Group Pension Schemes

In the past employers provided pension benefits for their employees by means of an approved occupational scheme, either:

• Defined Benefits – also called final salary.
• Defined contributions – also called money purchase.

Nicholls Stevens have been advising Employers on administrating Group Pension Schemes for over 20 years, so as you can imagine we have a great deal of experience in this area. Many employers still need help on running their existing occupational pension scheme. Costs have risen over the years and a medium size firm of advisers such as Nicholls Stevens can often offer a high level of service at a lowe charge than some of the large employee benefits scheme. We have been busy advising employers on the options they have to reduce the costs and liabilities under their defined benefit schemes and to put in place alternative arrangements for future accrual of benefits

An employer who is now looking to set up a scheme will most probably be advised to set up one of  the new wave of company pension scheme  known as The Group Personal Pension or Stakeholder Scheme

Employers like these schemes because they  have no on going liability. Contributions can be geared to suit their budget and tiered to meet the needs of varying members of staff. The administration of these schemes is less onerous and costly

From 2012 employers will have to automatically enrol employees into a national pension scheme known as NEST or into a suitable qualifying scheme so Nicholls Stevens believe that all employers need to be reviewing their pension needs as soon as possible