A technology solution that provides flexibility to help meet the diverse needs of retirees

Promoted by DST Systems

DST's retirement platform provides superannuation funds and life insurers with a flexible technology platform to leverage the growing post-retirement opportunity.

"The financial services industry is under increasing pressure to provide much more choice and innovation in supporting the needs of the growing number of retirees," said Sam Higgie, Director of Product Management at DST. "Today, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 15 per cent of the population is aged 65 and over, and that number is growing. This represents an enormous opportunity for the industry, in particular superannuation funds and life insurers.

"So far, the industry has been pretty slow to respond, and in part that's because members' financial needs in retirement are a lot more complex than in the accumulation phase. We believe that in order to leverage the retirement opportunity, super funds need to be able to: configure and deliver a wide range of post-retirement products; provide an experience that helps members make the right decisions for their retirement; and they need to integrate with partners, such as life insurers and even aged care providers, to be able to offer a holistic retirement solution."

A flexible retirement solution

DST's retirement solution enables superannuation funds and life insurers to better capitalise on the growing retirement market, without having to change their existing systems.

DST's retirement solution is essentially a record-keeping platform and rules engine that can stand alone or integrate with existing platforms to enable fully automated, straight-through transaction processing.

The platform is highly configurable. It supports a wide range of transition-to-retirement and post-retirement products that are available on the market today - from the standard account-based pensions through to separately managed accounts and lifetime and capital protected products.

For customers, it provides the ability to create tailored retirement solutions, including how and when fees, payments and contributions are paid.

The DST advantage

"The real advantage our retirement solution offers is the potential to get flexible, tailored retirement products into market faster because you don't have to configure existing platforms for new products.

"Our platform can be configured to administer complex products with multiple components, for example the ability to draw a lump sum and pay a defined income in the one product. It can also be configured for pre-retirement products, allowing funds to combine and package solutions across a member's lifetime."

Years of experience

DST has a wealth of experience in the retirement market. In the UK, the company processes around 60 per cent of the market's pension funds through its BPO. In Australia, the retirement platform already supports a number of clients' across the retail wealth and industry funds markets.