Meet the team: Transfers
For information
This month we meet James Cull and his team who look after transfers in and out of the Scheme, cash payments and divorce quotes.
What team do you run?
I run the Transfers team. The main purpose of the team is to process the transfer of member’s benefits in and out of the scheme.
Can you tell us what you like about working at USS?
The people are definitely the best thing about working at USS, coupled with the ambition to be the best at what we do. It’s a challenging and focussed atmosphere to work in.
Tell us about the role of the Transfers team, what do they do?
We administer transfers of our member’s pension benefits in and out of USS.
We provide the initial transfer values for divorce purposes. The team are also looks after ‘cash payments’ from USS Investment Builder, otherwise known as UFPLS, an option members have from age 55 no matter what their status in the scheme.
It is important that members are informed about the risks involved in transferring-out and that we carry out the relevant due diligence when proceeding with a transfer to make sure that they’re transferring to a legitimate scheme.
Who is on your team?
My team consists of an Assistant Team Manager, Carol Gillies and eight administrators: Iain Bailey, Harriet Solheim, Thom McCaffrey, Sarah Bazley-Harrison, Daniel King, David Jaques, Olivia Cox and Will Anderson.
The team are focussed on providing an efficient service whilst ensuring that the legislation and industry best practices are adhered to.
What's a typical day like for you and your team?
A typical day starts with the team huddle so that we can manage our workload and the team can discuss any issues from the previous day.
We prioritise the new transfer-in cases as we adhere to a three working day SLA. This includes writing to schemes for information or to chase payments and liaising with the Investment team to reconcile any transfer payments received.
Then focus switches to the transfer-out and divorce cases which involve more technical calculations and in the depth due diligence should a member have accepted a transfer to another scheme.
The team also handle any calls from members, schemes or IFAs throughout the day.
What difficulties do the team have to help members overcome when transferring their pension?
The main frustration that members share about transferring benefits from one scheme to another is the length of time it can take for the process to be completed.
To mitigate this for transfer-in processes we have reduced the SLA to three working days for each stage that we look after.
Pension scams are a real danger for members so when they elect to transfer-out we explain that the due diligence checks can take time.
We work in partnership with employers, do you have any special requests of our clients to make our processes work even more smoothly?!
Our team tend to deal with members directly as transfers-in all now go into the USS Investment Builder and transfer-out requests usually come from deferred members.
There is a lot of information about the type of benefits that can be transferred in to the scheme on www.uss.co.uk including the forms needed to start the processes. It’s helpful to direct members to this information when they join the scheme so they can assess their options. This could be important for members that are planning on moving overseas in the future need to take into account the relevant rules that may restrict where they can transfer their pension.
If our clients have any particular queries, who should they contact?
For transfer-in queries then call the team on 0151 556 0627 or email transfersinteam@uss.co.uk.
For transfer-out, initial divorce quote and cash payment queries please call 0151 556 0714 or email transfersoutteam@uss.co.uk.
And finally... The Quick Fire Favourite Five!
Share with us your favourite:
Film: Dead Man’s Shoes
Musician: The Strokes
Drink: Tea
Food: Salt baked sea bass
Holiday destination: Tuscany