Are you trying to juggle too much at once as a Pension Administrator?

Pension administrators have a lot of additional projects to be considering at the moment such as GMP equalisation and the Pensions Dashboard and it is important to stay on top of changes whilst also juggling your everyday work.

Trustees and scheme sponsors should be providing assistance in supporting the ever changing processes for pension administrators. By including pension administrators in decision making, it allows agreed timescales to be realistic and achievable. This enables all parties to reach goals to help pension schemes.

There is a high need to be flexible for individuals in different job settings to work together to achieve the best outcome for its pension scheme members. The reliance cannot be placed on one department as the work will not be completed. As a Trustee you want the right pension administrator for you.

The additional projects administrators are currently facing are not quick fixes and will require the right allocation of resources to be provided over a long period of time. There is a shortage of staff in the pension administration industry and it is important to plan for at least two years in advance for the potential new work to be completed to ensure you can maintain a high service level and in turn not affect your pension scheme members and their day to day needs.

Could you be investing in automated processes which reduces the requirement for manual input? This would then only require a manual check and review to be performed as the main bulk of the work has been previously completed automatically.

As we have seen recently, pension administrators are not only facing the risk of large projects but there has been a significant threat on the data they hold and are liable to cyber attacks. This leads to additional work being required, delays to work being performed and a lack of trust that members data is safe. This highlights the importance of having enough resources to tackle ad hoc issues when they occur.

You need to invest in all levels of staff to ensure they remain working within the pension industry and have the experience to provide specialised expertise for these additional projects.

Consider all your options to have the right team supporting you.

If you need assistance in ensuring your additional project is running in line with your expectation, then get in touch and we can help perform Agreed Upon procedures work.