LONDON, 3 September 2008 - Leading pension, benefits and HR consulting firm, Aon Consulting, has engaged with a number of leading UK businesses to gather their views on what pension schemes really demand from a pension scheme administrator and on how the administration industry as a whole can improve its standards, in the first of its Administration Service Development Forums. Key findings included the need for Administration to be a higher priority on the Trustee agenda and also that appropriate financial investment is necessary to ensure a good quality administration service. 

Aon’s Administration Service Development Forums, arranged by the newly re-launched Administration team, are designed to give businesses and clients the opportunity to air their concerns and wishes for the future of the industry. The forums are also assisting Aon to further refine their service offerings around what schemes and their members demand rather than around the industry’s limitations. Aon is actively seeking to engage with key pension specialists including employers, trustees, third-party evaluators, independent trustees and members. The administration team will be utilising the ideas generated to assist in their ongoing service development plans.

The first Forum was held on 27th August with companies such as Motorola Limited, Philips Electronics UK Limited, Liverpool Victoria, Siemens plc, Hays plc, BAE Systems, Pearson plc and Veolia Environmental UK Limited participating. Key areas for change discussed included:

• The importance of driving administration up the agenda for trustees; 
• How pension schemes must make a realistic and sustainable financial investment in order to meet member expectations through a high quality administration service;
• Understanding member expectations is key for the administration industry. In other financial services areas, there is an expectation of an immediate response, rather than in days or weeks. There is no reason that pensions should be any different. Improved automation, online member self-service functionality and Straight-Through-Processing (STP) represent key starting points in improving response times, however, the quality of scheme and member data must be improved first in order for significant changes to happen;
• The fact that, despite its value as a governance tool, the use of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) has contributed partly to administration service mediocrity by creating a “conveyor belt” mentality amongst scheme administrators. Administrator ownership, empathy and understanding of the “bigger picture” therefore needs to be improved. Third Party Administrators (TPAs) need to provide their administration staff with the necessary processes, training and career development programmes in order to help change this mentality; 
• Building positive relationships between the employer and the administrator is vital in creating an honest, open environment where the expectations of both parties are better understood. Historically TPAs have been afraid to push back, question or challenge their clients. This must change to ensure that TPAs are best placed to meet client expectations;
• The quality of output is more important than timeliness. A valued performance measure would be a robust and visible process for measuring the quality, clarity and accuracy of output (from the member's perspective). This should be provided as part of a range of performance measurement tools from which clients can select from according to individual needs and objectives. 

Speaking about the forum’s success, Colin Hamilton, commercial director, pensions’ administration at Aon Consulting said: “The forum proved to be a great success and we have been delighted with the insight gained and the quality of ideas generated. Continuous engagement with the market is central to our future development and it is therefore our intention to maintain this dialogue with key pensions’ personnel, not only through regular Forums, but also by keeping them up to speed with progress and by seeking ongoing feedback on the initiatives that are taken forward.”

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For more information contact:
David Skapinker
0207 882 0541
David.Skapinker@aon.co.uk
http://aon.mediaroom.com
 
Susie Patterson / Josephine Corbett
0207 269 7233 / 7250
Susie.patterson@fd.com  /  Josephine.corbett@fd.com
 
About Aon
Aon Corporation (NYSE: AOC) is the leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting. Through its 36,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon readily delivers distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Our industry-leading global resources, technical expertise and industry knowledge are delivered locally through more than 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Aon was named the world's best broker by Euromoney magazine's 2008 Insurance Survey. In 2008, Aon ranked highest on the Business Insurance ranking of the world's largest insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues. Aon also was ranked by A.M. Best as the number one insurance broker based on brokerage revenues in 2007 and 2008, and was voted best insurance intermediary, best reinsurance intermediary, and best employee benefits consulting firm in 2007 and 2008 by the readers of Business Insurance. For more information on Aon, log onto http://www.aon.com/.

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