It is up to trustees and their advisers to make sure the scheme into which they are considering switching has complete, thorough and up-to-date data processes.
Andy Agathangelou, founding chairman of the Transparency Taskforce, lists technology as a key criterion when it comes to switching or staying.
He says: "There is no room for complacency. New technology is coming to the market all the time, so do not allow your clients to become out of date with what is available.
"That said, do not underestimate how massive a task it is to do wholesale data transfer when migrating a scheme."
Moreover, Ms Montgomery says schemes should beware of the data risks being left uncovered by only focusing on traditional conditional data testing, because other, more significant data issues might be sitting below the surface which simply would not be picked up through a basic conditional data analysis.
She explains: "Common and conditional reporting goes some way to identifying missing data, but just focusing on this assessment can mean several more complex associated problems are missed as a result of historical administration processes."
She highlights some of these issues:
- Administrators have created non-standard data fields which cause items to be held in abstract fields.
- Dependent records are sometimes not linked to the original deceased members.
- Valuable data and benefit information is not clear, but stored in notes fields.
She states: "We regularly encounter these bigger problems with data as part of our scheme transition projects, and they come as a surprise to many trustees as they were given a clean bill of health from a conditional data analysis.
"Since it is now more widely recognised that good quality data is key in improving service to members, the time is right to take data quality interrogation to the next level."
Mr Green offers another practical comment: "It is crucial to understand who owns the existing scheme and client data.
"If you are switching to a different pension provider, you must ascertain how easy it is to get access to the data which you have accumulated over the past three or so years, as this will be needed to meet regulatory duties.
"This would be particularly relevant when understanding which employees have chosen to opt out."
Mr Daems adds: "While middleware played a significant role in the early days of auto-enrolment, we have seen payroll software providers and bureaus improve their propositions.
"This is why we are seeing fewer employers switching pension scheme during this re-enrolment period, but many are looking at their systems, processes and software to see if they can manage auto-enrolment more effectively."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
