Julien Hammerson

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSNC) has announced it has completed its acquisition of Calastone from global investment firm Carlyle. Calastone is the largest global funds network and leading provider of technology solutions to the wealth and asset management industries. The purchase price is approximately £766 million (approximately US $1.03 billion), subject to certain adjustments.

SS&C funded the purchase with a combination of debt and cash. As part of the transaction, SS&C upsized its Term Loan B facility by $1,050 million, which has an interest rate of SOFR+200 and matures in 2031. The transaction is expected to be accretive over the next 12 months.

Effective immediately, Calastone’s team of 250 employees will join SS&C Global Investor & Distribution Solutions. They will report to General Manager Nick Wright. Calastone has an extensive global network, with offices in London, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, New York and Sydney.

Calastone’s technology solutions complement SS&C’s offerings in fund administration, transfer agency, AI and intelligent automation. The combined team will deliver a unified, real-time operating platform to reduce cost, complexity and operational risk for fund industry participants worldwide. Clients will benefit from enhanced distribution, investor servicing and operational scalability.

“Calastone’s network and technology further strengthen SS&C’s leadership across global fund operations,” said Bill Stone, Chairman and CEO of SS&C Technologies. “Together, we will accelerate innovation for our clients, expand our reach, and continue to simplify the way the industry operates.”

“This is an exciting new chapter for Calastone,” said Julien Hammerson, CEO of Calastone. “Joining SS&C gives our clients and employees access to greater scale, investment, and opportunity. We’re proud of what we’ve built and look forward to contributing to SS&C’s continued growth and global success.
SS&C was advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

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Steve Freeborn

Outstanding customer experience aided by financial wellness programmes are playing a crucial part in ensuring Super funds generate deep and meaningful member engagement. This engagement is key to retention and growth. But what does it look like, and how do you get there?

From conversations with Shannon O’Shea, partner and head of member and corporate services at smartMonday by Aon, and Steve Freeborn, head of Super at Rice Warner, SS&C identified five key strategies for putting customer experience front and center of a Super fund’s strategy.

1. Leverage data, analytics and modeling to understand customer wants and needs

Member engagement is essentially members interacting or taking action within their account, small changes that are right for them, add up over a member’s working life. The first piece of financial wellbeing is ‘awareness’ – know what you’ve got, the second piece is – are you happy with it, is it enough, is it right for you. The right investment option, insurance premiums, voluntary contributions and consolidation of lost Super, all add up over the long-term. Which is why it’s important for a fund to understand member behaviour through data and analytics – to make ‘taking action’ easy.

Put customer data at the fingertips of service representatives and make sure that the right information makes its way to the right members, at the right time.

Gather data on social and economic trends that have an impact on members’ saving, spending and retirement planning habits. People want to know how they’re doing compared to their peers.

Survey, survey, survey: conduct satisfactions surveys, exit surveys, interactions surveys – take the pulse of members at every opportunity. Customers are happy to tell you what they think if you ask them.

Listen and pay attention to their answers – better yet, act on them.

2. Partner with a customer experience expert

Team up with an outside researcher or analyst that can provide objective guidance on best customer experience practices – the “why” and “how” to best target a Super fund’s efforts.

Apply research to get everyone in the organisation on board and embed customer-centric thinking in a Super fund’s culture.

Consider hiring a customer experience manager from outside the Super industry – someone who can bring the customer experience perspective to every activity.

3. Build trust by being authentic

Trust is at the heart of the customer experience. Do what you say. Follow through.

Demonstrate competence. Deliver with speed, efficiency and accuracy.

Be transparent. Make it easy for members to see what you’re doing on their behalf and how it benefits them.

Be consistent with your brand promise across all touchpoints to reinforce trust and loyalty.

4. Provide easy and appealing digital self-service tools

Customer expectations are rising. Companies that excel at customer experience have raised the bar for everyone else.

Empower members to engage when and how it suits them.

Deliver engaging, relevant and personalised interactive experiences via digital channels.

The strongest connections are emotional. Members want to feel valued, understood and confident. Design experiences that elicit an emotional response.

5. Engage with your community and align with causes customers care about

People want the companies they do business with to be responsible citizens. Is the fund giving back to the wider community and making a positive environmental contribution?

Apply customer data to learn what they care about and what will motivate them.

Let members know what you stand for. Prove it through your actions.

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SS&C’s has released its latest Whitepaper Driving member engagement and loyalty with digital communications.

SS&C’s has released its latest Whitepaper Driving member engagement and loyalty with digital communications. The survey – SS&C first superannuation stealth survey – found that Australia’s super funds enjoy a fairly healthy level of satisfaction from members. However, it was found there is little room for complacency with super funds missing opportunities to capitalise on member loyalty through more effective use of digital communication channels, educational resources and planning tools.

The survey looked at members’ relationships with their funds, notably communication preferences, frequency of contact, transaction efficiency, and awareness of resources and tools available. Respondents represented a wide demographic spectrum, from age 18 to over 70. Some of the survey’s key findings were:

• Super satisfaction varies with age: younger members have neutral to negative feelings about their super funds compared to older members. Overall 75% of respondents expressed satisfaction with their current super fund and 88% have no intention of moving to another fund.

• Strong preference for digital communication: while the majority of transactions and communication with super funds occurs through digital channels (74%), there is a push by younger members, especially those aged 18 to 30 years, for all of these activities to move online (94%). In addition, 32% of respondents reported they were only able to transact / communicate with their super fund using hard copy or via paper forms.
• Need to better/more frequent engagement: funds are missing opportunities for meaningful engagement with (27%) saying they have contact with their superannuation provider only once a year, while 25% have a quarterly connection. Surprisingly, 4% of respondents said they have “never” heard from their fund provider – a small number, but an alarming answer.  In addition, the vast majority of respondents (80%) have not accessed any retirement planning tools on their super fund’s website, with almost two-thirds of respondents (59%) unaware how these tools will assist them. Further evidence of the lack of engagement between super funds and young members, 73% of respondents in the 18 – 30 age group, reported they were not aware of how these tools would assist them in their retirement planning.

• Motivation to move to a new fund: while most respondents weren’t looking to move to a new fund, motivators to move included, Poor investment performance was the number-one factor, cited by 38% of respondents, while 31% cited poor customer service.

Read the Whitepaper.

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