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Pensions
dot com
The
competitive internet market is tightening its reins on the pensions
industry, with a greater range of products than ever before. Roger
Self looks at what’s on offer
Pension
journalists were all in a flurry a few weeks back as word spread
that the European Commission (EC) was going to get tough on member
states who put tax obstacles in the way of the cross-border provision
of pensions. Where did this come from? What’s it all about?
Those proficient in navigating the Europa website won through, but
subscribers to Perspective, the daily updated information service
provided by Pendragon Professional Information had the full text
of the relevant EC document, the day after it had been published.
It is several years now since the Aries project first got pension
advisers and administrators used to the idea of online pensions
information. Since then perhaps the biggest impact was the arrival
in November 1998 of Perspective.
The
Perspective phenomenon
Eric Wilton, joint managing director of Pendragon, explains that
Perspective is installed onto the subscriber’s network or an
individual’s PC or laptop. It is then updated daily via the
internet. If downloading directly from the internet runs contrary
to the organisation’s security protocols, as is often the case
in the public sector, updates can be installed on a less frequent
basis using CDs. All the documents on the system are fully annotated
and there are cross-links available. Users can bookmark key documents
and add their own notes, which can be private or shared. Subscribers
can also integrate internal documents such as a pension scheme’s
trust deed and rules or guidance notes into the Perspective system.
Perspective’s
most well-known feature is its time travel facility, which allows
the subscriber to view a text at the click of the mouse not just
at today’s date but also at any particular date in the past.
This is important if you want to know what the legislative requirements
were on the day a member applied for a transfer value eight years
ago.
“Our charging structure differs for larger and smaller advisers
and for pension schemes says Wilton: “If there are six or more
fee earners the annual subscription is £20,000 and for multi-site
advisers the fee is £10,000 per site. For pension schemes
the price ranges from £6,000 to £10,000 depending on
the size of the fund.” Wilton argues that these prices may
seem high on the surface but that, after taking into account the
costs of obtaining the required information by other means, “Perspective
saves organisations money”.
Perspective
seems to be doing very well. It has grown from its original eight
clients to today’s 59 subscribers and 11 trialists. “Our
strength is broadcasting rather than publishing, if news breaks
we get it to the clients. We have seven full-time editors working
on the service,” says Wilton. He has no doubts that the future
for pension information services is online. “Three years ago
we were pitching for new clients against paper-based products, now
we’re pitching against other electronic services” he adds.
Competition
is growing
Kathryn Murphy, product manager for Bacon & Woodrow’s ONLINE!,
explains that her firm has been providing online information to
the pensions industry for over five years and that during that time
the product has evolved through Lotus Notes to an internet-based
delivery system. “What makes ONLINE! different is that whilst
there are a number of sources for pensions information we include
interpretation of what is happening rather than just publishing
the pensions information,” argues Murphy. “This enables
us to highlight possible effects on pension schemes and suggest
appropriate action to clients,” she adds.
In addition to the information repository, Bacon & Woodrow offers
an e-consultancy tool called Web Bookshelf. This operates as a secure
website, enabling scheme data or client project data to be shared
with clients across the web. “Web Bookshelf is accessed by
both the client and the consultant and removes the need for extensive
filing and time spent searching for information. It also provides
full audit trails for consultancy work,” explains Murphy. The
third area is ONLINE! Investment where a number of different sources
for relevant information and services, ranging from daily news to
indepth reports on specific topics, can be found.
Murphy adds: “We now have 500 users and this client base is
rapidly expanding. We hope to be meeting the information needs of
an even wider pensions audience in the near future.” The ONLINE!
Pensions Information Package costs £300 per month and the
Web Bookshelf is £200 per month for the first user. Additional
users each pay an extra £25 per month, subject to negotiation
for larger numbers. The Investment Information Package costs £100
per month for the first user and then £10 per month for additional
users, again subject to negotiation.
Martin Lavender, online editor of pensionsPro, the new online service
from Butterworths Tolley says: “Our service forms a comprehensive
pensions information centre, offering a choice of two subscription
levels to meet specific needs.” He adds, “pensionsPro
Essentials is designed for professionals who require clear advice
on running schemes, offers expert, user-friendly guidance while
pensionsPro Premium provides additional services for those who require
more indepth legal and analytical information.” The Premium
product includes an article citatory, a service covering all the
key articles in the main pensions magazines.
There is an e-mail alert service, available at both levels, that
allows users to select topics they wish to be notified about as
soon as there are any developments in that area. Lavender also notes:
“With prices starting at £600 pa for a single user, pensionsPro
is one of the most competitively priced services currently available.”
More organisations are preparing to enter the market, very often
with a view to exploiting specialised niches in which they have
particular expertise. Esmond Lindop, publishing director at Incomes
Data Services explains that it has recently loaded onto the website
its 11 volume looseleaf Employment Law Cases for subscriber access.
“Within the next 12 months we will add the Pensions Law Report
series”. Law firm CMS Cameron McKenna launched its new po-info
(www.law-now.com/po-info) subscription service at the end of March.
This is a fully searchable site with comment and analysis on all
the key determinations issued by the pensions ombudsman. One of
the key points stressed by Mark Grant, who heads up Cameron McKenna’s
pensions ombudsman’s unit, is that subscribers using the new
service will obtain practical advice on how to avoid disputes arising
in their own schemes. The annual membership fee for po-info is £1,500
to £3,000 pa plus VAT for schemes and £5,000 pa plus
VAT for advisers. The fee includes three and a half to seven hours
of legal advice.
Information
to members
The net, of course, also increasingly serves as a means of communication
between members and their pension scheme providers. Paul Jones,
web product development manager at Profund, which has just introduced
oPen, its new admin system, takes up the theme: “I think it’s
fair to say that for most people pensions have always been an obscure
subject that they’ve not fully understood and thus taken little
interest in.
The government’s recent promotion of stakeholder is evidence
of the perceived need to address this problem, by focussing on raising
people’s awareness of their own pension provision. The pension
scheme website, by providing members with all the information they
need online, will play an increasingly important role in this arena.
It can enable members to understand the issues and empower them
to take a greater degree of interest and personal responsibility”.
Lesley Carline, marketing consultant at Lynx Heywood refers to her
firm’s AXIS Internet self-service talks of what the future
may bring.
“We have a proven internet system using real calculation and
real data. However, we see many ways of developing it further to
increase automation and efficiency. The demand for this type of
access is growing, with many people discussing the facilities as
if they were a future development but they are available now and
are in use.
However, like every one else we are still learning and experimenting
to see how far we can go with this technology. At present our clients
have chosen to allow members access to a copy of the data rather
than the live database. We expect this will change when people become
more comfortable with access via the internet,” says Carline.
–
Pensions Age June 2001–
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