Spence & Partners (Spence), one of the leading providers of pensions advisory and data services to UK pension schemes, has launched PODS a new stand-alone ‘Pension Outsourced Data Service’.
PODS is an automation-led solution for defined benefit schemes with between 2,500 and 25,000 members. It will provide a range of services including data checking, data improvement, benefit audits, benefit rectification, GMP rectification and equalisation. PODS is designed to bring additional capacity to the market, particularly to schemes with a strong timebound need for services, for example as part of a risk transfer project or corporate restructuring.
Trustees and Pension Managers are facing continual pressure to get data projects completed to enable risk transfer deals and Dashboard compliance. The pensions industry has numerous competing legislative priorities, which coupled with maintaining routine services, has resulted in limited resources with relevant DB pensions experience being available across the industry. To meet this challenge, Spence’s PODS service will use the Mantle® software platform to manage the data and member calculation. This enables full outcome modelling at the touch of a button, thereby enabling trustees to see the impact of decisions on members and scheme funding.
Tom Pook, Chief Commercial Officer at Spence, commented: “Trustees and schemes are facing an ever-increasing set of obligations and time constraints as the need for data projects continues to grow. Spence’s new Pension Outsourced Data Service, using the Mantle software platform, will alleviate some of this burden. We hope that this service will improve capacity and reduce complexity within the market, and thereby improve schemes’ ability to adequately serve and communicate with their members.”
