Every week, a pension fund receives retirement applications from members who are about to stop work. Each file has to be checked page by page before a first payment is set up: is the member old enough, is the service long enough, does the date of birth match the proof of age, and are the right forms signed? Here, Lakeholm Pension Trust, the company we use to show ALK at work, checks one member’s application up close, then the week’s 20.
Step 1 of 9
Linda’s application
Linda Pearce wants her pension to start on November 1. Her file has four pages: the application, a birth certificate, a service statement and a direct deposit form.
Step 2 of 9
Four pages, read in one pass
Every field comes off the right page: her date of birth from the application, and the date on her birth certificate from page 2.
Step 3 of 9
Every flag explains itself
The two dates are a year apart. By her application she turns 65 in time for November 1. By her birth certificate she is 64, so her file is marked for review.
Step 4 of 9
One click to the source
Her birth certificate opens at the exact line, February 9, 1962, so anyone on the team can confirm it in seconds.
Step 5 of 9
Hers was one of 20
The same checks ran on the week’s 20 applications: 12 are ready to approve, 5 go to review and 3 are waiting on documents.
Step 6 of 9
The decision: confirm her birth date first
Linda’s file waits in Review with the reason written out. A person checks her date of birth with her before any payment is set up.
Step 7 of 9
What it adds up to
12 applications start in November. 8 of them are cleared, and 4 still need a person or a missing form.
Step 8 of 9
Set the alarm
One instruction: warn me when more than 2 applications are waiting on documents.
Step 9 of 9
ALK watches
3 applications are waiting on documents, over the limit of 2. The view names each member and what is missing: a spousal consent with no notary, a spousal consent that never arrived and an unsigned direct deposit form.
What ALK checks in each application
- Age on the benefit start date, for normal and early retirement
- Credited service against the early retirement minimum
- The date of birth on the application against the birth certificate
- Spousal consent, with a notary, when a married member chooses a single life annuity
- A signed direct deposit form, and where each file goes next: approve, review or request documents
Try it on your own applications
Send one real retirement application, or a redacted one, and see what ALK finds.