APTIA PENSIONS ADMINISTRATION POD EPISODE 5 

John Wilson, Head of Pensions Technical, Aptia 

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Aptia Pensions Administration Pod. Today we're going to talk about an important subject that is getting more and more attention, and that is the evolving relationship between pension scheme trustees and their administrators. At Aptia, we've been saying for some time that pensions administration has come to the forefront of pensions delivery, but the relationship between trustees and their administrators often shows little change since administration was still in the background. 

So today we'll look at why we need a new closer relationship between administrators and trustees, where it's working and where there's room for improvement, and what each side can do to make the relationship more effective for schemes and their members. I'm joined today by two of our portfolio owners, David Hepplewhite and Karen Scott, who recently spoke on this subject at a Pensions Management Institute 

David Hepplewhite, Portfolio Owner, Aptia 

Hello, John. 

Karen Scott, Portfolio Owner, Aptia 

Hello, John. 

John 

Thanks both. OK, let's get started. Let's start by discussing what the old trustee- administrator relationship was like and why things need to change. Karen, do you want to kick off on this one? 

Karen 

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm really passionate about pensions administration, and I feel that in the past the value of the administrator hasn't really been recognised to the level it should be. Many schemes’ priorities have changed, from BAU admin to wider strategic priorities. And I think the view that pensions admin is a back office function is out of date now. I feel that the relationship between administrator and trustees really needs to move with the times. I also have a really strong view that both the title, pension administration, for the business and pensions administrator for our team members just doesn't reflect any more the complexity and specialism of the two rules. Administrators play a pivotal role in all aspects of a pension scheme, whether that be BAU admin, which is arguably the most important part of our job –paying people the correct benefits at the right time – or the myriad of project work that trustees now need. 

My teams will often say to me “All roads lead to admin, Karen” because no matter what the subject is, whether it's BAU, GMP equalisation, de-risking or Barber equalisation, just a few examples, your administrator is not only involved, but we're a really crucial part of the team. 

I speak to loads of trustees who say that they measure whether admin is good by the number of complaints they receive, and that means that if it's quiet, admin must be good and it's sometimes really, really hard to get compliments and often they have to be dragged out at meetings. Yet administration is the crucial link to everything. I mean, our technical experts are dealing with thousands of complex cases day in, day out, and it’s really welcome that the Pensions Regulator and the government are now recognising the importance of trustees and administrators working closely together. 

If you look at the general code, the regulator calls out as crucial clear accountability, evidence of clear governance and process, data quality and cybersecurity, and importantly, putting the interests of the members first. The regulator has also stepped up its engagement with administrators in 2024 and published a market overview report in September 2025 that stressed the importance of trustees and administrators working closely together. What they actually said, and this was TPR’s David Walmsley, was: “Exceptional pension admin demands significant investment. Trustees and administrators must work together, driven by a shared purpose, to address the challenges ahead.” And I couldn't agree more. We know also that the government's taking a great interest in pension schemes and Torsten Bell said only in October 2025: “Too often companies focus on cost rather than member outcomes. Pensions administration does not get enough space, and it really does matter.” So I guess what's driving this new belief in the importance of administrators, and I agree with my team, is that all roads lead to administration. 

Administration does need to be key strategic partner for many reasons such as data management when we hold and manage the data that underpins all schemes’ activities and ambitions and strategic pressures. Buyout and de-risking need administrators at the heart of the transaction and that's right from the very start. When we look at demographics, there are now more pensioners than children. Baby boomers retiring means schemes’ purpose is increasingly retirement transactions, member experience and rising expectations. 

We as the administrators are the people members deal with every single day and now some want a digital experience and some want to talk to somebody. You know, we really have to step up and meet their expectations as the absolute expert in this field. 

So what does that mean on a day-to-day basis? I really believe we should be using tech to automate and giving members self-service. And that's not just for the really big schemes; I think that's for all schemes. We need to invest in our people for the times that require a human touch. Tech and automation end to end is really good, but we still need a human. And those humans have got to be incredibly technically proficient. You know, trustees often tell us that their members are not tech savvy and they're nervous about offering digital and automated services. But our own experience shows that the majority of members want to speak to us digitally, and if you think about it 10 years ago we were all doing banking on a website rather than an app. Now we wouldn't dream of that and we all use an app. 

I would love it if trustees could be more open to these innovations and, crucially, help us develop these. Administration, as previously said, needs to be funded at the right level. I think as administrators we’ve been trying to make all of these points with success in some areas, but not all. What we need is all trustees to work with us closely and appreciate the value of their administrator and the complex world of pensions administration. 

John 

That’s really insightful, Karen. Thanks for that. As schemes begin to consolidate and mature, our industry is just becoming more and more about pensions delivery. And the focus is more and more on what we do here at Aptia. On the governance and management of the pension scheme, we've looked at why administrators are now at the heart of trustees’ responsibilities and goals and their importance to the ultimate beneficiaries as well. But let's turn now to what needs to change for the relationship to meet all these new demands, David. A lot to unpack here. Would you like to take this one? 

David 

Thank you, John. I actually come from a consulting background. Most of my career has been involved in acting as a secretary to the trustees or a consultant to the trustees. I moved into administration last year and I've seen first hand the level of technical expertise that is required to administer a pension scheme successfully and how much investment is needed to meet the rising expectations of members, trustees and the regulator. And I've also seen how underappreciated administration can sometimes be.

Often it is assumed by those who've never had to undertake, say, a retirement or a transfer value calculation, that it's easy to do, and I certainly recognise that myself from my years in consulting, that perhaps I had an oversimplistic view about what administration involved. And certainly joining Aptia has opened my eyes to just how complex it can be, and this is something that interesting: the regulator has recognised and it's been doing a lot of work reviewing the state of the administration market in the UK. In September it published some interesting insights into its findings, and one of them that struck me was that it said that: “As the market evolves, trustees must take greater responsibility and accountability for driving up administration standards in line with the fiduciary duty to their schemes. While trustee boards are becoming more professional, a lack of understanding of administration appears to persist amongst some trustee boards.” And the regulator goes on to say that such knowledge gaps could lead to undervaluing the service and poor oversight. 

Ultimately, putting member outcomes at risk, trustees should treat their administrator like any key adviser, involving them in regular meetings and including them as part of operational and strategic decisions. Certainly in my experience, for many years of attending trustee meetings, the administration section of the meeting would typically last for 30 to 45 minutes and in many cases would involve a review of the last administration report by the quarterly or half yearly, a review of any member cases that required noting for the record, and perhaps a discussion about any forthcoming events such as pension increases or future member contribution and communications. And even those schemes with an administration subcommittee would tend to look at process rather than considering administration in a strategic context. 

I believe, and again my experience has borne this out, that trustees need to value administration to the same degree as they do for other services such as actuarial, legal and investment. Regardless of the direction of travel for a particular scheme, the role of the administrator in helping to shape the strategic plan has never been more vital and I see this focusing on a couple of areas in particular. One is business as usual and the other is projects, and I think Karen mentioned earlier that business as usual is why we're all here. It's paying benefits correctly and on time. That's our fundamental role and aligned to that is delivering great member experience and that's understanding the needs and requirements of members and changing delivery models to reflect these. 

And as Karen also mentioned earlier, we live in an age now where there are multiple channels with which we can engage on all aspects of our lives, our finances. So why shouldn't pension schemes follow that as well? And also fully integrating administration into the wider governance model, especially given the own risk assessment and ESOG requirements that trustees now need to comply with. 

A particularly good example is cyber. The one party crucial to formulating the plan as to how data is protected and in dealing with a cyber incident (and I would add that given how clever criminals are, the trustees should consider the when not the if as regards cyber) our role is vital in that area and our input is often not obtained until late in the day, if at all. 

The number of projects within pensions over the last two to three years has increased significantly. We've got GMP, we've got data cleanse, we've got de-risking, and we've got dashboards. All of these projects are now a key part of what trustees need to consider and to deliver, and I have seen in the past, and indeed still see even to this day, administrators are often excluded from early conversations about projects. 

Most, if not all, projects will rely on the scheme's data and will probably require changes to that data – and therefore engaging with the administrator at all stages of a project is, in our view, crucial, vital, essential to the success of the project. If we use buy-in as an example, and again I've seen this in the past in my consulting life, often you would use the valuation data extract to obtain a quote from the insurance market and that actually would be used to go ahead and execute the deal. What you then found is that when the insurer selected got involved in the data, the valuation extract was seen as not sufficient to provide a viable way of the insurer confirming the true premium, and therefore that involved a lot more work than would otherwise have been the case if a more reliable data set been used. We know that insurers are raising the bar much higher now in terms of the quality of the data presented to them by schemes seeking to do a buy-in and a good recent example of that is a client of Aptia’s, Ford. 

They've recently completed another buy-in. They've been doing buy-ins over the course of the last few years and they recently completed one, which to them was very, very important because of the size of it. And Denise Fisher, the Ford pension manager, has provided the following quote. She said: “Aptia has participated in all working group meetings. They were completely engaged with the project. They understood the bigger picture and were therefore ready for every task that required their input. They provided data extracts for the insurer, answered numerous data and benefit queries, conducted marital write outs, and contributed to the production of benefit specifications. The result has been a tremendous success. Aptia has played an important role in a significant transaction for schemes that they look after and care about.” 

And Denise also mentioned separately that they did a previous buy-in where they didn't involve Aptia earlier and they found that the project was not as successful. And so that's a really good example of where engaging with the administrator as early as possible increases the chance of the success of whatever project is being undertaken.

 John, does that help answer that? 

John 

It does – a great example, David, of understanding the importance of the administrator and deepening the relationship and really timely as well with the Pensions Regulator, just having issued new guidance, consolidating all its administration expectations, and also introducing some new elements which include some around IT and performance measurement. But are there things we administrators can do to make all this happen? 

David 

There are. It's a two-way relationship and I think we recognise that we need to adapt and fulfil our side of the bargain. We need to be more responsive and I think we also need to be more flexible. Perhaps in the past we've been too rigid around process and not looked at the outcome that we're trying to achieve, and therefore focus on outcome rather than purely process. And we need to be clearer and more proactive about what we can offer. Often we've got lots of really exciting, innovative things that we can do, but we don't actually tell people about them very often. 

We do need to be better at managing expectations, I think particularly with projects where perhaps we'll say “Yes, we can deliver this next month” when we know we can't, but we feel we ought to say we can and I think we need to be better at saying to clients: “We can deliver it, but it will be in this month not that month.” We also need to work more closely with the other advisers and to be more confident in suggesting solutions rather than simply follow what we've been told by their advisers. And we've seen this with GMP equalisation and particularly the implementation of equalised benefits that perhaps we have not challenged the views of other advisers, when perhaps we feel there's a better solution, but we've not felt comfortable or confident in raising that. And I think we absolutely do need to do that more and in doing so we demonstrate our technical skills and our expertise. 

Karen Yeah, that’s right. 

David 

So that we are regarded as equal to the other advisers. And I think, John, it really makes the point for me as a former consultant that administrators should act as consultants and not just processors – and when I joined Aptia, I said to my team we need to be consultants in data management and member experience. 

John 

Absolutely, David. I think we've got so many indicators in terms of how administration is becoming more and more of a profession. Now, one of the key reasons behind the increasing importance of what we do here at Aptia and administration in general is of course data. Maybe Karen, you can talk a little bit more about the importance of data and the role of administration. 

Karen 

Absolutely, it’s one of my key subjects and I feel really passionate about it. David mentioned earlier about some of the services that we can offer as an administrator, but perhaps don't shout about very much and it's all related to data. 

Our size means we have data from millions of members and policyholders that we can use to improve the service that schemes offer – so common retirement ages, common query patterns, predictable data gaps, all can be used to improve planning and communications. 

If you look at population insights, for example, you know, as I said, we've got 5 million members and policy holders in administration and we can observe patterns that trustees just cannot see on their own. You know, we can look at all their data and we can look at what age do people retire? And if you think about targeting members, if you looked at a traditional pension scheme with an NRA of 65, you might think we need to help members plan for retirement maybe one or two years before 65. But one of the insights that we can see when we look at the data is actually by that time most members have already taken the benefits. There's a big spike at age 55 and that drives the communication strategy for trustees that actually should be communicating with members from age 55 onwards: 55 to 60, not leaving it till 65. Now, if we didn't have all that data and those insights, then we wouldn't be able to look at this community application strategy. But we would really, really like to work with trustees to help them with that. And if we think about when we're supporting vulnerable members, when we spun up our portal contact app to Your Pension, we made an assumption that a bereaved family member would actually prefer to talk to a human rather than to use a portal. Now experience has shown, and we only know this because we measure the analytics, that actually bereaved families prefer to use a portal. I'm guessing it's a difficult time and it's easier to do something digitally than it is to speak to somebody, and as a result we changed our behaviour and our offering and we put together a very specific bereavement journey that really helped families. Whereas without the analytics, we would assume it was all going to be telephone calls. 

And then when we look at that channel behaviour, it's really interesting because nearly all queries arrive by the phone or the portal that I just mentioned or email. Postal queries are about 10% and falling, so if we look at that member behaviour, that's shifting and that cohort that we talked about earlier that trustees felt that older members didn't want to interact digitally. Well, actually, I would challenge that. I'm probably going to be put myself in that bracket of older people and I definitely want to transact online. 

So with all that data, should we not channel that, should we not work with trustees in terms of cash flow, member behaviour? And then if we link that together with more automation that allows faster validation and quicker processing, which inevitably leads to fewer errors and more personalisation for members for things like personalised video benefit statements, then I think we’re in a really great place. And we as administrators would love to be on that journey with trustees. Does that answer John, where you were coming from? 

John 

It really does. These are exciting times. And I think with a message that it's technology and AI with administrators and not technology and AI instead of administrators. Now it just seems clear that we need a new culture of collaboration now between the pension scheme trustees and their pension scheme administrator, so maybe David, I could turn to you and try and sum up where we are now and where we're headed as well. 

David 

I think where we where we are now reflecting back over what I've seen over the last say 10 to 15 years, particularly with the way the regulator has been focusing on its role and improving member outcomes, that I can remember when the emphasis was very much on getting scheme funding improved because 10-15 years ago, a lot of schemes were in serious deficit positions and the regulator was keen to make sure that there was going to be enough money to pay benefits when they were due. And I think as we've seen over the last few years, they've had a great deal of success in that space given the number of schemes that are now in a very strong funding position. And now they are turning their attention to perhaps an area that has been overlooked, which is the quality of the data. So there may be enough money, but are we sure we're paying the right benefits to the right people? So I think there is a definite shift in attitudes towards paying attention to the data and the real member experience, particularly as many of us now, are enjoying what I would call the Amazon experience, where we can get things quickly and we don't have to wait. We're all becoming a little bit more impatient. And of course we want in our world to give members that experience and it's trying to get them to that point. 

I think there is a definite shift, but there is still a lot more to do and some of the practical steps that I think you know we as an industry can take. One is that administrators attend the entire trustee meeting. By hearing what's going on more generally, we will be able to add our voice and contribution regardless of what the scheme is looking to do, because most of the things that are discussed will at some point relate back to the data or to the member experience. I also believe that member experience and member engagement needs to be a standing item on the agenda of every trustee meeting because this gives the opportunity to constantly review how it can be enhanced and improved and to give the administrator the opportunity and the time to discuss initiatives and improvements which the trustees can then promote and get behind. A good recent example of that is Karen mentioned our Contact Aptia Pensions website. We've created some really good things that members can do on that website, one of which is that they can actually complete their retirement forms online so they don't have to complete a paper form. They can go through the whole process. They can include their bank account details and they can be verified. We're one of the only administrators or the only administrator at the moment who actually offers that functionality. It means the member doesn't have to send any forms in. They can complete everything online and it will then put their pension into payment. 

Now when I demonstrated this to a particular board of trustees, they were amazed. They were absolutely delighted. But I had to force the time on the agenda to be able to show this to the trustees rather than sending them a document to read. It was actually saying: Give me the time and it will give you the opportunity to look at something that will help your members. 

And from that, I think trustees must understand what their members want and base their strategy on member engagement from that, rather than making assumptions about what they think their members want. You know, Karen mentioned earlier that often it's assumed that older people are not technically or technologically savvy. Well, actually, I would beg to differ. I think more and more of us are becoming more comfortable with the ability to do things for ourselves without having to send forms in or wait for forms to come in the post. And indeed in its recent survey, the regulator has also made the following comment: “Administrators and trustees need to prioritise investment in technology, systems and data for the purposes of improving member experience, drive value through increased automation and digitisation, and strengthen operational resilience.” 

The regulators have got one eye on the pensions dashboard, which of course comes up in the next year, as part of their reason for pushing this. And I think more generally we see ourselves moving from a transactional relationship with trustees to a strategic one, and by having regular engagement outside of trustee meetings with the trustees and with other advisers, we are then party to the broader plans that the trustees are looking to execute. We can help them develop a joint communication plan for better member engagement, we're involved in the key projects that the trustees want to enact and we are genuinely part of the advisory team. 

There's more work to be done by us as administrators and by trustees to, if you like, break out of the traditional roles that developed over the last 30 to 40 years that I've been in industry. But I think we've got a lot of positive stuff we can do to work together to improve the outcome for the members that we serve. 

John 

Couldn't agree more, David. As we've alluded to throughout this podcast, we really are entering the age of administration and I think based on everything that's been said by you and Karen, the future for trustees and their administrators through collaboration is looking bright. So thank you both very, very much for being with us today. 

Karen 

Thanks, John. You’re welcome. I really enjoyed talking about my passion, which is pension administration. 

David Thanks, John, for having us. 

John 

Thanks again. I'm sure this is a subject we'll be taking a lead on and no doubt we will return to in the new year. We hope you found this episode interesting and useful. Do please get in touch if you'd like to discuss anything that we've talked about. In the meantime, if it's not too early, I'd like to wish everyone the best for the festive season and a Happy New Year from everyone at Aptia when it comes. 

Please remember that the information shared in this podcast is, of course, for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial or legal advice. Always consult a professional for guidance on pension related manner matters. 

Thank you all.