The Nationwide Pension Fund is outsourcing its administration to Buck Consulting in February this year, citing ageing systems, a desire for more online functionalities and difficulty in recruiting administrators to its in-house team. 

 

The scheme of the UK building society will complete the move for its roughly 29,000 members on 21 February, when a new online portal will also be launched to replace the current one. 

 

The trustees of the £7bn fund point to systems, costs and staffing problems as reasons for the move, saying that “the systems we currently use within our in-house pensions team are getting old and need updating. Pension administration systems are extremely expensive to buy and to maintain... by using the services of Buck, the Fund mitigates the cost, both now and in the future”. 

 

Digital communication has also been identified as an area to improve, with the fund pointing to additional functionalities that will be available in the new member portal. 

 

However, staffing is also a key reason for the decision to outsource, according to the fund: “The current in-house pension team has delivered an excellent level of service to members for a long time, but over recent years, it’s been increasingly difficult to attract and retain pensions professionals of the standard we look for into a small in-house team. By moving to Buck, who provide services to a large number of pension schemes similar to ours, we’ll have access to a larger team of pensions professionals, and it allows us to benefit from the investments in their teams and training they receive.” 

 

What should trustees be mindful of when changing administrators?