Overseas Proof of Life

This is an article by MM publised in Pension Aspect Magazine (PMI). For more like this you can sign up to their magazine here

David Rich, EPMI Chief Data Officer Mortality Manifest- It is increasingly common for members to retire abroad. Approximately 1.7 million UK citizens currently are in such a position. Keeping on top of mortality and location of these members can be tricky, and for a long time has been expensive, ineffective and a large admin burden.

Member mortality is an inevitable event within every pension scheme. Many schemes routinely conduct monthly mortality screening, and all have established processes in place for when a member dies. Regular mortality screening can be highly effective in reducing overpayments, GDPR breaches, fraud, reputational damage and regulatory breaches, all of which can occur when a scheme is unaware of a member’s death.

There are a group of members who have been much harder to track and are not picked up via routine mortality screening. Those are the members who have moved abroad either as pensioners or deferred members. There is no global death register or database. It is not possible to easily obtain timely notification of death in all countries.

For many years schemes have dealt with these members via a periodic overseas proof of life / existence check. That generally involves sending letters to members with forms to be completed and returned, often once they have been officially certified by a professional in the relevant country.

Those exercises are expensive, slow, admin heavy and tend to have poor levels of member engagement. With advances in technology and higher levels of digital engagement than ever before, these exercises do not need to come with the many pain-points they presented in the past.

Over 95% of the population have a mobile phone and email address. Email has become a routine form of communication for adult age groups, and the often-held belief that “older” people do not use technology is simply wrong. Digital identity verification is commonplace and readily available technology. It is quick, affordable and simple to verify a person’s identity via a mobile device or computer. A member who is living abroad most likely uses digital identification every time they pass through an airport.

However, technology alone is not the full solution. The real keys to a successful and effective overseas proof of life process are:

• A combination of communication methods, options and content.

• Ease of use and removal of engagement barriers

• Quick, secure and reliable facial identity verification.

• Access to support and help

A good and effective service will manage all of these aspects and allow members to engage and respond in a manner that works best for them.

By building a multi-channel communication strategy over a period of months, it is possible to increase engagement to levels around 85% and above, whilst reducing the time, effort and cost of being confident that you know your overseas members are alive and well.

MM are pension data experts with over 20 years of experience in UK and overseas proof of life and mortality services, tracing and email enrichment·