Scheme administration
Our DC investment and savings platform was built inhouse and is fully customised to serve the needs of DC pension schemes. Our service philosophy is based around maximising the use of straight-through processing for bulk and repeatable processes, such as monthly contribution cycles, bulk transfers, and bulk updates of member records – all avoiding the need for manual intervention.
Your LGPS AVC scheme will be administered on our My Scheme Updates system, which achieves up-front validation to identify the target account for every payment within the contribution file. This ensures that any queries are resolved before submission and removes the need for any retrospective reconciliation of contributions.
Where contributions are paid via our recommended method of employer-initiated Direct Debit, collection takes place in three working days which includes the investment trading cycle. Money is automatically invested at this point and members can see the investment within their account the following working day.
Our specialist team in Cardiff offers support to scheme administrators, supplementing our user guides and videos. Please visit our My Scheme Updates page to learn more about our online services.
All joiner, contribution and payment allocations are targeted for completion within 24 hours. We can achieve this as a result of the validation and straight through processing within L&G’s file submission process.
Administration
Maintaining personal details
We offer two options for keeping members’ personal details up to date.
Members can update their details in their online portal, Manage Your Account, or by contacting our customer helpline.
Alternatively, a consolidated ‘HR Changes’ file can be provided from the administering authority to L&G, containing details of changes to member names, addresses, email addresses, etc.
Operational experience
The average years’ experience in the pension administration team is six years across our product range, and our staff turnover is less than 9%.
60% of all administration colleagues hold relevant industry qualifications such as those issued by the Charted Insurance Institute (CII) and The Institute of Customer Service.
Please note that qualifications are part of our Training & Competency and Routes to Progression Framework.
There is no requirement for colleagues with under 12 months' service to complete a qualification.
2Experience data as at 30 June 2024
Governance and reporting
Scheme reporting
L&G’s reporting team will produce a governance and investment report for the scheme containing an overview of the scheme’s demographics and performance. This can be supplied on a quarterly, half-yearly or annual basis as required by the LGPS administering authority.
A scheme member report, including member plan valuations and personal details, can be provided at different frequencies. This can be helpful to administering authorities where members provide their personal detail changes directly to L&G.
Key risks
The value of an investment and any income taken from it is not guaranteed and can go down as well as up, and the investor may get back less than the original amount invested.
Once L&G has received and accepted the transfer value payments they cannot be returned.
The value of the benefits payable on the member’s death may be lower than those that would have been paid under their scheme.
The value of the units which make up a member’s fund can go down as well as up, so the value of their fund is not guaranteed. It is particularly important for a member to remember this if they are close to taking their benefits.
The fund or funds the members are invested in will have specific risks. These risks are described on the fund factsheets which you can view at legalandgeneral.com/investwbop
The law and tax rates may change in the future.