Commenting, Alison Bostock, Director at ZEDRA said: “As we all know, there is a capacity crunch within pension administration at the moment, which is threatening to become a crisis. Providers simply do not have the resource and capacity to do the work that the market needs doing. The issue is across the board and certainly not within a certain type or size of provider, and this is not really something we have seen before as trustees – when something needed doing we could, in the main, just get it done. This is no longer the case and now we could be looking at a typical wait time of 12-18 months for big administration-led projects. We could speculate endlessly as to why this has happened, and certain measures are now being taken by providers – be that big recruitment drives or offshoring work – but this will take time to work through.
“Trustees are working on lots of admin projects at the moment – be that detailed data cleansing, buyout preparations, GMP equalisation, dashboard readiness… the list is endless. Boards must, therefore, think much further ahead about what needs doing and when. Get in the queue and then get ready. Make sure you know what you might be required to deliver in order for the project to start, and make sure you are ready to proceed when the administrator is ready. This will also help when slots come up early – you will be able to grab them.”
Alison concluded: “Administration has always been the crux of all schemes, albeit overlooked – get it right and things are good, get it wrong and watch the issues unfurl. It also has a huge impact on member outcomes and, importantly, member positivity and attitudes. As trustees we bear the weight of this responsibility, so planning and expanding that function is vital.”
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