Last month we took a look at a ‘day in the life of’ one of our consultants, Chris Marsh. This month, we introduce you to Matt Bagguley, who works as part of the business support team in our corporate pensions division.
8.30am – The usual 8.30 start in the office. My first job is to consult my diary and action two fund switch requests. I write to the client with a view to gaining authorisation to submit the fund switch request.
Being responsible for the administration of one of our corporate pension schemes I inform my contact in the client’s payroll department of a couple of changes that need to be made for individual employees. It’s always important to contact the company in plenty of time, prior to payroll being run.
I check-in with my four team members and talk about what we have planned for the day. A priority is to work on completing annual review packs for members of a pension scheme. This involves reviewing each employee’s plan and compiling a detailed pack relevant to their personal circumstances. We each take a selection of member files to work through.
The collating of the packs involves obtaining the annual statements from the pension provider and reviewing any external arrangements with other providers. I also include some useful information about pensions and tax arrangements. All this will equip the consultant with the relevant information required to undertake the annual review with their client on a one-to-one basis and answer any specific questions relating to their individual circumstances.
11.00am – On checking my emails I see I’ve just received a request to set up a new joiner in a pension scheme. I take a break from preparing the annual review packs and phone the provider of the pension scheme, requesting an update to their records. On average we have five new joiners per month per scheme and it’s really important that all details are recorded accurately.
12.00pm – I spend the next hour prior to lunch processing various bits of paperwork. We’ve recently won a new scheme and some of the work I undertake involves moving employees to a more modern pension arrangement. I need a keen eye for detail in this job as it’s imperative that the individual member’s pension transition is as seamless as possible.
2pm – After my lunch, I spend an hour going through my emails. I’ve received several requests from payroll departments requesting confirmation on how much an individual member should be contributing to their pension. It’s a really good feeling when you can provide a good service to clients and give them the information they require quickly and accurately; the benefits of modern technology!
3pm – It’s now back to processing the annual review member packs. It’s really important that the packs contain all the information the client requires to give a comprehensive update of their plan.
They often have questions they need answering, so it’s important the consultant can accurately reference the facts and figures from the pack in the meeting.
5pm – Just before close of play, one of our consultants has just returned from a client meeting and has a number of actions to be completed off the back of his meeting. He asks me to scan the client’s annual statement and log it against their account record – this simply tells us that the consultant has reviewed the statement with his client and there are no further actions.
5.30pm – I have a quick check of tomorrow’s calendar and organise the outstanding client files on my desk before heading home and then off out for a game of 5-a-side.
