Online service and communications (continued)

Over the year, more than 13,000 individual transactions were completed through Online Services. While beneficiary updates and address changes accounted for almost two-thirds of these transactions, other members and pensioners used Online Services to initiate buyback transactions or make changes to their tax deductions or banking instructions. Meanwhile, OPTrust received more than 7,600 secure messages through the site, up from 4,400 in 2009.

At the same time, just over 14,500 members received their Annual Pension Statements online in 2010, a dramatic increase from approximately 2,800 the previous year. This change reflects OPTrust’s campaign encouraging members to help reduce our environmental footprint by opting to receive statements and other communications electronically, rather than in print.

Consistent with this green approach, we will be migrating our client satisfaction survey to a web- and telephone-based format, reducing the use of paper and postage costs. We are also delivering this, our full-length annual report, exclusively online in both interactive HTML and printer-friendly PDF formats. Our shorter annual highlights report for members and pensioners will continue to be available both online and in print.

Taken together, these initiatives reflect our members’ and pensioners’ increasing preference for online service and communications, while helping to improve service, reduce costs and minimize our environmental impact.