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Trustee Boards and Digital Technology

Online meeting management tools have been one of the major growth areas over the last 2 years. The range of offerings now available means that there really is an option to suit every size of scheme and trustee board. Online meeting packs make the trials of emailing an oversized email attachment a thing of the past. Plus, most portals offer an app with the ability to view the pack offline after downloading if no secure wifi is available. However, good meeting pack management is still essential to ensure trustees aren’t overwhelmed by the volume of information. Proactive management of meeting papers, executive summaries and decision trees are all part of the process for a scheme secretary. 

Choosing the right option for you

Some top tips to consider when choosing the best option for your trustee board:

What does it need to do – think about what you need the online portal to do?

  • Will it be just for the trustees to access meeting packs?
  • Is it to also be a library for scheme information?
  • Will it be your replacement for emails regarding decision making, such as member trustee discretion cases?

Consider your secure access needs 

Most, but not all, provide different access levels to be set so you can be in control of who sees what information. This can simplify an audit process where access can be granted to the auditors to collect the required documents directly. Also consider the access rights to file documents, as scheme secretary it is useful to be able to file documents, a right not always granted by in house systems.

Turbo charge your scheme library 

Having your scheme information in a library makes for a seamless onboarding process for new trustees. An added bonus of introducing a new system is the opportunity to spring clean your existing documents ready for upload. However, any online system is only as good as the filing system, not just at the outset but also on an ongoing basis. 

Think about advanced search capabilities

The ability to search for keywords within documents is a useful feature to look back to find x y or z, although it can be quite disconcerting to discover how quickly the years are flying by. Some systems can search through a variety of different images, so scanned documents, PDFs etc are all accessible. 

Think about your data security 

Data security can be enhanced as it is managed from within the portal and there is less risk of sensitive information going astray. However, it is also important to undertake the due diligence of the back office system and the data protection processes in place from cyber-attack. Not just with regards to the loss of data but also the loss of access to information. 

These are just some of the key areas we consider when working with trustees in our role as scheme secretary. What is clear is that online portals can be an important part of good governance and as ever with technology, using them to their full potential is often a work in progress.

Sandra Harvey is a pension scheme secretary with over 20 years’ experience in the pensions industry as a key member of in-house pension teams including GUS, Pearson and GlaxoSmithKline prior to joining Pi Consulting in October 2016. An Associate of the Pensions Management Institute, Sandra has researched the range of trustee portals as part of Pi’s independent analysis of trustee support developments. 

 

If you have any questions or queries about our services, get in touch with our team today.

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Contact us on 020 8879 6500 or enquiries@pipg.co.uk

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Amanda Burden

Director and Governance Specialist

Amanda is a Board Director of Pi Partnership Group and leads the development of Pi’s services. She works closely with clients, the Pi team and professional advisers to ensure all of Pi’s services meet the changing needs of the pension market and deliver clear value to Pi’s clients.

Amanda has over twenty-five years’ experience in the pensions industry and, as well as ensuring Pi’s services continue to meet the needs of our clients in a rapidly changing pension landscape, is also a member of Pi’s Executive Management Team. She provides specialist project management for clients on a range of services, including adviser selection and review, trustee board assessment and governance design.

As well as being a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and Chair of the PMI London Group, Amanda holds PMI certificates in Pensions Automatic Enrolment and DC Governance, was a past Prince2 practitioner and is a Certified Risk Management Practitioner.

What do you most enjoy about your role:  Successfully delivering complex projects and creating a happy team environment.

Interests outside work: Travel, theatre and as part of Abundance London helping create beautiful spaces in urban settings.

Top achievement to date: Competing in the 2005/06 Round the World Clipper race.