Smart Pensions head of operations Michael Watkins has been named as the chair of Pensions Administration Standards Association’s (PASA), newly formed DC Governance Working Group.
The independent pensions administration body has today announced the 15 members of the new group, which has agreed six initial areas of focus – data; employers and trustees; transitions; decumulation; reporting/controls and procedures. It wants to create meaningful standards and guidance that will be applicable across the entire DC universe.
The group expect to publish their initial findings in Spring 2018 and will develop a set of standards and guidance to support administrators, employers and trustees across DC pensions administration.
The members of the group are:
- Michael Watkins – Smart Pensions
- Andy Cheseldine – Capital Cranfield
- Stephen Coates – JLT
- Ben Cocks –Altus
- Lucy Collett – PASA
- Kim Gubler – PASA Board Sponsor
- Graham Hollands – Fidelity International
- Rosemary Lacey – Royal Bank of Scotland
- Richard Moody – Association of Professional Pension Trustees
- Doug Peters – Barnett Waddingham
- Jayne Pocock – JLT
- Mike Reid – JLT
- Karl Richter – ITM
- Gillian Rodger – Hymans Robertson
- Lucy Stone – The Pensions Regulator
Kim Gubler, board sponsor of the group and deputy chair of PASA says: “PASA’s long term objective is to achieve a consistently high standard of pensions administration for every single member, no matter what kind of scheme they are in. With DC clearly on the rise, it is important that we are equipped to handle the wealth of challenges specific to these kinds of arrangements. Clear and meaningful administration reporting is essential to the success of DC governance, not just the administrator, but many employers and trustees – particularly those in group DC arrangements – struggle to define their responsibilities in this sense. The members of our working group bring rich and diverse perspectives from across the entire industry and, as such, are uniquely placed to address these complexities and ensure that nothing slips through the gaps.”
Watkins says: “This working group presents a great opportunity to bring in and consider different opinions and experience as part of a wider industry discussion. We’re looking to raise standards by making recommendations around data presentation and collection, straightforward employer guidelines and a full toolkit to ensure that governance and trusteeship is not over-complicated and therefore appeal to a much wider, more diverse audience that better reflects those they represent.”
