A revolutionary step in longevity risk measurement was unveiled last night with the launch of Club Vita, the first dedicated longevity comparison club for UK pension fund trustees.

The launch follows a highly successful pilot completed this autumn with participation from some 100 large workplace pension schemes. The three-month pilot resulted in one of the largest, most rigorous research studies into the impact of longevity on occupational pension schemes.

Key findings from the pilot study:

• Life spans are improving by two more years each decade
• Top longevity influencers are lifestyle, gender, affluence, location, occupation
• Lifestyle contributes more to longevity than any other factor except gender
• Improving life spans cost pension schemes some £10bn each year

Nick Flint, Chief Executive of Club Vita, said:

“Longevity is one of the biggest risks facing pension schemes today. Although trustees can’t change this, they can certainly monitor and manage it more actively than before. Economic conditions are weakening and interest rates have fallen to their lowest in decades. For trustees, this means longevity has become more expensive. Club Vita gives pension schemes an early-warning system to avoid unpleasant surprises. By investing in twenty-first century tools, trustees no longer have to put their faith in heroic assumptions.”

Douglas Anderson, founder of Club Vita, said: 

“Club Vita uniquely combines statistical analysis with access to expert opinion in related fields, including medicine and ageing.  It is a longevity experience-sharing club, enabling trustees to see the trends emerge more quickly. Our data pool already has more than 11 million years of life and records of 400,000 deaths, with access to a rich range of new longevity predictors including lifestyle and salary. The pension schemes in our pilot have now received their analyses. The enthusiasm for converting this initiative into an ongoing club is really heartening.”