Not everything that glitters is gold! For the smaller adviser, this phrase often rings true when it comes to their book of group pension business. Decent sized schemes which start out with great promise often end up just about washing their own face when it comes to scheme revenue. The reason for this doesn’t stem from the work that goes into group pensions but rather the income that comes out.
To assess the value of any client we need to consider their life-time value to the business. Simply put, their life-time value is the average income they bring to the business, over the time they are a client. On average, individual clients have a far higher life-time value to the business than that of their poorer cousin, the scheme member. There is one very glaring reason for this - relationships.
Individual clients actively pick a specific adviser to manage their pension affairs. Scheme members don’t have that luxury. Members of pension schemes are given an adviser nominated by their employer. Before they know it, they are in a room talking about their pension affairs with a stranger they have no relationship with.
Two other factors compound this issue for the adviser. Group schemes have a very structured review process, so advisers only tend to see scheme members once a year at the renewal meetings. With the best intentions, it is difficult for the adviser to get airtime with members more regularly as this is their place of work, and any communication is channelled through HR.
Secondly, to add to this already weak relationship, the adviser passes the scheme members to an insurer Thus further diluting their brand and fledgeling relationship with the scheme members.
Advisers in the Australian market recognised many years ago that collective Mastertrusts caused a significant deterioration of their brand in the eyes of clients. Like in Ireland, the trustees of superannuation funds in Australia had an obligation to ensure that scheme members were kept informed. This was an obligation which the insurers were only delighted to accommodate, by-passing the adviser, and getting their brand in front of millions of clients every year.
To thrive with group schemes, advisers need to significantly increase the life-time value the business is earning per scheme member. To achieve this, they need to ensure they have the facility to provide low-cost multi-scheme marketing throughout the year and offer the members a proposition that will keep them engaged for life and not just for their time in that pension scheme.
PensionsVault the only platform in Ireland or the UK where clients can manage all their pensions in one place. Provided exclusively through advisers, it significantly increases their communication, brand and relationship with scheme members. It is designed so they can even include overseas benefits, helping them to see their future in a single view. PensionsVault becomes the platform of choice for employees ensuring they are always connected to their adviser, wherever their career takes them.
If you’d like to see for yourself what PensionsVault can offer. Take a free trial @centric.ie
Karl O Meara
Founder / Managing Director