Desjardins financial Security has redesigned the structure of its group retirement benefits division. In the new Integrated Retirement Management Centre, which opened in Montreal late last month, the company has brought all its pension professionals, services and products into one unit.

The company says the structure, along with new software and procedural innovations, will enable the firm to handle group pensions more efficiently and provide better service to its clients, the pension plan sponsors.

Under the new structure, sponsors will have dedicated administrators looking after their plans, so clients should be dealing with the same person all the time.

“It’s the ‘know your client’ approach,” says Annick Douville, vice president of customer service savings for group, business and segregated funds at Desjardins. “With the complete management solution, we are also able to customize the support we offer the client sponsor to implement their pension plan.”

Dedicated administrators are supported by account managers, who are located regionally, in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver.

The new structure should make the entire process more efficient, from bringing in new clients to implementation of a benefits plan, management of the account and governance, according to Douville.

The industry is becoming increasingly complex, from a regulatory point of view, Douville says: “So we are there to offer clients support and guidance through the legislative environment.”

Along with the new centre, Desjardins is also using a couple of new software products to improve service. A program called FlexiRemittance enables plan sponsors to make online remittances for large numbers of employees quickly and easily. “In a group pension plan, the employer deducts the contributions, creating a long list of employee and employer contributions,” Douville explains.

The firm recently installed the Sungard software transaction solution to administer pension plans and RRSPs.

Desjardins has also developed a quality control report to monitor its customer service. The pension service now provides sponsors with statistics and can perform investment monitoring.

In the past, not all Desjardins group pension professionals worked in the same location or even under the same vice president, according to Douville. She believes the move to having all pension people working together will lead to more efficiency and better service.

“We created the [centre] to make plan management easier by grouping all the professionals and services available to plan sponsors under one roof,” Monique Tremblay, senior vice president of savings and segregated funds says in a release.

The realignment of Desjardins’ group pension function is part of the company’s plan to expand across Canada. “Our goal is really to offer supported guidance to clients so the client can feel secure, with good sound management of its plan,” Douville adds. “That’s how we want to become a very good alternative in the market, because we know there are big players out there in the group retirement market.

“The Desjardins strategy is to expand and vary the market and be an alternative for clients who are seeking a provider that will support them and guide them and, ultimately, their plan participants,” she says. IE