Any other business: From crosswords to competitions, there are a variety of ways in which trustees can jazz up their newsletters to retired members, but how much communication with the pensioner population is actually necessary?
Once a member starts receiving their pension, trustees are still required to send them certain documents. A summary funding statement, for example, should be given to all scheme members, including pensioners.
It’s another way of creating some interaction between members and the scheme itself
Vassos Vassou, Dalriada Trustees
The Pensions Regulator states that this should normally be issued “within a reasonable period following the date by when the trustees must receive each actuarial valuation or actuarial report”.
While some trustees may choose to send out only the required information to beneficiaries, others opt for a different approach designed to inform and entertain.
Newsletters are valued by members
The Railways Pension Scheme’s biannual Penfriend newsletter, with an audio version for visually impaired pensioners, contains routine financial information and updates, such as a calendar highlighting pension payment dates.
It also includes information about broader pensions developments, and a range of other content, which varies from health and travel tips to volunteering opportunities and competitions.
The newsletter features readers’ letters, requests to trace former colleagues, and pensioners can contribute some of their work-related stories and photographs.
Stuart Mackintosh, communications and content manager at RPMI, said: “Importantly, a huge amount of the content of Penfriend comes from the pensioners themselves. We know that they have a tremendous pride in the work they did and that there is a great sense of community in the rail industry, and this is reflected in the publication.”
Mackintosh said that feedback from pensioners is used to help enable continuous improvement.
“We know from satisfaction surveys it is much-loved and valued. Looking ahead, we want to continue to ‘co-create’ content, whether print or digital, with pensioners so we know we’re meeting their needs,” he said.
Mackintosh added that there are plans to further enhance the digital offering for pensioners in the near future.
Don't forget the important things
Vassos Vassou, senior trustee representative at Dalriada Trustees, emphasised the importance of keeping in touch with pensioner members, noting that a newsletter is a good way of doing so.
The Pearl Staff Group Pension Scheme’s latest biannual pensioner newsletter includes important information alongside photographs, special birthday announcements and a crossword.
The majority of the articles are supplied by the secretary and members of the pensioner associations.
Many retirees are members of pensioner associations or groups, and some might invite trustees of their scheme to an event to explain how the scheme works, Vassou said.
While puzzles and competitions can be nice extras, “the important stuff is really around making sure that members have somewhere to go when they’ve got a question, and they know who to contact”, he said.
Some schemes, including smaller ones, provide pensioners access to a portal so that they can see their data or change their contact details. “It’s another way of creating some interaction between members and the scheme itself,” Vassou said.
Pensioners are more engaged
David Millar, head of client communications at JLT Employee Benefits, said that there are certainly benefits in communicating well with retired members.
“You want to keep their address information up to date,” and “you want to keep in contact with these people so they can tell you about any changes to their circumstances,” he said.
He pointed out that the retired population is often the most engaged.
Because pensioners rely on the income from the scheme, “people do tend to [pay] quite close attention to keeping the administrator up to speed, but any communication that you can give [that] keeps people engaged in that is really useful”, said Millar.
A good pensioner communication strategy can also come in handy when there are derisking opportunities, such as telling retired members about a pension increase exchange offer, he noted.
How can smaller schemes stay in touch?
Larger pensions funds may be more likely to be able to spend money on posting out newsletters or putting together interesting extras for retired members.
Millar suggested that smaller schemes can make use of template communications to reduce costs.
"A very bespoke newsletter may be beyond the budget of a small scheme, but a template newsletter, which can be configured to the particular scheme, may be more appropriate – an article on the importance of keeping your personal details up to date, for example, will be very similar no matter the scheme rules."
Karen Partridge, head of UK and Australia client services at communications specialist AHC, said that schemes should take advantage of the requirement to send out a summary funding statement.
The ability to send out a newsletter is “usually about budgets with the smaller schemes”, Partridge said.
However, the requirement to share certain bits of standard information with all DB members, is “an opportunity to segment your audience a bit and put in some things that might be of interest”.
