Pension portability predicted as Logica partners with SuperChoice

Through the partnership Logica will target pension providers, employee benefit consultants and third party administrators with technology to help them enable employers to meet their auto-enrolment obligations.
Logica’s cloud-based portal is based on the SuperChoice technology platform, which provides online contribution processing systems to around 40 per cent of Australia’s largest pension providers and enables employers to enrol employees and interface into payroll systems for automated contribution processing.
The solution will be available to coincide with the earliest expected implementation date of auto-enrolment of 1st July, 2012.
SuperChoice chief executive Peter Philip says portability of pensions will become increasingly common as employees who already have a Nest account look to continue paying into it when they move employers. But dealing with two different pensions will increase complexity in the market, placing greater demands on providers’ technology.
Philip says: “Providers are in two groups – those who see Nest as a competitor and those who see it as a partner. But those that support Nest through a common front end will be at a competitive advantage over those that do not.
“Employees will be asking for the ability to pay into their Nest account in future. People will think portability is a good thing, and Nest will create a debate on scheme portability, which will lead to a debate on provider portability. We see the market becoming more complicated in future.” Allison Fower, Head of Wealth Management at Logica UK, says: “Scheme providers need a simple solution that will enable them to easily auto-enrol employees without adding further pressure to their customer’s HR and finance teams. Employers will be looking for pension providers who can make the process easier.”