What TICS is: and what TICS is not

We publish TICS to provide transparency regarding our internal product development processes and to support professional advisers in meeting their regulatory research and due diligence responsibilities: but it is important that professional advisers using TICS understand what TICS is: and what TICS is not 


  What TICS is:

  • We developed TICS for internal purpose to help analyse, consider, understand – and compare – issuers / counterparties, in order to objectively identify strong issuers / counterparties in our role as an independent plan manager, able to select and deal with issuers / counterparties without bias.
  • TICS compiles multiple Factors across various Categories pertinent to analysing and considering issuer / counterparty financial strength / credit risk, using a robust methodology, including a scoring system.
  • TICS is designed to provoke and support more detailed and objective analysis, consideration and understanding – including comparison – of issuer / counterparty financial strength / credit risk.

  What TICS is not:

  • TICS is not independent research or an investment recommendation.
  • We do not provide any warranty regarding the TICS, the data, its methodology, weighting or scoring: and we expressly exclude any liability for any judgement or interpretation based upon or influenced by TICS.
  • Professional advisers should reach their own judgement of issuer / counterparty financial strength / credit risk.
  • While the scoring system within TICS ‘ranks’  issuers / counterparties, professional advisers should understand that this is not the intended purpose of TICS: the purpose of TICS is to provoke and support detailed and objective analysis, consideration and understanding – including comparison – of issuers / counterparties