WMPF markets third-party services to neutralise costs

The £10.1bn scheme currently offers communication services to other organisations such as public bodies and employers, and now plans to broaden this to wider support services from graphic design to pensions training.

Antony Ellis, communications officer at the scheme, said it is currently identifying where future customers might come from. 

“As a local authority organisation we will need to consider who we are able to sell our services to, but ideally we would like to work with anyone who would value the services that we can provide,” he said.

“This may be from within our employer base or through partnerships with other public sector bodies.”

The scheme’s aim to market internal resources is not to gain profit, but to offset costs, reducing its administration expenditure per member. 

It has also merged its settlements and operational finance teams to form its financial services team, which collects contributions and pays pensions as well as performing day-to-day operational and investment accounting functions, according to the scheme’s 2014 annual report.

The report stated: “Over the next year, the team will support the Fund’s ambitions to market its internal resources to generate income, as well as to improve value for money through major contract reviews.”

The new organisational structure also helped reduce the average cost per scheme member to £19.21 at March 31 2014, from £20.48 the previous year. 

The organisation joins a growing list of public and third-sector organisations selling their scheme services, from administrator MyCSP, a joint state-private venture, launched in 2012. 

The Pensions Trust recently started offering a packaged service – including investment, administration and support services – to private sector clients.

Paul Murphy, head of strategy and business development, said the biggest challenge in providing communications for a variety of employers is ensuring you have the right information for each member and good-quality data.

Murphy said The Pensions Trust has a template that it uses as the basis for its communications to a variety of employers.

“What you want to try and do is standardise as much as you possibly can but still have the flexibility to [adapt] it,” said Murphy.

Karen Heath, chief engagement officer at AHC, said a scheme’s biggest challenge is going to be proving they are able to deliver the services they are offering, since a proven track record is “really important.”

This is especially the case if a provider is trying to secure business from the public sector, she said.

“People do like to [see a track record]. If they’re procuring services in the public sector this is more true than anywhere – the hoops you have to jump through to prove track record and that you are the right people for the job,” Heath said.