Does it ever seem like all roads lead to data? It does to me.
The work we do at Fuse with Canadian pension administrators always seems to ask for more from this foundational capability. Want to conduct member research: how are we going to store, secure and analyse all this new information? Want to modernize pension administration solution tools and processes: what is the quality of data, and the differences in meaning and math between the ‘from’ and ‘to’ models? Revisiting corporate or functional strategy: what data do we need and have to inform good choices for our organization?
We’re so inspired by all the motivated pension industry leaders trying to use data effectively in decision-making – and frustrated by the constraints making this effort more work than it should be – that we decided to throw a little sunshine on the state of data management maturity with some good, old-fashioned research.
In partnership with our friends at Ontario Pension Board, and with the eager participation of 12 pension administrators across the country, we assessed data maturity and aspiration using Fuse’s proprietary Data Management Maturity Model. You can read the full report of our findings here.
Fuse’s Data Management Maturity Model – how mature are your capabilities in these domains?
Source: Fuse Research, 2026
We discovered a set of common themes creating current data challenges for the industry as well as a pragmatic but impactful level of ambition for the future state. Across four categories – governance and strategy, people and stewardship, data and lifecycle management, and supporting disciplines – administrators are experiencing a lack of clear vision and accountability for data, a reactive approach to issues that perpetuates operational inefficiency, and challenges managing fragmented information across systems.
I sat down with my co-founder Hussain Bokhari, who lead this study, to get his unvarnished thoughts on the state of data maturity in pension administration – and what should be done about it. Obviously we can’t publish those -- just kidding! He had a lot to say and anyone interested in this topic is welcome to pick his brain.
In the meantime, here are my top takeaways:
The ambition is good. Pension administrators are doing hero’s work to get accurate, timely results today, but it’s more effort and risk than it needs to be with relatively immature data management capabilities. However, this is a known problem and there are smart, dedicated people invested in solving it – they need more leadership support, more organizational buy-in, and sustained focus to get traction.
The opportunity cost is real. Modernization, artificial intelligence and democratized IT all depend on sophisticated data management capabilities to realize their potential. Forget the resources currently misspent on wresting with our recurring reporting, and consider how the fact that cross-functional, ad hoc analytics aren’t fully enabled might be holding us back. Even participants in the study needed to be reminded that ‘pension administration data’ included more than just members and transactions. Better, faster access to cross-functional data is the unlock required to prove business cases and improve KPIs.
The “solution” doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Different firms are in different places; new firms, or those with newer technology stacks, tended to be more mature. Business leadership of data drives better outcomes in the first half the model, while IT ownership of data skews results to the second half. There is no one right way to build data capabilities – but if there is one thing to get right it’s Governance and Strategy. It doesn’t cost anything but time and it should be non-negotiable – executive ownership; coherent, cross-functional strategy, stewards identified in each domain and equipped to work in a structured forum on realizing what data can DO for the organization can go a long way to putting focus on this foundational asset.
We’re interested in focused solutions that accelerate data maturity in the pension industry – if your organization is making good progress, or wants to, we’d love to hear from you! Drop us a line at hi@fusestrategy.co.
