Pension Administration System

Each Employer can belong to one or more of the three categories of Master Trusts (i.e. OPS, PFS or GPPFS) but to only one in each category. All Employees must belong to the Master Trust that has been signed up by the Employer. Every Employee selects one of the Investment Funds (Growth, Income, Balanced or Default) at the time of registration forms. The total amount of money in all the various Master Trusts, broken up into each of the four Investment Funds shall constitute the Total Secure Pensions Trust Fund.

The percentage of the total fund in each of the four investment fund types is derived from the number of employees from all the various employers that opt to belong to that investment fund and their contributions. This varies as more people sign up for each investment fund or leave the investment fund. People can move to a different investment fund only after a period of two years.

Each custodian can be set up with one or more specific external fund managers who manages only one asset class each by default. The asset class and percentages allocated to each fund manager by the custodian shall be set up at the time of registration of the custodian by pension trust.

At the end of the month, each Custodian can update the Fund Balances on the Trust System via web portal. This includes details of dividends, commission charges, brokerage charges, and any other charges or gains. The updates are at the detail of the Custodian/Fund Manager/ Asset Class.

Once the new balances have been entered onto the Trust System, the system needs to update each member’s account (each employee’s contribution account) and recalculate the unit value of each of the various investment funds from each Master Trust Scheme for each member. For each type of dividend or charge, the system must apportion equally to all members of that particular fund. Hence the Net Asset Value of each Fund can be recalculated at the end of each month after all of the custodians have updated the fund balances and each member’s account is also updated.

Once monthly contribution payments have been made, The Trust can then apportion the payment to all employees. If the payment is short, then each employee's contribution amount paid is less than what is expected. For payments that are late, there is a penalty of 3% which accrues. We need to keep track of expected contributions, actual payments for contributions, penalty accrued for each month, and penalty payments received. All these amounts are apportioned to each employee’s account of the Company in question, who are in effect members of the scheme.

Details of expected contributions, payments, penalty payments, and penalty accruals, brokerage charges from the fund managers, commissions, bank charges, and dividends, etc. needs to be maintained in a ledger. Any financial activity that occurs from managing the fund and administering the pension trust has apportioned all employees belonging to a Master Trust Scheme and we have to maintain this detail of account for the employees who are contributors of the various schemes. We should be able to add new charge types at any time.

If an employer decides to move to a different Pension Trust, the system will transfer all of their employee’s data to the different pension fund with all the details. Likewise, if a new user signs on a new company, the system will import all the data from whichever Pension Trust they come from.

Biometric data is collected by visiting employers’ sites at some point while the employees are registering. The Trust signs on employers who in-turn views that all their employees all register online. The employer is responsible for checking that the data provided by the employees are accurate and complete. So once an employee has completed the online form, the employer has to validate the biodatas like names, dates of birth, etc. The employer should however not be able to see the choice of Investment Fund of the employee or the list of beneficiaries. The employer can then electronically sign and stamp the employee’s registration form.

The system provides an interface to the NPRA for a full audit of the system and process. NPRA members should be able to view member’s account details, fund type details like monthly contribution additions, dividends, charges, surcharges, penalty accruals, penalty payments, etc. Users should be able to select the filters and output parameters to generate the ad-hoc report.