Dunstan Thomas supports the STAR Initiative

18 Dec 2019

The STAR Initiative aims to deliver a ‘cross-industry framework of good practice for improving consumer expertise in moving money from one financial institution to another’. STAR members are seeking to inspire the industry into signing up to the initiative, creating a clear platform from which to improve processes.

Pension transfers can be either be very fast (e.g. transferring cash), or a longer, drawn-out process, depending on the complexity of the assets involved. A transfer can be slowed down by inefficient processes, such as a pension provider transferring documents non-electronically.

STAR aims to define the different stages that result in a completed pension transfer, so as to measure the time it takes to complete each stage. Through this exploration process, hand-off points to other parties are identified so as to highlight the parties or processes that are causing delays in the process. As a result, STAR can drill down and improve these deficiencies.

Dunstan Thomas have already committed support to the STAR initiative and are now an accredited member. To demonstrate this support, Dunstan Thomas are regularly attending STAR workshops to contribute to the definition of good practice in transfers.

Additionally, Dunstan Thomas are making changes to existing software to improve functionality. On Imago Administration software, Dunstan Thomas are extending the transfer process to identify the different handoffs points. In addition, the workflow process steps are being extended to ensure that new changes are compatible with the STAR initiative.

Dunstan Thomas are already working to integrate with the Origo Options pension transfer service. Typically, pension transfer information is updated manually, however, Dunstan Thomas are integrating with the Options API to allow Dunstan Thomas’ Imago software to speak directly to the service, streamlining the process. STAR will then plugin to Imago after Origo integrations.