Self-invested pension provider Hornbuckle is preparing for a stream of legacy issues as it undertakes a migration of data to a new digital platform, including hundreds of tax relief cases that could see cutomers hit with a tax bill - and others benefit due to underclaiming of relief.
The company said it is beginning to work through historic tax relief claims and that in the hundreds of cases where action is required there is likely to be a “50/50 split” between those that need to pay more and cases where clients will gain because it could have claimed more on their behalf.
Patrick Van de Steen, Hornbuckle’s managing director and head of proposition, told FTAdviser: “We expect to find a normal variance in data over the time we do the migration. We are now dealing with tax relief claims, where we have found a few hundred where correction is required out of the thousands we do.
“The error is normal in its mistake: roughly 50/50 split between actions where we need to make clients good and actions where clients gained.”
Last month the firm announced a strategic alliance with digital data management provider FNZ, signing a 10-year deal to deliver a new portal for administering UK Sipp and Ssas business.
The move was part of a broader overhaul of the provider’s systems, which has also seen it undertake a major reform of its property service proposition, including the outsourcing of all day-to-day property administration, in the wake of a number of complaints.
Mr Van de Steen said the process of transferring client records - many of which are in paper form - over to the digital platform has now begun and that the firm is uncovering legacy issues it is proactively addressing.
Mr Van de Steen said that in terms of the six ‘sigma’ scale of process quality Hornbuckle appears to be “somewhere in the middle” and that this would mean “you will find defects as you dive into the data”.
He added: “We are going to move millions of data items around we are preparing ourselves for finding some mistakes.
“That’s going to lead to a degree of discomfort, because when you find a defect you wish to fix it. We’re going to have to write to a disproportionate number of people over then next few weeks and months.”
In terms of the problems Mr Van de Steen expects to encounter, from initial inspections he said there appears to be no unifying theme and no systemic issues in one area.
He continued: “As we go through this data migration and discover these normal inaccuracies - we’ve never claimed to operate at a six sigma standard of quality - we will find these things and will have to proactively fix them.”
