Licensed trustee to improve pension scheme

Accra, May 29, GNA - Universal Pensions Master Trust (UPMTL), a licensed trustee, said it was ready to provide unparallel pension trustee and fund administration services to individuals and corporate organisations, under the Tiers II and III Pension Scheme.

Mr Alexander Oppong Gyimah, Head of Operations for UPMTL, said the company would offer Ghanaian workers in the formal and informal sectors retirement planning solutions.

“We are committed to helping employees and workers save for their financial future needs while at the workplace. In so doing, we will deliver solutions to employee members that allow them to develop a plan to meet their retirement objectives.” he told journalists in Accra on Tuesday.

Mr Gyimah said the UPTML retirement strategy took into account individual's time-to-retirement and the attendant risks so as to deliver tailored advice, eliminate unnecessary risk and ensure the best possible outcome for retirement goals.

He said: "We believe in forging strong and long lasting relationships and partnership with our clients. Our customer-centered approach to service provision enables us to achieve our clients' objective as we are able to understand the needs of our clients better,"he said.

Mr Gyimah said efficiency in scheme administration was the cornerstone of corporate pensions with the aim to reduce cost of administering the various schemes while maintaining strong compliance infrastructure for clients at a highly competitive cost.

He said the company's sophisticated fund administration software was designed to ensure automated pensions calculations, electronic document management, integrated workflow and case management, end-user reporting, online member access, web browser for users, integrated finance and cashbook functions, integrated telephony-call logging and integrated SMS and email generation.

Mr Gyimah encouraged employers and employees in both public and private sectors to use UPMTL fund administration arrangements because of its reliability, specialist staff, established working relationships, improved cost control and reduced management time.

He said the specialist technical support, stringent regulatory compliance, financial strength and robust governance framework put the company far ahead of the competition in the choice for a Corporate Trustee and fund administration company.

Mr Gyimah said the new pension law, National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766), required all trustees to implement adequate internal controls to identify and mitigate risks to their schemes.

Some of the biggest risks impacting on the management of schemes are investment strategy compliance with legislation, non-compliance with scheme risks, contributions paid in line with schedule, performance of scheme advisors, security/accuracy of data, administration errors, conflicts of interest and fraudulent claims.

Mr Gymah said as trustees, UTML had put in place robust mitigating systems and controls to minimize the said risks.

“We monitor performance of investments, hold regular trustee meetings, regular employer covenant reviews, regular review of Statement of Investment Principles, record risks and controls on register, undertake trustee training, undertake regular compliance audits and reports for third parties, do regular review of scheme rules, do system recovery of scheme advisors, undertake data cleansing exercise, record and review breaches and a key personnel risk review,” he said.

GNA