Letter of Authority (LoA) response times are starting to improve. Pension Lab’s latest LoA Performance Index (LPI) shows every major provider tracked has improved their response times – an indication that for some providers, inertia may be giving way to action.
Two providers reduced their performance averages from the previous quarter by 33%. This comes as Pension Lab is increasingly processing same-day LoAs with certain providers. However, while all top responding providers by LoA volumes have improved for the second quarter of 2025, the broad industry average remains stubbornly slow at seven to 14 working days, with outliers still taking months.
Scott Phillips, CEO and founder of Pension Lab, says:
“LoAs have been the forgotten corner of financial services for too long - painful delays, endless paper-chasing, and little urgency to fix it. That’s changing now.
“It was only 12 months ago that we established the Fix LoA Action Group, or FLAG, and the LoA Performance Index (LPI), and we’re now seeing real improvement thanks in part to our technology and the continuing efforts from some providers. But this is by no means ‘job done’. LoA volumes have increased fivefold for us, and they’re still going up - we’re processing tens of thousands of LoAs with hundreds of providers every quarter. That explains why we’re obsessed with shaving hours, even minutes off the LoA process – constantly refining processes and technology for optimal improvements. Our smart routing tech, for example, is getting more LoAs to the right teams faster, and our e-signature system eliminates the paper and scanning drag.”
Pension Lab is calling on providers, platforms, tech vendors, and advice firms to join FLAG, an open industry group with over 60 organisations, to work together to help accelerate adoption of LoA standards and share best practice to further reduce delays and associated costs.