With business owners now being penalised for not having a workplace pension scheme in place, The Pensions Regulator has been back on the road reminding employers that workplace pensions are the law and they are enforcing it! Confusion between employers and advisers in relation to auto-enrolment is no excuse.

Leading up to your client's staging date they will have to:

•    Assess each member of their workforce, find who MUST be enrolled and who else is eligible to join 
•    Know which members of staff have to contribute towards their pensions and how much 
•    Review any existing pension arrangements they have in place to ensure they are compliant with new regulations 
•    Communicate these changes to their staff 
•    Choose a pension scheme 

What your client must do at their staging date:

•    Enrol their eligible workers 
•    Register their scheme with The Pensions Regulator 
•    Review every member of staff at every payroll run 
•    Contribute to their workers’ pensions 
•    Re-enrol every three years 

What happens if your client misses their staging date?

Enforcement actions range from office visits and statutory notices, to fines up to £10,000 per day and court proceedings.

How can we help?

TAM has partnered with key pension trustees and dedicated auto-enrolment administrators to help employers navigate workplace pensions, by providing them with a complete auto-enrolment solution that can be implemented in a few simple steps. These solutions will give you access to TAM’s professional investment management across a spectrum of portfolios encompassing standard, ethical and Sharia investment options.

TAM has three default offerings* for clients in auto-enrolment:

                                      

Balanced Portfolio

Finding the right financial solutions and manager has never been more important. The financial crisis of 2008 and ensuing market volatility has made both preservation in those volatile times and the growth of assets, in real terms, ever more complex. The default Balanced Focus portfolio offers a medium risk approach to long term pension growth.

Balanced Ethical

TAM have created an additional portfolio containing only investments which have been actively screened for their ethical credentials. Although no one investor will share the same ethical views, we believe that these portfolios offer the attractive combination of expertly managed investment portfolios, and the reassurance that your socially responsible and ethical considerations are taken into account. The default Balanced Ethical portfolio offers a medium risk approach to long term pension growth in a socially responsible manner.

Balanced Sharia

TAM has conducted research into the Sharia Investment market and offers a Sharia-compliant portfolio within its auto-enrolment investment offering. By only using Collective Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that are compliant with the principles of Islam, we believe we can meet the expectations of Sharia clients and provide a useful service that is currently not widely available in the marketplace. The default Balanced Sharia portfolio offers a medium risk approach to long term pension growth while keeping true to the principles of Islam.
 

With more than 6.7 million employees now in a workplace pension, the scheme is being hailed as a huge success. So for those of your clients still searching for a solution, panic not. By working with our key partners your clients can be confident that they are adhering to their responsibilities while having access to TAM’s expert investment management and online delivery that’s fully compliant and ready to go.

Help us to help your clients keep one step ahead of the regulator whilst securing a clearer future for their employees. Contact us to find out more and if you want to avoid those hefty fines, don't leave it too late!

*TAM offers the three core default offerings as mentioned above but has risk profiles across the Cautious to Adventurous range available under its auto-enrolment management programme. Please discuss with your client if their needs go beyond the default balanced products highlighted above. For more information you can contact us or visit www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/automatic-enrolment