How Pension Consolidation Saves You Money – The Financial Case for Change
19th June, 2025
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Are the costs of running your Pension Scheme increasing year on year?
The costs associated with running Defined Benefit (DB) Pension Schemes in the UK have risen significantly over the last five years. Research has shown that costs have increased by c30-40% in the last year alone.
Why are costs rising?
- Regulatory Compliance: Trustees are facing increased pressured to meet evolving legislation, including ESG-related rules and the Pension Schemes Act 2021. This has led to greater reliance on advisory services and their inflationary increases year on year.
- Operational Inefficiencies: Studies estimate DB schemes overspend up to £300 million annually due to fragmented systems and manual processes spreadsheet-heavy workflows and disconnected providers slow down decisions and inflate costs.
Why do Sponsors struggle to manage their pension costs?
Many employers experience:
- Frustration with rising costs and limited budget control.
- Poor visibility over trustee spending and advisory invoices.
- Conflicts of interest and limited time to challenge decisions.
- Difficulty in aligning scheme activity with business objectives.
- Uncertainty about long-term goals and member satisfaction.
Ultimately, you feel overwhelmed, under-supported, and unsure whether your scheme is delivering value for money.
Are you getting value for what you pay?
If your scheme is managed by multiple advisers, administrators and governance teams, it’s easy to lose sight of value. Disconnected services often lead to duplicated effort, reactive strategy and inflated costs.
Dalriada.Together simplifies the model.
By consolidating your trusteeship, administration, investment, and actuarial services under one roof, we reduce duplication, improve transparency, and eliminate inefficiencies.
It’s not just smarter governance, it’s financial clarity.
How Dalriada.Together reduces costs
Here’s how our integrated model delivers measurable savings:
- Integrated trustee and administration team: One team managing day-to-day operations avoids duplication.
- Single governance structure: One set of decisions, reports, and oversight.
- Bundled services: Clear, transparent annual budgets across all service areas.
- Trusted adviser network: Our relationships help us negotiate competitive fees on your behalf.
- Mantle technology: Our platform automates administration and delivers real-time funding and investment insight, eliminating reliance on ad hoc reporting.
What are the typical savings?
- Schemes moving to Dalriada.Together have seen cost reductions between 20–50%, depending on scheme size, previous advisory arrangements, and service fragmentation. For example, a scheme with c.150 members and assets of £18m saw its fixed annual fees fall from £155,000 to £105,000 – a 30% saving in year one. This included trusteeship, administration, investment and actuarial services, with zero overrun costs reported since transition.
- We’ve also seen investment management savings of up to £125,000 per year via consolidated fiduciary management contracts.
This isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about removing friction, unlocking scale and delivering stronger outcomes. When done right, reducing pension consolidation costs can significantly increase value and efficiency.
If you’re currently using multiple providers, the hidden pension consolidation costs (from duplicated adviser work to inefficient reporting) may be undermining your budget more than you realise. Our integrated approach helps eliminate those unnecessary expenses.
Ready to Make the Move?
Want to see how Dalriada.Together could save your scheme money?
Read Kareen’s blog on Mantle and real-time funding insight.
