In the last edition of Pensions News we highlighted how Standard Life’s group pensions technology was going from strength to strength.

Proof of this came in October when our group pensions’ technology offering was awarded the highest possible rating by the Financial Technology Research Centre (FTRC) - the ‘eee+’ e-excellence rating.

Commenting on the award, Ian McKenna, FTRC Director said:
“The E-excellence ratings were extended earlier this year to include the eee+ designed to identify those services that really stand out from the rest. The benchmark was set so high that it was not expected any provider would achieve this.

Building on what was already an impressive offering for their group personal pension and group stakeholder services, Standard Life has proven the exception and is the first provider ever to achieve a eee+ rating for e-commerce.”

So what services and enhancements have we recently introduced to improve the offering?

Retirement Planner
Our retirement planning tool has been designed to help prospective pension customers view the income they might receive on retirement based on the payments they want to make against their desired income on retirement. The tool then shows any shortfall between the two retirement income figures and allows the customer to view the affects of increasing their payments on the shortfall identified.

Automatic registration to employeezone
We’ve made it even easier for new joiners of group schemes to access their plan information online. Once they join the scheme the employee is sent a user ID and password to allow them to access our online services.

Redesigned employeezone
We’re committed to designing our sites based on feedback from our customers and in response to comments we receive on our employeezone we’ve taken steps to make the site really easy and simple to use. The new layout and navigation allows the employee to locate the plan information they’re looking for quickly.

E-excellent for other pension products
Our e-commerce capability is not just focused on our group pension products, we’ve also been consistent with other pension products and been awarded E-excellence ratings for these as well;

For SIPP we have moved up to an ee+ rating, for annuities we’ve been awarded an eee and for Income Drawdown we have been given an ee rating.

These ratings reflect our ongoing commitment to developing our e-commerce proposition to meet both you and your clients’ needs.

Links to other newsletter stories

The Cutting Edge with John Lawson

60 Seconds

The most efficient way to take a pension income?

Inheritance tax on death during ASP

Ongoing debate about ASP and religious groups

Offshore bonds and pensions

Contracting-out: Standard Life's view

With profits review programme

Client letters - pension age change

Growing demand for retirement planning advice

Useful links

• Past Performance Summaries
• What Funds Where?
• Tech Zone
• Press Releases and other news
• Adviser News archive

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