This page is divided into four topics. Please click the link below to go directly to the topic that interests you:
Auto Enrolment
Auto Enrolment legislation came into effect October 2012 and will affect every employer in the UK without exception.
Doing nothing is not an option
Ignoring this legislation and avoiding Employer duties will only lead to expensive financial penalties. Penalties start from £50 per day and can reach up to £50,000 for non-compliance.
Often, these penalties, even if paid for a few days of non-compliance, will be far higher than actually implementing an appropriate solution.
Avoid the Capacity Crunch
Pension scheme providers have the capacity to provide around 300-400 each per year whereas the demand is more like 15,000. This means that providers are 'cherry picking' the most profitable schemes and not quoting until the last minute, if at all.
Waiting to see if terms are offered is dangerous. A scheme provider may not quote in time for the staging if at all leading to non-compliance and hefty fines.
Duties Don't Start and End There
An employer is required by law to implement the following by their staging date:
1. Assess eligibility of all employees including potentially agency staff
2. Register with The Pension Regulator
3. Ensure any existing schemes comply with all regulations
4. Manage the initial enrolment process for all employees
5. Manage and update the opting in and out of all employees
6. Manage contributions
7. Ensure that inducements to opt out are not offered
8. Provide regular updates and employee communications
9. Keep accurate records of all of the above
10. Manage your own day to day business
A Solid Solution
We have solutions available that can accommodate all numbers of staff at whatever timescale at whatever payroll value ensuring 'Best Employee Outcome'.
Plans can be implemented in advance (Mothballing) of staging date or last minute.
Mothballing
Setting a scheme up in advance, with or without members, can help budgeting and avoid the capacity crunch. Costs can be lower and the full employer liability known at a much earlier stage.
Six months prior to the staging date, automatic notification will be sent asking for employee data in readiness.
Last Minute
If the staging date is imminent solutions are available with pre-determined terms and costs allowing Auto Enrolment duties to be fulfilled at very short notice.
Flexible Support Packages
Tailored to suit individual employer requirements, these can be paid on monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly basis depending upon budget. Support offered can range from simple scheme set up to comprehensive including all assessing existing schemes, all employee communication, presentations, individual member advice, fund recommendations and ongoing reviews. Ensuring that Employers Duties are met and the Employer left to focus on the day to day running of the business.
Business protection is all about insuring for the unexpected. It's a way of protecting your business if something goes wrong.
In the interests of financial security, business stability, and continuity - particularly for private limited companies where there may only be a small number of principal shareholders - it is important to provide a safety net following the loss of a shareholder
One of the great risks of a business partnership is that one of the partners may die or suffer a specified critical illness, with his or her share of the business passing to their beneficiaries. The safety net is a pre-arranged scheme to ensure the surviving partners have enough funds to buy out the departed partner's interest in the business.
Key person insurance, also formerly called key man insurance, is an important form of business insurance. There is no legal definition for 'key person insurance'. In general, it can be described as an insurance policy taken out by a business to protect that business for potential financial losses that could arise from the death or extended incapacity of an important member of the business specified on the policy.
In a country coming out of recession, never before has the 'overall benefits package' of an employee being scrutinised so much. It seems that the additional benefits offered by the employer can often outweigh a higher salary with little or no benefits.
Lower costs per member and tax efficiency have lead many employers offering an employee benefits package into their staff.
Employee Benefits is also known as Group Risk and generally include group life (death in service), group income protection, group critical illness and group health insurance. These benefits can be highly valued by employees especially when individual costs of obtaining the same cover is generally much higher.
Over the last few years, many have extended their offering to include group travel, childcare vouchers and flexible benefits.
Our advisers can design and implement a bespoke package tailored to your business needs or budget or simply review the existing schemes in place for their competitiveness and quality. In addition, our excellent administration team and software, ensure efficient processing of any scheme or staff needs.
By successfully managing your employee benefits, you can improve staff retention which could even lead to increased profitability and reduced costs.
There are many types of group pension which can include group personal pensions, group stakeholder pensions, final salary schemes, group SIPPS, group SSAS' and FURBs (funded unapproved retirement benefit schemes).
They can be furthermore categorised into defined contribution (i.e. all contributions are saved in your pension pot with the final achievable income not known exactly until the benefits are taken as they are based on the accumulated fund value), or defined benefit (often known as final salary schemes where the retirement income is known from outset and generally based on a percentage of final earnings and calculated using length of service).
Defined benefit schemes have been fast dying out over the last ten years of so simply because the majority have insufficient funds to maintain benefits for a membership that is living longer. At Nurture Financial Planning Ltd, this is an area that we feel passionate about and can help schemes in deficit to reduce their liabilities and provide the best outcome to their members that they can.
All of these schemes can be tailored by our pension specialists to work in the best interests of both the scheme members and the businesses supporting them. Whether that means ensuring current Auto Enrolment regulations are met or implementing salary sacrifice into an existing scheme to make it more tax efficient. For convenience, our advisers are able to present to individuals or groups either on site as an In House Surgery or at locations to suit.
