The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) has awarded its gold standard in administration to independent consultancy Hymans Robertson.

PASA was established in 2011 and aims to improve standards of pensions administration across the industry and says to achieve its accreditation, an organisation must be "truly outstanding".

Hymans Robertson has been a member of PASA since its inception and its head of administration Peter Dyer welcomed the accreditation.

Dyer said: "We were attracted to PASA because of its objective to publish a best practice set of standards that we could measure ourselves against, as well as being independently inspected."

"I believe our clients will very much welcome the independent assurance that this accreditation provides."

PASA accreditation is open to all corporate members of PASA, including DB, DC, trust-based and contract-based schemes.

It is granted following an independent evaluation and assessment process, which includes on-site visits and the review of documentation to evidence controls, procedures, process, staff development and contractual positions with clients.

PASA director and deputy chair of the Standards and Accreditation committee, Fergus Clarke, said that trustees spend time, resources and money monitoring their administrator to ensure they are doing everything well – and appointing an accredited administrator can reduce this.

"Appointing an accredited administrator frees time for use in other ways – it's being championed by The Pensions Regulator for precisely that reason," he said.

"PASA accreditation sets itself apart from other accreditations and kitemarks in the industry by being the only one that is member focused and the only one to measure the member experience.

"To undertake it an organisation must be determined, and confident, that they would meet the highest of standards - to achieve PASA accreditation you have to be genuinely outstanding so it is with great pleasure we are able to acknowledge Hymans Robertson in that bracket."

First published 29.10.2015

Lindsay.sharman@wilmingtonplc.com