Pension Scheme Administration Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Pension Scheme Administrators, Pension Operations Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-FM-125

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with pension terminology, workplace benefits, payroll, finance operations or member administration.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Pension scheme administration fails when member data, payroll deductions, benefit rules, investment records and payment controls do not agree. The consequences include late contributions, incorrect retirement quotations, misallocated defined-contribution units, avoidable complaints and unreliable scheme accounts. Administrators and scheme managers need a disciplined operating model that translates scheme rules into controlled workflows, preserves an audit trail and identifies exceptions before money or member rights are affected.

This course examines the operational and financial disciplines required to administer defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid pension arrangements. Participants work through scheme governance, member records, payroll and contribution processing, benefit calculations, investment account administration, retirements, transfers, death benefits, scheme accounting and reporting. They learn to interpret controlling documents, apply reconciliation methods, establish segregation of duties, manage administrator service levels and produce management information for trustees and sponsors.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with pension administration cases, calculation reviews, reconciliation tasks, group control design and incident simulations. Participants apply methods to realistic situations involving payroll discrepancies, incomplete member records, payment errors, retirement claims and outsourced administrator performance. Each participant leaves with a pension administration control pack containing reusable process maps, checklists, reconciliation formats, reporting models and a 90-day improvement plan.

The course suits professionals who administer occupational pension schemes, oversee third-party administrators, support trustee boards, manage payroll interfaces or prepare scheme financial information. It is designed for organisations operating under their applicable local pension, tax, data protection and reporting requirements.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret pension scheme rules, governance documents and member entitlement provisions
  • Build controlled workflows for member records, contributions, benefit events and payments
  • Reconcile payroll, membership, contribution, bank and investment administration records
  • Calculate and verify defined benefit accruals, retirement quotations and payment instructions
  • Administer defined contribution accounts, unit transactions, charges and investment switches
  • Apply segregation-of-duties, exception management and evidence requirements to key processes
  • Prepare scheme administration reports, financial reconciliations and trustee management information
  • Develop a 90-day pension administration improvement plan with measurable control actions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence checking pension calculations before member payments are authorised
  • A repeatable method for tracing payroll and contribution discrepancies to source records
  • Practical control techniques for preventing member data and payment errors
  • Clearer ability to prepare trustee-ready administration and exception reports
  • A structured improvement plan for reducing backlogs, rework and unresolved cases

For your organisation

  • Fewer incorrect benefit payments through independent calculation and approval controls
  • Improved contribution accuracy through payroll-to-scheme reconciliation routines
  • More reliable trustee reporting supported by documented evidence and control logs
  • Reduced operational risk from clearer ownership, escalation and outsourced provider oversight
  • Better member service through timely case handling, accurate communications and complaint analysis

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can interpret scheme structures, governing documents and stakeholder responsibilities for administration decisions.

  • Pension scheme purpose, stakeholders, fiduciary duties and administration service boundaries
  • Defined benefit, defined contribution and hybrid design features compared
  • Trust deed, rules, policies and member booklets as controlling documents
  • Trustee, sponsor, administrator, custodian and adviser accountabilities mapped through RACI
  • Scheme lifecycle from enrolment through retirement, death and wind-up
  • Jurisdictional legislation, regulator guidance and tax rules requiring local validation

Participants can design control points, ownership arrangements and escalation routes for pension administration processes.

  • Governance calendar linking trustee meetings, reporting cycles and statutory deadlines
  • Three Lines Model assigned to operational, oversight and assurance activities
  • Segregation-of-duties matrix for benefit payments, bank changes and approvals
  • Control objectives documented through process narratives, risks and evidence
  • Exception logs, breach registers and escalation thresholds maintained consistently
  • Service-level agreements measured using timeliness, accuracy and responsiveness indicators
  • Business continuity plans tested against administrator outage and payment disruption

Participants can establish reliable member data records, quality checks and retention controls.

  • Member master data fields, identifiers and effective dates defined
  • Data quality rules detect duplicates, missing values and implausible changes
  • Reconciliation between payroll, membership, contribution and finance records
  • Data lineage documents source systems, transformations, ownership and retention periods
  • Change-control procedures protect historical service, salary and beneficiary records
  • Privacy notices, access controls and retention schedules applied to member data
  • Data-cleansing priorities selected using materiality, risk and member-impact criteria

Participants can process and reconcile pension contributions from payroll through scheme records and cash receipts.

  • Auto-enrolment or participation rules translated into payroll deduction requirements
  • Contribution rates calculated from pensionable pay, eligibility and salary changes
  • Payroll-to-scheme reconciliation identifies underpayments, overpayments and late remittances
  • Contribution allocation distinguishes member, employer, voluntary and transfer amounts
  • Suspense account procedures resolve unidentified receipts and rejected payments
  • Arrears recovery tracked through ageing, employer contact and escalation records
  • Monthly control totals reconcile cash receipts, units and member postings

Participants can verify defined benefit records, apply benefit factors and control retirement quotations.

  • Defined-benefit accrual formulas interpreted using service, pensionable earnings and accrual rate
  • Final-salary and career-average calculations distinguish pensionable pay definitions
  • Normal retirement, early retirement and late retirement factors applied
  • Guaranteed minimum pension, revaluation and indexation provisions identified where applicable
  • Benefit quotation checklists validate service, earnings, elections and calculation assumptions
  • Four-eyes review documents independent recalculation, approvals and member correspondence
  • Actuarial factor tables controlled through versioning, effective dates and authorization

Participants can administer defined contribution accounts and reconcile member investment transactions.

  • Defined-contribution account architecture links contributions, units, charges and transactions
  • Unit pricing cycles and dealing cut-offs incorporated into transaction processing
  • Default fund mapping, lifestyle strategies and member investment instructions recorded
  • Switches, transfers and disinvestments reconciled against provider confirmations
  • Charge disclosures separate administration, investment management and transaction costs
  • Daily valuation exceptions investigated using tolerance thresholds and root-cause codes
  • Custodian, platform and recordkeeper data matched through holdings reconciliations

Participants can control member event workflows from retirement claims through payments and case closure.

  • Retirement workflow verifies eligibility, benefit options, tax treatment and identity
  • Annuity, drawdown, lump-sum and transfer pathways explained without personal advice
  • Transfer-value cases controlled through quotation validity, discharge and payment checks
  • Death-benefit administration captures nominations, evidence, trustee discretion and beneficiaries
  • Deferred members tracked for address tracing, preservation and statutory communications
  • Complaint files distinguish service failures, disputes, redress and escalation routes
  • Payment authorisation controls prevent fraud, duplicate payments and incorrect beneficiaries

Participants can reconcile scheme financial records and support accurate accounting and actuarial reporting.

  • Scheme accounts distinguish contributions, benefits, investment income, expenses and liabilities
  • Bank, custodian and investment reconciliations support reliable period-end reporting
  • Annual report schedules trace figures to ledgers, valuations and administrator records
  • IAS 19 separates employer pension expense from scheme administration accounting
  • Actuarial valuation data requests reconciled to membership and benefit records
  • Cashflow forecasts schedule benefit payroll, transfers, expenses and contribution receipts
  • Materiality thresholds guide investigation of unreconciled balances and valuation differences

Participants can produce controlled member communications and manage disclosure, complaint and data-rights requests.

  • Member communications use plain language, controlled templates and approval workflows
  • Annual benefit statements reconcile accrued rights, contributions, charges and assumptions
  • Disclosure calendars coordinate statutory notices, reports and lifecycle communications
  • Vulnerable-member indicators trigger accessible formats, safeguarding and enhanced support
  • Complaint root-cause analysis converts recurring errors into corrective actions
  • Data-subject requests handled through identity verification, search and disclosure logs
  • Communication quality checks test accuracy, readability, completeness and timeliness

Participants can assess administration performance and produce a controlled improvement plan.

  • End-to-end process maps expose hand-offs, queues, controls and failure points
  • Key risk indicators track backlogs, overdue cases, errors and payment exceptions
  • Root-cause analysis applies five whys and fishbone diagrams to incidents
  • Outsourced administrator oversight uses service reports, audit rights and remediation plans
  • Management information packs combine volumes, ageing, quality, risk and costs
  • 90-day administration improvement plan assigns owners, milestones and control measures
  • Personal application priorities aligned with scheme rules and local obligations

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Pension administration process map template
  2. Contribution and payroll reconciliation workbook
  3. Benefit quotation quality-control checklist
  4. Segregation-of-duties control matrix
  5. Trustee administration reporting pack
  6. 90-day administration improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Pension Scheme Administrators — need consistent methods for processing member events and maintaining accurate records
  • Pension Operations Managers — need control frameworks, service measures and exception reporting for administration teams
  • Trustee Secretariat Staff — need to prepare reliable board information and maintain governance records
  • Payroll Managers — need to reconcile pension deductions, employer contributions and eligibility changes
  • Finance Managers — need to connect scheme records, cash movements, accounts and reporting requirements
  • HR Benefits Professionals — need to oversee pension providers and communicate member benefits accurately

Skills and tools covered

Pension benefit administrationContribution reconciliationMember data governanceBenefit calculation controlsScheme financial reportingOperational risk management

Tools and standards

IAS 19, ISO 31000, IIA Three Lines Model, RACI matrix

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish pension administration principles, followed by case work based on member events, payroll exceptions, benefit quotations and financial reconciliations. Group exercises examine process maps, control failures, service-level reports and management information. Simulations test responses to payment errors, incomplete records, late contributions and member complaints. Participants compare approaches with peers and build an application plan for their own scheme or administration function. Trainers adapt scenarios to defined benefit, defined contribution, hybrid or public-sector arrangements represented in the cohort.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with pension terminology, workplace benefits, payroll, finance operations or member administration. Experience processing employee data, payments, payroll deductions, financial records or customer cases is useful. Participants should be able to read tables, follow procedural documents and work with spreadsheet-based reconciliations. Prior actuarial training, investment management expertise, trustee certification or advanced accounting knowledge is not required. The course explains technical pension concepts before applying them. Participants should bring awareness of their own scheme type and operating responsibilities where available.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should know basic pension, payroll, HR, finance or member administration terminology. No actuarial qualification, trustee certification or advanced investment knowledge is required.

Bring a laptop if possible, plus non-confidential examples of process maps, reports or recurring administration issues. Participants should not bring member personal data, confidential scheme records or payment details.

The course is suited to pension administrators, operations managers, payroll teams, trustee support staff, benefits professionals and finance personnel supporting pension schemes. It is relevant to both in-house teams and third-party administration providers.

This course concentrates on day-to-day scheme administration, data, payroll interfaces, member events, financial reconciliations and operational controls. Trustee and investment courses focus more heavily on fiduciary decision-making, investment strategy and governance responsibilities.

Participants can use the templates to review contribution processing, benefit calculations, payment approvals, service levels and management reporting. The final improvement plan converts course methods into actions for their own administration function.

The five days run from 08:30 to 16:30 and provide about 32.5 contact hours. Time is divided across ten connected modules covering scheme design, controls, data, contributions, benefits, finance, communications and performance improvement.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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