ISSUE 1
August 2026
Brightwell’s Exclusive Journal for Trustees, Schemes and Sponsors
IS PENSIONS ADMINISTRATION HAVING ITS CINDERELLA MOMENT?
The next generation of pensions administrators
What members are really telling us
Pensions dashboards: beyond compliance
FOREWORD: WHY ADMINISTRATION MATTERS MORE THAN EVER
For decades, pensions administration has been treated as a necessary but undervalued function: essential, but rarely strategic; critical, but seldom celebrated. Trustees and sponsors have focused on cost, service levels and compliance, while investment strategy has claimed the spotlight. That balance is shifting.
The forthcoming launch of pensions dashboards, the priority placed on clean data for buyout transactions and fast-evolving member expectations are forcing a more fundamental reassessment of the role administration plays in delivering good outcomes. Administration is no longer simply about processing benefits accurately and on time – it is central to trust, confidence and the credibility of the pensions system as a whole.
This first edition of DB Decoded explores whether pensions administration is finally having its “Cinderella moment”: emerging from the back office and into the strategic foreground. Drawing on perspectives from across the industry, we examine what has changed, what still holds administration back, and what trustees, providers and policymakers need to do next.
At Brightwell, we believe that well-run administration is not about cost but value. Best-in-class service to members has been something we’ve focused heavily on for a number of years. We are proud of our award-winning administration team based in Chesterfield and of our technology capabilities, which we’ve developed in partnership with Procentia – a business we acquired in 2019.
As the line between administration, technology, governance and member experience continues to blur, the quality of administration will increasingly determine which schemes – and which providers – are able to keep pace with change.
Simon Langworthy
Chief Administration Officer, Brightwell
Why does administration matter more than ever?
Can we build the next generation?
How do we turn policy into delivery?
What are members really telling us?
Can dashboards deliver more than compliance?
BRIGHTWELL HAS INVESTED SIGNIFICANTLY IN PENSION ADMINISTRATION OVER THE LAST 10 YEARS WITH A FOCUS ON PENSIONS TECHNOLOGY.
See Good administration, the backbone of pensionsWHY DOES ADMINISTRATION MATTER MORE THAN EVER?
Pensions administration has long been seen as the unglamorous, back-office function of the industry. Yet, as I have witnessed throughout my career, its role is absolutely critical, not only to the smooth running of schemes but to deliver confidence in the pensions system and deliver good service to members.
In the past, parts of the pensions industry have lagged the rest of the financial services sector when it comes to innovation, but times are changing.
Brightwell has implemented a fully online retirement journey and, in other parts of the industry, benefit statements are being delivered by avatars, and artificial intelligence is being used to triage workflow and onboard new clients. Both at the front and back end, technology is transforming the landscape. However, this progress is not universal. Some administrators still struggle with incomplete paper records and outdated systems. The question remains: why aren’t more schemes investing in digitisation and automation
Brightwell launched a fully online retirement service in May 2024, and this forms a core offering for all our clients. See Stepping up digital services with fully online retirement
The answer often comes down to cost. Trustees have historically focused on the price of administration rather than the value it brings. Yet, as regulatory pressures mount and member expectations rise, this approach is no longer sustainable. The pensions dashboard, for example, is a game-changer. It demands complete and accurate data, and it will drive greater traffic to administrators. Without digitised records and automated calculations, schemes will find themselves running ever harder just to keep up, risking errors, inefficiencies, and ultimately, member dissatisfaction.
The risks of outdated systems are manifold: inefficiency, increased errors, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and higher costs. But perhaps most importantly, they threaten the very sustainability of pension schemes in this digitised world. As the dashboard comes online, those who have not invested in modern administration will struggle to survive.
Regulation has a role to play. Some schemes, such as defined contribution master trusts, are already heavily regulated, with requirements to demonstrate robust systems and processes.
Accreditation, such as that offered by the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA), aligns closely with the regulator’sexpectations and should be a benchmark for all administrators. However, regulation must be proportionate. Rather than imposing heavy new burdens, we should focus on plugging the gaps and ensuring that all schemes meet minimum standards.
Trustees and sponsors too must shift their focus from cost to value and member experience. Administration should be seen not as a blocker, but as an enabler of strategic value. Good administration supports better member outcomes, enables innovation, and ensures schemes are resilient and future-ready.
Finally, we must address the talent pipeline. Administration today requires skills in technology, project management, and communication. By investing in training, like Brightwell is doing with its Pensions Academy, and promoting the varied and rewarding nature of the role, we can attract the next generation of administrators.
In my view, pensions administration is finally stepping into the spotlight, moving from the back-office shadows to become a genuine driver of value for schemes and their members.
Listen to David talk more about why pensions administration is stuck in the past, and what needs to change, on Brightwell’s Pensions Unpacked podcast: Episode 4: Why is pension administration stuck in the past and what needs to change?
David Fairs
Chair, Pensions Administration Standards Association
Read this article if:
you’re concerned about the future talent pipeline in pensions administration
CAN WE BUILD
THE NEXT GENERATION?
Well-trained, highly competent pensions administrators are the bedrock of well-run pension schemes.
For pension scheme members, having queries handled in a timely, professional and empathetic manner is imperative. If your frontline administration team isn’t up to scratch, it’ll show up clearly in your member satisfaction scores.
However, good administrators with modern skill sets are hard to find. Increasingly, administrators are being asked to combine technical expertise, digital capability, regulatory understanding and customer-centric thinking. Yet the industry has historically struggled to attract, develop and retain people with these skills.
In addition, there has been a historic and sustained under-investment in pensions administration, which has eroded the service provided to pension schemes, and the ability to attract talent.
Additionally, systems with limited automation or data integrity often rely on senior and experienced administrators as controls for manual processes or calculations, and these administrators, who first started working in the 1980s to early 2000s, are now coming up to retirement and exiting the market.
With the dense agenda of change on the horizon for pensions, for instance, pensions dashboards, there is ever-increasing demand for good administrators and increased competition over a diminishing talent pool.
This is where structured learning and professional development matter. Modern pensions administration cannot rely solely on experience gained over time. It requires deliberate investment in training, technology fluency, and career pathways that recognise administration as a profession in its own right.
The Brightwell Pensions Academy was established to address exactly this challenge. It offers people with no background in pensions a formal programme of technical training, pensions knowledge and on-the-job training. It runs for 12 months with a‘graduation’ to pensions administrator.
The Academy training is a blended learning programme, combining classroom learning, hands-on experience, and work-based practical training.
The practical training guides all academy administrators through the core administration processes, including data, bereavements, transfers and retirements.
The classroom training is delivered face-to-face by a dedicated training team, who have the qualifications and experience to provide assurance on technical content. The classroom content interweaves both professional qualification content (through the Award in Pension Essentials and Certificate of Pension Essentials qualification sets) and training material applicable to the relevant pension scheme(s), including scheme rules, benefits, calculations and communications.
All of this is underpinned by soft skills training and regular networking to incorporate the group into the wider business. Communicating with empathy, active listening and problem-solving are key. Administrators are often supporting people through significant life events such as retirement, bereavement or ill health, so the ability to explain complex information clearly and respond with understanding is just as important as technical accuracy.
By building these skills from the outset, we help create well-rounded administrators who can deliver both excellent service and positive member experiences. To support knowledge retention, we have integrated knowledge-retention AI software into the wider competency framework to embed learning. This ensures that learning doesn’t stop in the classroom.
To date, nearly 100 people have participated in the academy, with almost half recruited from the 18-24 age group.
While many graduates have remained in administrator roles, a number have gone on to develop their careers across the wider business, including roles in business change, administration systems, payroll, finance and communications. This breadth of progression underlines the Academy’s role not just as a route into pensions administration, but as a foundation for diverse career pathways built on strong technical knowledge, operational understanding and transferable skills.
FOR PENSIONS ADMINISTRATION TO REALLY CEMENT ITSELF AS A CORE FUNCTION, THE INDUSTRY MUST TREAT PEOPLE CAPABILITY AS STRATEGICALLY AS SYSTEM CAPABILITY. Without skilled administrators, even the best technology will fail to deliver.
DELIVERING SYSTEMIC CHANGE IN PENSIONS CANNOT BE DONE BY REGULATORS, POLICYMAKERS, OR TRUSTEES ALONE. IT REQUIRES OPEN, FREQUENT AND EARLY COLLABORATION ACROSS THE INDUSTRY.
HOW DO WE TURN POLICY INTO DELIVERY?
There is no shortage of ambition in the pensions industry. Policy direction is clear: better outcomes for scheme members, greater transparency, stronger governance and a more digital, future-ready system. The harder question is how those ambitions are translated into delivery.
Pensions administrators, software providers and digital infrastructure partners sit at the very centre of the pensions ecosystem. They are the point at which policy either becomes reality, or quietly unravels.
Collaboration is no longer optional
Delivering systemic change in pensions cannot be done by regulators, policymakers or trustees alone. It requires open, frequent and early collaboration across the industry. Too often, engagement happen slate, once requirements are fixed and delivery timelines compressed.
The most encouraging signal is that this collaboration is starting to happen more often. Conversations between policymakers, administrators and technology providers are becoming more practical, more grounded, and focused on outcomes rather than theory.
Technology as an enabler – not a shortcut
Artificial intelligence and automation are frequently presented as transformative solutions for pensions administration. Used well, they can be powerful: improving efficiency, enabling better member journeys and helping administrators manage growing demand.
BUT TECHNOLOGY ALONE DOES NOT SOLVE STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS.
Discussions I’ve had with others in the industry highlighted that enthusiasm for innovation must be matched with robust governance and strong guardrails. AI can enhance decision-making, but only where data is reliable, controls are resilient, and accountability is clear. Without that foundation, digital adoption risks amplifying existing weaknesses rather than fixing them. Technology should therefore be seen as an enabler within a well-governed system – not a substitute for investment, skills or oversight.
The hidden cost of under-investment
One of the most striking themes is how normalised underinvestment in administration has become across the industry. For years, cost pressure has driven administrators to operate with fragmented systems, fragile processes and degrading data quality. Those compromises rarely cause immediate failure. Instead, they create bottlenecks that only become visible when demand increases – through dashboards, higher member engagement or regulatory change.
In that sense, today’s delivery challenges are often the result of yesterday’s under investment. The industry is now seeing the consequences: strained capacity, operational risk and increasing difficulty meeting new requirements at pace.
Reframing value: from cost to resilience
If administration is to remain centre stage over the longer term, the way value is measured must change.
A shift is needed — away from minimising cost and towards maximising resilience. That means evaluating administration not just by outputs (volumes processed, turnaround times), but by outcomes: data quality, member confidence, system robustness and the ability to adapt to change.
Administrators who can articulate that value clearly — and demonstrate it credibly — will be best placed to support schemes through the next phase of transformation.
A turning point for the system
The pensions sector is at a genuine inflection point. The direction of travel is well understood, but the success of that journey depends on delivery.
It is about recognising that durable reform relies on collaboration, governance and sustained investment in the operational foundations of the system.
If those elements come together, administration will help define what the future pensions system looks like.
BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) : CASE STUDY
WHAT ARE MEMBERS REALLY TELLING US?
Member satisfaction is a key metric for all pension schemes, but the question of how to measure it is less clear.
Some schemes rely on a single member satisfaction survey carried out annually, but this has limitations. Not all members respond, and inevitably it’s the more engaged members that do participate.
In 2021, Brightwell launched a new administration platform and BTPS member portal built on Procentia’s IntelliPen system.
Rather than relying on a single satisfaction score or annual survey, Brightwell has developed a layeredinsight ecosystem. As regulators and government increasingly expect the industry to deliver a good service, multi-faceted insight will become increasingly important. Feedback is captured at multiple touchpoints: at interaction level such as after calls or portal visits, at journey level following case completion, and at relationship level through an annual survey. Each layer acts as an early warning system for the next, allowing issues to be spotted and addressed before they escalate.
Crucially, feedback is not viewed in isolation. Member responses are combined with operational data, benchmark comparisons, and colleague insight to create a full picture of the member journey: what was attempted, through which channel, whether it worked, and how it felt. This allows teams to move beyond asking what happened to understanding why it happened and what should change as a result.
The focus is deliberately outcome-based. Short, targeted questionnaires are used to maximise response rates, questions are aligned across channels, and surveys are designed to ask only what Brightwell doesn’t already know from existing member or journey data. Today, this framework generates around 50,000 pieces of member feedback each year, providing a constant flow of insight into lived experience. With such a wealth of data, decisions can be data-based, demonstrating strong governance, which is becoming increasingly important as regulators and government focus on pensions administration.
BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) : CASE STUDY
Turning insight into tangible improvements
Insight only matters if it leads to action. To support this, space has been created in existing governance forums – and new ones introduced – to ensure insight is discussed, challenged and acted upon. Teams are encouraged to investigate known issues, but also to follow the data where it leads, uncovering “unknown unknowns” that traditional reporting might miss.
This approach has delivered tangible results. Over recent years, BTPS has sustained improvements in member satisfaction, alongside strong performance against independent benchmarks. The Scheme has moved from below median to leading its peer group in large defined benefit service quality measures, demonstrating that insight-driven improvement can deliver results, even in complex environments.
Importantly, improvements are not focused solely on efficiency. While automation and digital journeys – such as online retirements launched in 2024 – have reduced friction for many members, they have also freed administrators to focus on moments that matter most: supporting members approaching retirement, helping families through bereavement, and recognising vulnerability when it arises. This reinforces the importance of omnichannel service, where digital options expand choice rather than replace human support.
Raising the bar across the wider industry
BTPS’s approach was recognised in 2025 with the award of Institute of Customer Service ServiceMark accreditation, achieved at the first attempt – an outcome fewer than 400 organisations have reached.
INSIGHT CONTINUES TO SHAPE THINKING AROUND FUTURE SERVICES…
The assessment benchmarked BTPS not just against pensions peers, but against organisations across financial services and beyond, reflecting the reality that members compare experiences across all aspects of their lives, not just within pensions. Insight continues to shape thinking around future services, from supporting an increasingly mature membership to exploring digital services for next of kin, alongside robust protections for vulnerable members. In a sector facing structural change, rising expectations and increasing scrutiny, insight is not a reporting function – it is a strategic capability.
CAN DASHBOARDS DELIVER MORE THAN COMPLIANCE?
For trustees and pensions professionals, pensions dashboards are no long era distant policy ambition.
The first publicly available pensions dashboard will be on the MoneyHelper website, and with connection deadlines set and regulatory expectations increasing, the issue is no longer whether pensions dashboards matter; it’s whether schemes treat them as a narrow compliance exercise or as a chance to improve data, governance and member engagement.
Pensions dashboards are designed to give savers a secure view of all their pensions, including State Pension information, in one place. For many people who have built up multiple pensions over time, this should make retirement savings easier to find, understand and manage.
That ambition is about more than convenience. It is about visibility, stronger saver outcomes and bringing pensions administration into a more transparent digital environment.
Why dashboards should not be viewed as a technology project
Pensions dashboards should not be seen as just an IT project. It is a governance, administration and member outcomes issue. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has made clear that trustees remain responsible for compliance, even where delivery is delegated to administrators or third parties. Outsourcing work does not remove accountability.
In practice, pensions dashboards should be a regular trustee agenda item with clear reporting on readiness and operational impact. Schemes that plan early for how administration and member support will work after connection are likely to be in a much stronger position than those that only focus on the deadline.
Data quality is where the realstory begins
The real test of dashboard readiness is data quality. Pensions dashboards can only work if schemes can match individuals at scale and return information that is accurate, complete, timely and understandable. This makes pensions dashboards a catalyst for tackling long-standing data weaknesses, not simply meeting a connection requirement.
A scheme may be technically connected, but still struggle with incomplete data or weak identity controls. If a saver sees only partial results, they are unlikely to distinguish between a dashboard issue and poor scheme data. From their perspective, the system has failed.
Trustees who improve core data, define clear matching criteria and adapt verification processes for a post-dashboard world are not only preparing for dashboards; they are improving the scheme’s wider administrative resilience.
Better visibility will raise member expectations
Pensions dashboards are often described as a find-and-view service, but it will also raise member expectations. Savers are likely to ask why values differ, why one benefit is estimated, or why a pension they expected to see is missing. The schemes that perform best may be those with the clearest support and communications after members view their data.
That means preparing plain-English communications, contact centre scripts, escalation routes and complaint processes in advance. In the short term, better visibility may drive more enquiries, not fewer.
Identity theft in the post-dashboard world
Pensions dashboards will also change the identity theft risk landscape. The issue is less about creating entirely new fraud and more about making existing threats such as phishing, impersonation and account takeover more targeted and convincing.
Confidence in pensions dashboards will depend on strong identity controls, secure data handling, multi-layered ID verification and authentication and ongoing member education. Trust and security will matter as much as convenience.
From regulatory deadline to long-term value
The key point for trustees is that pensions dashboard readiness is not a one-offregulatory hurdle. It should be viewed as part of a longer-term operating model that links compliance, better administration and improved member experience.
Trustee boards should ask whether dashboard readiness aligns with administration strategy, whether they have the right reporting on data and matching risk, and whether they are prepared for the member experience after connection, not just the act of connecting.
Schemes that take this broader view will do more than meet a deadline. They will help create a pensions system that is easier to navigate, easier to trust and better suited to the expectations of modern savers.
Disclaimer: The information provided was correct as at 2 July 2026 and BTPSM trading as Brightwell shall be under no obligation to notify you of any changes to the information or otherwise to update the information after this date. It is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer, recommendation or solicitation to buy securities or derivatives products. Any reliance you place on this information is at your own risk. The investment strategies that BTPSM trading as Brightwell use are subject to normal market fluctuations and the risks associated with investing in international securities markets. Therefore, the value of investments can go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount invested.