Pensions and Employee Benefits are integral to any reward and compensation package. A good tailored employee benefits programme can help not only retain but also attract key individuals to your business.
The Anders Bayley Scott (ABS) Employee Benefits proposition combines specialist expertise covering both corporate benefit consultancy & governance and personal financial planning. We provide a comprehensive range of services to help employers and their employees realise their financial goals.
Our Employee Benefit services aim to provide a complete solution to ensure that the employee benefit programme is as effective as possible. We can advise, manage and assist an employer on the following:
With regulations and legislation changing frequently, it’s crucial that your business has access to the most up-to-date information, innovative ideas and solutions as well as specialist expertise on structuring and maintaining employee benefits in the best interests of your business and its employees.
Focused - We typically provide services for small-to-medium-sized enterprises and for employers/trustees of registered pension schemes with up to 1,000 members.
Bespoke - We provide bespoke solutions tailored to your business requirements, together with a personal service which means we’re available to support the business as well as your employees. We pride ourselves on the personal guidance and regulated advice services available from the ABS team.
Regulated - Our highly experienced team of employee benefits specialists are authorised and regulated to provide guidance and regulated advice to individual employees where required – this is unlike the vast majority of our peers. Furthermore, ABS is an Independent Financial Adviser.
This extends to pension freedom solutions to ensure members benefit from appropriate outcomes reflecting their personal circumstances and objectives.
Holistic - ABS also have specialist wealth management & personal financial planning advisers so our services can extend, if required, beyond pensions & employee benefits. This covers a broad range of services including cash flow modelling.
In summary, the specialist services available from ABS Employee Benefits include:
Providing a range of support and advice on auto-enrolment and re-enrolment, default funds, benefit valuations, strategic benefit design, general consultancy and comprehensive governance services.
The ABS governance service is branded Spotlight and includes:
To ensure the pension scheme is both compliant and effectively run with specialist oversight and reporting. In particular, the Spotlight framework focuses on the governance committee, pension scheme management skills, administration, investment, value for members and communications & reporting.
As well as general consultancy services ABS can provide a Pension Scheme ‘health check’ in order to review your current provider and measure their performance & terms relative to the workplace sector. ABS assist employers with the design, implementation, administration and on-going delivery of the pension scheme.
- New Joiner Support
ABS help new employees understand the employee benefit programme including their funding & contribution options, default & alternative investment fund options etc. within the pension scheme.
If a Registered Group Death in Service Scheme is in place, we can also review if any new employee has any pre-existing pension lifetime allowance protection in place.
- Member Engagement Services
We deliver individual and group meetings/presentations in person or via video conference, personalised pension updates including investment performance reviews and guidance on how to achieve retirement income goals in a tax efficient manner.
Providing support so members can understand the tools and calculators available on Provider portals/platforms and how these can be used to appreciate their existing provision and plan effectively for the future.
Member Guides to enable members to understand the key components of the pension scheme being provided.
Member Engagement Services are integral to the overall proposition to help individuals ultimately achieve effective pension freedom outcomes.
- Pension Consolidation
We provide specialist pension consolidation services so members can understand any other pension arrangements they may have and to review these so they can make an informed decision as to whether to leave these in their current format or, if appropriate, to consolidate into the workplace pension scheme or another pension plan to potentially improve their provision.
- Newsletters
ABS support employers and trustees with effective member communications covering regulatory & legislative changes, information on default funds, alternative investment funds and performance, platform services, tools & calculators etc.
Group Risk Benefits
ABS can provide an audit of any existing risk benefits scheme or tailor a new benefits programme covering the following arrangements:
This would mean that we would work with you to review:
i) Are any existing benefits provided appropriate and cost effective?
ii) Do employees appreciate the benefits provided?
iii) Do the benefits reflect the corporate structure and will they retain as well as attract employees to the business?
For any new group risk benefits, we would help implement the schemes on the most competitive terms available (following our comprehensive market review) for the cover required.
All risk benefits would be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure they remain both appropriate to your business and competitive from a market perspective.
Within ABS, we can also offer employees specific independent regulated financial advice. This is provided via the ABS Financial Planning Service and is usually charged directly to the employee.
Our experienced team of financial planners help individuals through all their life strategies from wealth accumulation (working life) to wealth decumulation (retirement). A financial plan can be implemented to ensure that individuals benefit from any allowances and reliefs now and in the future. By building a portfolio including pensions, ISAs, CGT Managed Portfolios, Investment Bonds, VCT/EIS, Trusts, Offshore Structures it is possible currently to secure the first £100,000 of retirement income at a marginal rate of tax below 9%.
Anders Bayley Scott Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
The company is an Independent Financial Adviser and therefore is not restricted in terms of providers, products or solutions unlike some of our peers. Three of our Consultants are Chartered Financial Planners.