DARE

Data Analytics Reversed Engineering

The New Pensions Act compels every employer to consider the future pension agreement with their employees. The transition to a contribution agreement with an age-independent contribution means that (nearly) all pension schemes will have to be overhauled in the coming period. This has major consequences for pension providers tasked with implementing all these changes.

This makes it even more important for pension providers to be able to explicitly demonstrate that the quality of their pension administration is in order. And the pension agreement has ensured that there is an even greater need for the ability to test mutations in data files. PwC's DARE enables integrated quality testing of the entire participant population. The powerful methodology checks and double-checks which calculation rules have been applied based on the mutation data, and identifies and visualises deviations.

Reversed engineering does not rely on calculation rules on which pension entitlements are post-calculated, but takes available data and derives the calculation rules on that basis. Using time-series analysis and non-linear algebra, groups of participants are automatically identified to whom the same calculation rules should apply. It can then be determined whether the calculation rules found conform to the pension regulations.

With DARE, pension administrators can be certain that they are in control of the most complex and sensitive part of pension administration: ensuring everyone gets what they are entitled to. Administrators can also better monitor what is going on in a fund and where any process improvements and organisational adjustments are needed. Moreover, this tool is relatively easy to combine with a check on source data and can also be used for the purpose of auditing and during transitions and conversions.