A woman in her 30s with long blonde hair and wearing a beige rollneck jumper. She is pointing at the watch on her left wrist, and looking impatient as though she has been waiting for too long. © Adobe Stock

Actuarial Post is a UK-based online publication covering news, analysis, commentary and career opportunities across pensions, investment, life and health insurance, and general insurance. Part of Post Haste Media, the platform combines a daily news website, a monthly digital magazine and a specialist job board, publishing articles and insights from contributors across the actuarial profession for an international readership of actuaries and risk experts.

Earlier this year, the magazine published an article discussing just four of the reasons pension transfers “take forever” and offering some ideas on how to fix this.

It specifically highlighted:

  1. An outdated legal time limit for transfers
  2. Misapplication of “amber flags”
  3. Paper-based processes and legacy systems
  4. No accountability for poor performance (referring to the fact that there is no legal requirement for providers to publish their performance data)

The GBPensions team shares these frustrations. Indeed, you can hear director Tony Chamberlain talking about these hurdles (and others!) in the videos on the Home page and the Transfer Process page.

“When we tell clients that their pension transfer could take 12 months, they often stare in disbelief!” Tony says.

“The rest of the commercial world has embraced the potential benefits of technology and, not unreasonably, clients expect this to be true of the financial sector. As well as refusing to correspond with clients via email, UK providers may add further to the timeframe by sending paperwork to New Zealand by surface mail rather than by air or courier. Inconsiderate and very annoying.”

Lisa Picardo, chief business officer UK at PensionBee, is quoted in Actuarial Post‘s article. Among her comments, she notes that PensionBee, along with other well-known providers, “are calling on the [UK] Government to update the statutory transfer deadline to 30 working days. This is a clear, universally enforceable standard that reflects modern consumer expectations. Once this is in place, everything else will follow. The delivery of efficient pension transfers at scale can already be supported by the digital infrastructure that exists”.

GBPensions would welcome efforts to streamline the transfer process, while maintaining sensible safeguards. For example, the use of digitally encrypted signatures would not only be more efficient but could actually offer greater security than traditional “wet” signatures.

We shall, of course, provide any updates as and when they are announced.