why it is different
Why pensions and retirement hiring is different
Pensions and retirement run on actuarial science and longevity. The promises a pension makes stretch decades into the future, and keeping them depends on modelling liabilities, longevity and funding with precision, and increasingly on the risk settlement and bulk annuity work that moves those liabilities to insurers. Pension capability centres concentrate on this actuarial, longevity, risk and analytical work, rather than high volume member administration. The work is deeply technical, long term and unforgiving of error, which is why the talent that does it is specialist and in high demand. Building these teams well calls for specialist hiring and specialist assessment, and that is exactly where we focus, on the actuarial, longevity and risk side of pensions, the work the firm was built on.
The signature
Funding, longevity and the modern pensions centre
Three forces are reshaping pensions, and all three are deeply actuarial. The first is the growth of risk settlement and bulk annuities, as pension schemes look to secure their long term liabilities by transferring them to insurers, one of the largest shifts the industry has seen. The second is longevity, with increasingly sophisticated modelling of mortality and demographic risk. The third is funding and endgame planning, as many schemes and their trustees move closer to their long term objectives and reassess how liabilities should be managed. A growing share of the actuarial analysis behind these decisions is now delivered through specialist capability centres.
All of this is actuarial and analytical work, which is exactly where we are strongest, because the firm was built on actuarial recruitment. For pension providers, insurers and consultancies building in India, demand is rising for the scheme actuaries, funding specialists, longevity experts and investment professionals who support this increasingly sophisticated work, and that talent is among the hardest to find and the most valuable to get right.
The landscape
Where the world’s pensions work is increasingly built
India has become one of the most important places in the world to build pensions and retirement capability. Reported industry estimates describe well over a thousand global capability centres operating in India, employing well over a million professionals, and pensions, retirement and the wider actuarial world are a meaningful part of that picture. Global pensions providers, insurers with annuity and pension books, and the consultancies that serve them increasingly run scheme actuarial, longevity, risk settlement, investment and analytics work from Indian centres, not as back office support but as integral parts of how they model and manage retirement liabilities.
What began for many as administration has become something more strategic. The most advanced pensions capability centres in India now house genuine expertise: scheme actuaries, longevity and risk specialists, risk settlement and bulk annuity analysts, pensions investment specialists and the leaders who run them. For pensions businesses, the question is no longer whether to build capability in India, but how to build the actuarial and risk expertise that decides whether retirement promises can be kept.
The work
The pensions work India centres run
Pensions capability centres in India span the actuarial and analytical backbone of retirement. Much of it sits in the actuarial, longevity and risk space where the firm, built on actuarial recruitment, is strongest.
These are not junior functions. The work decides whether a pension scheme is funded correctly, whether longevity is modelled accurately, and whether retirement promises can be met. Explore the disciplines on our Actuarial and Risk pages, and our Pensions, Retirement and Investments industry page.
Why India
Why pensions businesses choose India
Pensions and retirement businesses build capability centres in India for a combination of reasons that few other markets offer together. India produces one of the world’s largest pools of actuarial and analytical talent, the very skills pensions work depends on, alongside deep experience of longevity, risk and pensions modelling. It offers the scale to build specialist teams quickly. It offers a meaningful cost advantage over established pensions centres. And, increasingly, it offers a leadership base experienced enough to run centres of genuine actuarial expertise rather than support functions. For the actuarial and risk work at the heart of pensions, that combination is the reason India leads.
The firms building pensions capability in India are varied: pensions providers and master trusts, insurers and specialist bulk annuity providers, pensions and actuarial consultancies, and pensions administrators at the specialist end. Although their models differ, they face strikingly similar hiring challenges, around actuarial, longevity, risk settlement and pensions analytics talent.
The maturity journey
How pensions capability centres typically evolve
Pensions capability centres rarely begin as centres of actuarial expertise. They tend to evolve through recognisable stages, from pensions administration and support, to pensions actuarial and analytics, to longevity, risk and risk settlement, to a genuine centre of expertise, and in time to regional leadership. Moving up a stage, especially into genuine actuarial, longevity and risk expertise, is almost always a hiring question before it is anything else.
The shift
From administration to centre of expertise
The first generation of pensions capability centres was often built around administration and cost. The current generation is built around expertise: scheme actuarial, longevity, risk settlement, investment and the analytics behind modern pensions. The challenge is no longer moving administration to India. The challenge is building the actuarial and risk expertise that decides whether pensions are funded and longevity is modelled correctly. A centre built for administration can be staffed on volume. A centre built for expertise has to be built on the right specialists, the right leaders, and people who stay.
The future
The future of pensions capability centres
Future demand is concentrating around the most specialist work: risk settlement and bulk annuities, longevity and mortality analysis, pensions investment and asset liability management, climate and demographic risk, and the growing use of data and analytics across all of it. As risk settlement volumes grow and longevity assumptions become more sophisticated, the specialist actuarial, longevity and risk talent behind them grows more valuable, not less. The centres that can attract and retain this talent will increasingly become centres of expertise rather than support functions, and that, once again, comes down to hiring.
How we help
How we help with pensions capability centres
We help in two ways. Because the actuarial, longevity and risk work at the heart of pensions is exactly where we are strongest, the firm having been built on actuarial recruitment, and India is our home market, this work sits squarely within our greatest strength.
Build or scale a centre
For pensions and retirement businesses building or scaling a capability centre, we build the team from the ground up, recruiting the anchor hires, the specialist actuarial, longevity, risk settlement, investment and analytics talent, and the leaders who hold it together.
See how we build pensions teams in IndiaGrow an established centre
For businesses with established centres, we recruit the specialist and senior talent they need to grow into deeper expertise.
Capability Build RecruitmentWhy pensions businesses work with us
Why pensions businesses work with us for India hiring
Pensions and retirement businesses work with us because we genuinely understand the work their India centres do, across scheme actuarial, longevity, risk settlement and pensions investment, because that work is exactly where our depth lies, and because our placements last. 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. For a capability centre being built for expertise in work this long term and this technical, that discipline matters more than anywhere. 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 the actuarial and risk disciplines pensions capability centres run on, and who stays closely involved in capability building engagements. For a pensions business building in India, that means a firm whose founder understands both the work and the market it is built in.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What work do pensions capability centres in India do?
Why do pensions businesses build capability centres in India?
What is pension risk transfer?
What are the hardest pensions roles to hire?
Do you handle high volume pensions administration?
Can EliteRecruitments help build a pensions capability centre in India?
Do candidates pay any fees?
Start a conversation
India is where the world builds its pensions capability
India is where the world increasingly builds its pensions and retirement capability, and building it well comes down to hiring the right specialist actuarial, longevity and risk talent. If you are building or scaling a pensions capability centre in India, or hiring specialists for an existing one, we would like to help.
Thank you, we will be in touch shortly.
Your note goes to Shagun and the pensions desk directly.