The background
The trustees had lost confidence in their administrator after a number of issues had come to light – compounded by the administrator failing to rectify the issues appropriately. The final straw was when their lawyers identified a previous rule change had been not been applied correctly and benefits had to be recalculated.
LCP were appointed as the new actuary and pension administrator.
Our solution
The priority was to continue delivering a smooth service to its members, paying the benefits expected and ensuring that new benefits payments were correct. We worked collaboratively with the outgoing advisers, making sure that all the electronic and paper files were transferred.
Working constructively with the trustees’ lawyers, we agreed a pragmatic approach to recalculating the benefits of members affected by the legal and administrative issues.
We made sure that the data capture exercise was efficient so we only needed to examine each member’s file once.
The actuarial and administration team worked closely to:
- capture the data
- recalculate benefits
- check and review the calculations
- update the electronic records
- draft member communications, and
- report on the results and impact to the trustees.
Throughout we kept the trustees up to speed and obtained the necessary trustee decisions through regular conference calls.
The results
All data and benefits were rigorously checked and comprehensive electronic records established.
The trustees were confident that the legal issues had been addressed, the correct benefits paid and all the right data was in place for the scheme to be administered and valued accurately and efficiently.
Where benefits in payment had to be amended we worked closely with the employer’s HR team to deal sensitively with members. The trustees received no member complaints throughout the process.
