Pensions data management breakfast briefing
12 October 2011 8:20AM

The importance of current, accurate data

"Poor record-keeping may lead to significant additional costs in a number of areas such as administration, error correction, claims from members, buyouts, wind-ups and, potentially, in more conservative actuarial valuations. It can also cause reputational damage." The Pensions Regulator.

Accurate and up-to-date data is critical for the proper operation of a pension scheme.   Trustees have the ultimate legal responsibility for the quality and accuracy of member records.

The Pensions Regulator has suggested that trustees ask their administrator to:

• show that the scheme's data is complete, accurate and up-to-date;
• identify what processes are in place to advise the trustees when there are data problems;
• provide an update on the state of member data, at least annually, to the trustees; and
• identify the processes in place for members leaving the scheme, including tracing lost members.

LCP's Employee Benefits Consulting practice has teamed up with John Broker, Director of ITM, an independent data management and IT specialist delivering innovative solutions to pension schemes and broad-based financial service organisations. John has over 25 years' pensions experience and is a specialist on pension data, administration and all relevant regulations. ITM supports LCP on data cleansing projects.

For more details on ITM, visit http://www.itmlimited.com

This briefing is appropriate for Chairman of Trustees, Pension Managers, Secretaries to the Trustees and employers who need to ensure that they meet the Pensions Regulator'srequirements for data quality.