The present invention is a universal pension administration system that allows multiple companies use the same system for valuation report generation, benefit calculation, database administration, and trust payment direction. Plan Actuaries define a pension plan by answering questions related to the plan. A Developer Actuary uses tools to develop a pension plan framework that defines plan questions and logic and calculations to support the plan definition. A first tool is used to define the logic for pension plan definition, calculation sequencing, and report generation. In the calculation sequencing, rules are defined to refer to spreadsheets in which complex calculations related to the plan are performed. A second tool is used to design discrete calculation objects using a standard client-based spreadsheet. The spreadsheets are sequenced on a server in any manner as dictated by expert system code generated from the calculation-sequencing tool. Plan Participants access an online account to obtain information regarding benefits.