Marek Handzel talks to Duncan Howorth, CEO at JLT Benefits Solutions, about the firm's plans for the future

JLT has twinned its personnel growth plans with recent investment in technology, in order to meet the growing DC challenge.

This has not only meant greater administration business growth thanks to Profund, but also the development of BenPal, an integrated benefits management system, which clients on HACL's books will now benefit from too.

"BenPal is a piece of technology that largely presents information that could be held elsewhere - it could be in DC scheme, GPP, group life assurance, and acts almost as a portal, telling you what your benefits are," says Howorth.

"We launched that last July and we're finding that it's of great interest, particularly to technology companies, who don't like things that come with forms and paper."

Perhaps more importantly, given all the clamour around member engagement in DC, BenPal is specifically built to almost force a member (through a series of risk-profiling questions) to actively choose a fund, even if it is the default, rather than simply falling into it.

JLT's acquisition of wealth manager Iimia was a move prompted somewhat by the growing erosion of generous tax relief on pensions contributions for higher earners.
"What we're finding from our higher earners is people saying 'help me with this new (tax) conundrum'. So we feel it's important to have a capability to respond to that."

JLT felt for a while that it needed to have a bigger capability in financial planning, claims Howorth, in order to be able to provide a holistic money wealth management service.

"We can now take clients through the organisation of their money from a tax perspective; where they should be investing from a risk perspective; and we now have a discretionary manager to help them through the process and report back on a regular basis," he says.

SPC
Aside from growing the JLT brand, Howorth is still blowing the trumpet for the industry in his role as president of the Society of Pension Consultants (SPC).
Now in the last quarter of his term in office, which he says has "flown by", his concentration remains on ensuring that the SPC does not lose its influence or voice at this crucial time.

"Our focus is on trying to influence the next government of whatever colour it may be, and our key message there will be 'deregulate where we can'. Pensions is overly complex and over-regulated."

"It's time to make some public statements about how daft some of the rules really are - anti-forestalling is a classic example. At the SPC we've always been keen to work behind the scenes, but sometimes you have to do more lobbying."

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