Origo’s Unipass Transfer Tracking service has hit over 20,000 pension transfer searches.

After announcing the milestone, Origo has also introduced several new features designed to improve the adviser's experience of the service, following direct input from its community. The changes include confirmation of payment amount, enhanced search results, and usability. The firm has also made a series of tweaks across the service, which, when combined, aim to improve the overall user experience, making it as accessible and smooth as possible to track pension transfers. Origo CEO, Anthony Rafferty, commented: "It's great to see advisers getting so much use from our new service, demonstrating just how valuable this information and transparency are for their clients. Our goal is to ensure that anxiety regarding pension transfers can become a thing of the past. As we develop the service, it is also important that we continue listening to adviser feedback and improving, which is why we have moved swiftly to make further enhancements. We hope that advisers and their clients can feel more relaxed during the pension transfer process."

First Actuarial has added healthcare to its employee benefit services for employers.

The firm's employee benefits specialists will now help employers select and manage private medical health insurance, health cash plans and dental insurance. The launch is the latest move by First Actuarial to meet client demand for a 'one-stop shop' for employee benefits. First Actuarial head of employee benefits, Lee French, said: "With our healthcare services, our employee benefits specialists can now help clients with the full range of employee benefits – pensions, group protection services such as life assurance, and healthcare. Organisations increasingly want a small number of trusted providers with streamlined service delivery, and that's what we're providing. Employers tell us that their people expect wellbeing services, and healthcare is an important part of that. It's all part of employers' efforts to reward and retain their valued people."

L&G has expanded its private market platform with a 75 per cent stake in real estate investor Proprium.

As part of the acquisition, Proprium's management team will continue to operate independently from an operational, day-to-day perspective, maintaining its current leadership structure, teams and investment process, all of which will be enhanced by working as part of the wider Legal and General Assurance Society Limited (L&G) private markets platform. This transaction is expected to close by Q4 2025, subject to regulatory and anti-trust approvals. The move aims to bring together the complementary capabilities of the two businesses and accelerate L&G's private market growth ambitions, broaden the firm's real estate capabilities and unlock new geographies. With a target to grow its private markets platform to £85bn AUM by 2028, L&G said it was focused on maximising opportunities within real estate, infrastructure, private credit, and venture capital while strategically expanding into new global markets.

The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has published new guidance on identity management and assurance.

The guidance sets out best practices for administrators to mitigate identity-related fraud, bolster member protection, and future-proof processes in an increasingly digital landscape. It also outlines key identity interactions across the pension lifecycle that pose elevated risks, including identity proofing, verification and authentication methods, multi-factor authentication and biometric solutions. The guidance highlights the importance of tailoring identity approaches to individual scheme circumstances and working with professional advisers to manage specific vulnerabilities. PASA chair, David Fairs, commented: "Pension fraud continues to evolve, targeting people's lifetime savings and undermining trust in the pension system. With over £26bn now sitting in unclaimed or lost pension pots, the risk has never been more apparent. Strong identity management isn't just good practice – it's essential protection. This guidance aims to raise awareness of the identity-related vulnerabilities schemes face and offers practical, actionable steps administrators can take to safeguard their members and strengthen scheme defences."

The Pensions Minister has confirmed that the state pensions enquiries line failed to answer over 28,000 phone calls between February and April 2025.

The Pensions Minister, Torsten Bell, was asked in parliament by Sarah Gibson to reveal how many calls to the pension service helpline were unanswered. Bell replied: “DWP does not have a specific enquiry line called the pension service helpline, so I have provided the data from the state pensions enquiries line. Over the period 1 February to 30 April 2025, a total of 28,775 calls were not answered due to caller abandonment. A monthly breakdown shows February 6,696; March 16,960; and April 5,119. The average number of calls answered over these 3 months is 92 per cent in February, 84 per cent in March, and 94 per cent in April, against an expectation of 90 per cent. A total of 67,736 callers were on hold for more than 10 minutes, with the monthly breakdown showing February 9,082, March 51,746, April 6,908. No calls were terminated by DWP."

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