The Mercer Master Trust offers you all the advantages of a trust based DC workplace pension, with none of the hassle.
We focus on bringing innovation to the DC Master Trust market to enhance the way in which we serve members’ interests and equip them to achieve a financially sustainable retirement.
Our openly structured operating model offers a fully future-proofed DC solution, allowing us to partner with best-of-breed providers in key areas.
Support for Mercer Master Trust members goes far beyond retirement saving because, unless they have control of their day-to-day finances, they’re unlikely to be able to truly engage with their pension.
The Mercer Money mobile app and portal is the member gateway to our unique employee financial wellbeing platform, of which Mercer Master Trust is a key component.
It uses open banking, with bank standard security, to deliver a holistic, view of individual finances (earnings, savings including pensions, borrowing and assets) all in one place.
As well as offering members a view of their personal finances in the round, this allows Mercer Money to recognise the current financial situation and priorities of each individual member. Based on this, it targets relevant content and guidance to prompt and support better financial habits, including saving, spending and debt management.
No other solution in the DC Master Trust market currently offers this level of personalisation (i.e. to a segment of one).
Large institutions can find the speed of change in regulation and technological advancement challenging to accommodate and keep up with. However, it can be expensive and disruptive to move your workplace pension infrastructure elsewhere to take advantage of new capabilities.
We believe the ability to partner with expert specialists, such as fund managers and administrators, is key to ensuring Master Trust propositions are able to keep pace with change and the needs of members.
We continually monitor the performance of underlying administrators, fund managers and other specialist partners. Our openly structured model offers members and employers a future proof solution that allows us to plug in, or decouple, providers as needs change and capabilities advance.
10 questions to ask when considering a Master Trust
Here are some questions to consider when choosing a Master Trust:
1. What does the member journey, from starting to save through to retirement, look like and how truly personalised to individual members is the communication?
2. Does the Master Trust provide support for wider financial wellbeing?
3. How well established and sustainable is the Master Trust, including its commitment to future proofing?
4. How independent are the trustees and what powers do they have to make changes if things go wrong?
5. Can you see evidence of a strong and independent governance framework, that can monitor and report performance against your requirements?
6. How much of the member charge is allocated to administration and member engagement and how much to investment?
7. How do the trustees optimise return and manage investment risk for members through the savings, transition and post retirement phases?
8. Is the Master Trust tied to a single fund manager and what control could you have over the investments offered?
9. Is administration robust and able to cope with future demand? How easy is it to move the administration if service levels become unacceptable?
10. How safe and secure is the Master Trust’s process for setting up your scheme and transferring the assets?
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