The Year of the Transfer
Transact is calling 2023, amongst other things, the year of the transfer as improving your transfer experience is one of our top priorities this year. We have already made great progress. Since the start of the year, we have reduced the average time to complete a transfer in by three days, we have saved 14 days on manual cash transfers and we have saved 17 days on manual in specie transfers. This is fantastic news, but we know we can do even better and here are some of the initiatives we are working on to improve further.
Transfers Specialists
Each Client Services team has a dedicated transfer specialist. They focus only on transfers so their knowledge and understanding of the processes is excellent. Transfers are complicated, so these specialists are key to managing them for you and delivering our best service possible.
Rejections Management
When a transfer is being submitted electronically it may be rejected. Managing transfer rejections is essential to speeding up transfers. The transfers specialists aim to resolve all rejections on the day of the rejection receipt. Some can be dealt with by us, but we do need your help to resolve others. Two common rejection reasons are:
- ‘Wrong provider’ – this occurs where the ceding provider has multiple entities to choose from, so checking the account number format guidance on TOL is crucial. We aim to make this guidance more prominent in the coming months to help you.
- ‘Wrong account number’ – sometimes client account numbers are provided (which can relate to multiple polices), but it is the client’s policy number that is required. As above, the account number format guidance we provide may help you identify this in advance of submitting the transfer.
In order to help avoid multiple rejections, please ensure that the client’s policy number is provided and compared against the account number format guidance provided on TOL for each transfer provider, to ensure you have selected the correct one.
Transfer Report
We hope you are pleased with the new Transfers Report. It’s a good way of showing transfers underway and their current status. In due course, we will enhance the report to include more transfer updates and better tracking of transfers versus their average completion time.
Transfer Types
There are different types of transfer. Whether a transfer is cash or in specie, and electronic or manual will affect your and your client’s experience. One example is manual pension transfers (i.e. providers not on Origo, or out-of-scope policies such as Section 32s). These manual transfers often require a provider-specific discharge form that must be signed by the client before the transfer can proceed.
Transfer Providers
Ceding providers must also up their game. We are working with ceding providers to improve communication channels. For example, if they cannot send/receive instructions electronically, we’ll ask them to accept email copies instead. The last resort is sending original instructions via post, which can be slow.
We’re also monitoring average completion times by provider, so that we can contact outliers and work with them to improve transfer times.
Transfer Deposits
Electronic transfer deposits have been credited into clients’ wrappers automatically (requiring no human intervention) for some time, and we have just introduced the same functionality for manual transfers. This enhancement automates one step of the manual transfer process, and we’re looking for more process improvements all the time.
To summarise, we are confident that the proactive initiatives we are taking to improve the transfer journey for our advisers and their clients will continue and we look forward to updating you on our progress in the coming months.
1. Introduction
2. Transact Online (TOL) – Recent Enhancements
3. The Year of the Transfer
4. Consumer Duty & Cash Interest
5. How to Make Your Business as Fit as a Fiddle
6. Share Class Conversion
7. Transact- BlackRock MPS Update
8. Adviser Succession Planning
9. Strategy Changes for Pension Planning Following the Budget
10. Fund Changes
11. Interest on Cash Deposits
12. Transact Events 2023