National Pensions Savings Scheme

The next tranche of Government pensions legislation is looming on the horizon in the form of the National Pension Savings Scheme (NPSS) which is currently intending to go live in 2012 - though there's pressure within the Government to bring that forward to 2010.

The NPSS will force all employees earning more than a qualifying amount, and employers, to contribute to a pension plan.  If you don't have a pension scheme in place which meets a ‘quality test’, then you will automatically be enrolled into the NPSS.  Employers will be obliged to contribute at least 3% of employees' salaries and there must be total contributions of 8% (employees contribute 4% and the remaining 1% comes as tax relief).

While there are no hard and fast details about the exact nature which the NPSS is going to take with regards to investment, what this development means for employers is that the burden and costs of administering the scheme and of giving pensions advice will be forced on the employer if arrangements aren't in place.

You can pre-empt another unwelcome Government intrusion into your business by making arrangements ahead of time which will enable you to opt-out of NPSS.  The advantages of doing this with Orkney IFA will be:

• We know the pensions business and we know Orkney. We run Group Pensions for many of Orkney's best known employers
• We will search the whole market and identify the pension scheme most suitable for your company; the one which offers the best combination of annual management charges, fund choices, investment performance and so on
• The investment choice within the NPSS is likely to be very poor.  Setting up a Group Personal Pensions Scheme will give you and your employees more options which will provide greater growth potential
• We'll advise your employees on a one-to-one basis as to how best to invest their pensions savings. Everyone's circumstances, intentions and timescales are different - your employees will benefit from high-quality personalised advice
• We'll look after the scheme and take all the administration issues off your shoulders - from organising the monthly payments to the pension provider to adding new employees
• If any problems arise, you have a local point of contact.  The NPSS will, of course, have a helpline, but we all know what Government "helplines" are like - the cost, the time spent waiting in queues, not knowing who you're dealing with or where they are - all avoided with one call to a local number.
• We provide an annual review service to all clients - we'll visit their place of work once a year and sit down with each person to discuss their plan.

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