Dashboard innovators ‘constrained by environment’

The transaction had not quite freed him from the need to continue working, but did afford him the option to pursue roles that fired his interest. Despite falling into pensions almost by accident, he kept coming back to administration.

Mr Sturgess is now a managing director of benefits at RPMI, the provider of the Railways Pension Scheme, and has just taken on an additional role as board director at the Pensions and Administration Standards Association.

At PASA, he hopes to improve the pensions delivery infrastructure, which tends to lag 10 to 15 years behind technology advances. Often taken for granted, the nuts and bolts of administration are set to attract increased scrutiny in the coming years.

Administration quality undercut by price war

Mr Sturgess is honest about the past standard of the administration sector, but is equally keen to stick up for it on recent improvements.

Confronted with the assertion last year by the Pensions Regulator executive director David Fairs that “any man and his dog could set up a pensions admin outfit in his garage”, he counters thoughtfully.

“Certainly, there were no barriers to entry. I am not sure that is the case now if you look at market behaviour. Barriers are not low for master trust entry,” he says.

“Pensions admin is getting progressively better as people devote more attention to it. The level of professionalism operating in that space is better. There was a period when the pensions industry commoditised pensions admin, and that led to very low costs and very low delivery.”

While this improvement is, of course, welcome, Mr Sturgess cautions against overreach by regulators keen to boost standards.

“There is a balance to be struck on regulation. We don’t want to lose innovation and creativity,” he says.

Single dashboard would have been simpler 

If administration’s past has been dotted with cautionary tales, its future holds promise: the pensions dashboard perhaps holding the answer to the elusive engagement.

Mr Sturgess cautiously welcomes its development: “Defined contribution engagement with the dashboard is relatively straightforward. How defined benefit schemes engage with the dashboard is much harder to see at the moment.”

On the decision to allow multiple dashboards created around a central architecture, he holds similar reservations: “I understand why it has happened, but that makes the ambition of the pensions dashboard much harder to deliver.

“There are some really first-rate people working on the pensions dashboard, but they are constrained by the environment. Bearing in mind my background in pensions delivery infrastructure, I have concerns over whether it will deliver its objectives practically,” he adds.

Mr Sturgess plans to stay at PASA for four or five years, modestly saying “for so long as I am useful”.