Pension Lab has completed a successful pilot showing that technology already used for pension and investment transfers can also validate Letters of Authority (LoAs) and return selected information through structured digital responses.
The fintech is now calling on pension providers, platforms, wealth managers and technology firms to extend their existing open standards transfer infrastructure to LoAs - helping reduce delays, manual administration and uncertainty for advisers and their clients without requiring providers to build a new system or join another network.
The pilot used Discovery Messages, a capability unique to open standards transfers, to check information against provider records, validate or reject requests and, where systems are integrated, return selected information within seconds.
Open standards transfer service levels require responses to Discovery Messages within two business days. Where organisations have integrated systems, however, responses can be returned within seconds.
Applying the same capability to LoAs could give providers a faster and more consistent way to validate requests and return information.
Today, LoA requests reach providers through multiple inboxes, in different formats and with varying levels of information. Teams must identify and route each request, validate the client’s authority and supplied data, compile the response and send it back - creating avoidable manual work for providers, uncertainty for advisers and longer waits for clients.
To help overcome the LoA frustrations, costs and inefficiencies, Pension Lab is urging the industry – including 150+ organisations already using open standards transfers - to extend their existing transfer technology so that:
Providers benefit by having fewer inboxes, faster validation, reduced manual work, instant LoA validation, and faster initial responses.Advisers benefit by having their LoA request confirmed within seconds, quicker success or missing info alerts, fewer follow-ups, and ultimately improved transfer success.Clients and consumers benefit by having faster, better, more transparent advice and decisions.The market benefits by using existing and cost-effective transfer technology built on established, interoperable infrastructure rather than another proprietary route to help solve LoA frustrations.
Scott Phillips, CEO and founder of Pension Lab, said: “There is a real irony here. When using the right technology, transfers can be completed in 6 to 10 days using open standards. Yet the Letter of Authority - often the essential first step in that same journey – can be slower, more manual, and so frustrating for all parties involved.
“Our pilot has shown that the Discovery Messages used in open-standards transfers can help tackle the LoA challenge without providers needing to rebuild new or replace existing systems. Instead, they can rely on a proven infrastructure that supports interoperability and competition.
“For providers already using open-standards transfers, LoA validation and selected information responses can happen in seconds. That matters because providers spend valuable time sorting genuine LoA requests from speculative or incomplete ones. The Discovery Message can help check validity earlier, reduce avoidable manual work and make responses more consistent - one of the clearest examples of how open standards can make LoAs work better.”
Howard Finnegan, Director UK Product Sales for Equisoft, said: “Open standards already do the heavy lifting in transfers, and demand is growing as the industry looks for scalable answers to challenges such as small pots and master trust transfers.
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