Ian Farr, a 20-year veteran in Watson Wyatt's benefits consulting team and outgoing chairman of the Association of Consulting Actuaries, where he has been a high-profile advocate of hybrid pension schemes, is to retire at the end of this month.

Farr, 59, has been actuarial adviser to some of the UK's largest pension funds, Watson Wyatt said, but has been stepping back from scheme work for the past year and handing over relationships to other staff at the consultancy.