Trustees ‒ Administration Services
We provide pensions administration services to a wide range of trust-based schemes:
- Defined benefit
- Defined contribution
- Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE)
- Hybrid schemes
Each client has a designated administration team, comprising named individuals. This approach enables us to develop an in-depth understanding of each scheme and maintain long-term client relationships.
We will agree bespoke Service Level Agreements with clients to accommodate their varying needs. We continually work to improve our internal procedures and regularly discuss and implement possible alterations to our working practices if they will improve quality and efficiencies.
Being keenly aware of the need to be able to provide more independent verification of our quality, we have secured ISO 9001 accreditation for our administration, finance and pensioner payroll services, as well as the AAF 01/06 accreditation for our pensions administration and related IT services.
Quantum Advisory is a corporate member of PASA (the Pensions Administration Standards Association). We are committed to help improve the quality of pensions administration services and to deliver the best possible outcomes for the members of the pension schemes we administer.
Pension scams
Quantum Advisory has signed up to tPR’s pension scam pledge to help protect pension scheme members from scam activity.
By making the pledge, Quantum is committing to the following principles:
- Regularly warn members about pension scams.
- Encourage members who ask for cash drawdown to seek impartial guidance.
- Learn the warning signs of a scam and be knowledgeable on best practice for transfers.
- Carry out appropriate due diligence measures on pension transfers and fully document these checks.
- Warn members about transfers that have been identified as being high risk.
- Report actual and potential pension scam activity to the relevant authorities.
Some pension scheme members may be targeted by scammers attempting to persuade them to transfer their pension funds to “safe havens”. Fraudsters promise high returns and low risk but pension savers that are scammed can be left with nothing. To help members understand the risks involved in making a transfer, the ScamSmart leaflet on “pension scams” produced by the FCA and the Pensions Regulator can be found here. The leaflet sets out what to watch out for and the implications. Anyone can be the victim of a pension scam, no matter how savvy they think they are and it is important that everyone can spot the warning signs.
adapt
adapt is our income drawdown facility for trust-based Defined Contribution pension schemes. Developed in-house, we have the ability to tailor income parameters and underlying investment strategies to meet the requirements of our clients.
adapt enables members to:
- Stop, start, increase or reduce cash withdrawals from their pension account;
- Spread their tax-free allowance over time up until age 75;
- Continue to invest their pension fund in tax-friendly investments after they retire;
- Pass on remaining funds to their beneficiaries when they die; and
- To choose when to buy an annuity.
Furthermore, members can transfer their pension account to another pension provider at any point.
Our fees for the use of adapt are met through an annual management charge applied to assets under management. This means that trustees can offer an income drawdown facility to their members at no cost to the scheme or the sponsoring employer.
Benefit Options
We have designed a member portal, Benefit Options, which is a secure website that members can access to retrieve information regarding their pension benefits. This system integrates directly with our pensions administration system via an intermediary database and can be used for defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.
Experience shows that the use of Benefit Options delivers:
- Reduced calls on the time of HR and internal pension teams in dealing with member queries;
- The ability for the member to engage with us directly, whether that is to inform us of a change of address or to change their investment instruction; and
- Online access to member information at any time, including educational materials, payslips and benefit statements. This improves member engagement and their understanding of the value of the employer’s pension offering.