Customer Success Story
Improving Defined Benefit Administration for a Frozen Plan
Fixing pension calculation errors and service issues in a frozen DB plan
A Fortune 500 energy services company sponsored multiple defined benefit plans that were frozen to new participants as well as future participant accruals. The plan sponsor noted an increasing number of quality issues associated with participant estimate requests.
The plan sponsor suspected the administrator’s focus on calculation automation and the turnover in the service center as potential causes of many of the issues. The plan sponsor decided to look for alternatives to the traditional defined benefit outsourcing model which focuses on web self-service and banks of high-volume call-center representatives.
Shifting from a call center model to experienced, high-touch pension administration
- SBA proposed a high service, personalized approach to defined benefit plan administration
- The service center was staffed with resources who averaged 15 years’ experience in employee benefits
- Service center representatives and defined benefit specialists were located in the same office to promote communication
- SBA offered a focused approach based on personal, one-on-one service between the participants and our service center representatives
- After discussions with the client, it was decided not to set up a web self-service portal in order to encourage personalized conversations between the participants and service center resources
Enhancing the participant experience while cutting administration costs by 50%+
The approach to this project demonstrates SBA’s ability to tailor services to each client’s specific needs. Because the plans were frozen, there was no need for a heavy web self-service tool.
After more than five years, plan participants continue to report an excellent experience in dealing with our service center representatives. SBA performed these services for less than half the cost of the previous administrator.