As I write this article, the FTSE has had the longest stretch of positive runs since the bottom literally fell out of a pants – as my son would say – market.

However I cannot help but think, as [German writer] Bertolt Brecht once said, ‘What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?' We have been focusing our concern on the size of the hole in our pension funds rather than flavouring the cheese itself. 

The recent market conditions have undoubtedly blown a sandstorm over all of our mandate structures. And, unfortunately, sand has that wonderful characteristic of getting into places where you neither want it or, indeed, need it. Thus we are all a little uncomfortable – again, as my son would say, pants!

In order to avoid any storm, one needs three simple skills – pace to outrun it, flexibility to bend in it, and strength to stand strong in it. And these factors need now to influence our mandate structures.

At Croydon, we have recently restructured our mandates. Nothing unique in that, but we have modelled our structure to weather future storms, which is, perhaps, unique. Instead of appointing single managers, we have appointed a first and reserve team for each of our asset classes, to give us flexibility.

Our structure allows us to move our market exposure to assets quickly, has given us pace, and finally, with our overarching TAA mandate, we give ourselves opportunity within the entirety of our fund to achieve improved performance – giving us strength.

There is a Chinese proverb which states, ‘He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever'.

Worth taking five minutes to ask whether your fund is fit to weather the storm and keep the sand out of your pants..

Nathan Elvery is deputy chief executive, and executive director of resources and customer services at Croydon LBC