Trustees must place greater strategic focus on pension administration, Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) board director, Chris Connelly, has argued, warning that it now sits at the centre of member outcomes and scheme resilience.

Speaking at the Association of Member-Nominated Trustees (AMNT) Spring Conference, Connelly said the growing complexity of pensions regulation and service delivery meant administration could no longer be treated as a back-office function.

“Administration is now critical infrastructure for our industry,” he stated, pointing to the emphasis placed on operational resilience, data integrity and service oversight in The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR's) General Code.

Connelly's warning echoed findings from TPR's engagement programme last year, which called on trustees to treat member data as their most important “strategic asset”, after revealing inconsistent approaches to data quality.

Connelly observed that administrators faced increasing operational pressures, including systems resilience, data integrity and security, service provider oversight and technological change, while continuing to support members.

He also stressed that administrators remained the main point of contact for scheme members, meaning industry changes often translated directly into additional work for administration teams.

“Your members speak to administrators - they don’t speak to investment consultants or fiduciary managers,” he said.

Connelly also noted that members frequently asked administrators questions about decisions affecting their pensions.

Meanwhile, reflecting on PASA’s response to the government’s recent consultation on trusteeship and governance, Connelly confirmed that the association continued to support the trust-based model as a strong foundation for UK pensions.

However, he warned that administration was not always treated as a strategic priority by trustee boards, despite its role in supporting data quality, member service and scheme operations.

The board director also pointed to PASA’s new focus group examining trustee-administrator engagement, which aims to strengthen collaboration between scheme governance bodies and administration providers.

“I’d like to think of us as the people who look after the people who look after your people," Connelly said, adding that "every change in pensions ultimately has an impact on administration".

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