When it comes to helping your employees to save for their retirement, we have an expert team here at Purity Financial to help select the right pension for your workforce.

There are various workplace pensionsto help your staff to build up their financial security which involve employees making contributions from their salary in addition to you as their employer and the Government.

Whether it’s a completely new scheme you’re looking for, or you want help to relieve the burden of running an existing scheme, we can help with all your workplace pension needs.

New schemes

As with everything we do here at Purity Financial, as a company you can rest assured that we will research the entire market to advise you on the best type of workplace pension to opt for that addresses both your business needs and your employees.

We will do all the hard work for you before making our recommendation on the best match from the vast plethora of qualifying schemes available in the UK.

Working closely with you, just some of the key areas that we will research in depth include compatibility with your current, and if applicable potential future payroll systems, methods of tax relief and financial costings.

There’s more on the wide array of current options available below, from master trusts and trust-based occupational schemes, to group personal pensions (known as GPPs) and group self-invested pensions.

Master Trusts

Operating with one legal trust and one trustee board, Master Trusts are multi-employer occupational schemes.

This option generally comes with lower operating costs than a single employer scheme. It can also make the burden of regulatory compliance simple and easy for you as an employer.

How does it work? Under Master Trusts each employer, who becomes a part of the master trust, will have its own division within the arrangement.

It is managed centrally by the Master Trust’s provider, and they will be responsible for the setting up, administration, investment, and governance of your selected scheme.

Trust-based occupational schemes

Depending on how much control you want over your scheme, a Trust-based occupational scheme enables your business to have greater control over the structure of your chosen workplace pension.

These schemes relate to the legal structure of the pension that you provide your employees with and, more often than not, prove to be most popular with larger companies.

The reason for their popularity with bigger firms is usually because they often already have an existing trustee board – as a result of a legacy-defined benefit scheme – that helps make this option a more desirable choice.

And while Trust-based occupational schemes can involve significantly more administrative responsibility for your firm, they can provide a better level of benefits for your employees.

However, there are various ways in which it can be run.

With this option you don’t have to operate this completely in-house yourself, or leave it to your pension provider to operate the scheme for you either, as you could choose to utilise the services of a third party, like ourselves here at Purity Financial, to do this on your behalf.

Group personal pensions (or GPPs)

This option is one of the most common solutions that companies opt for.

GPPs are defined contribution schemes that not only provide a rewarding personal pension for your employees, but at the same time allow you to meet the regulatory requirements of auto enrolment.

While GPPs involve individual contracts to be set up between the pension provider and your employees, they are run by the pension providers.

Group self-invested personal pensions (or GSIPPs)

Group self-invested personal pensions allow your employees to have much more freedom over where they would like to invest their pension contributions by providing a wide array of investment options than those involved in a group personal pension (above).

This is achieved by allowing employees, who become members of a GSIPP, to choose from the following options:

• Investing in commercial property and land;
• Investing in commodities, like gold bullion for example;
• Selecting from a list of thousands of insured and mutual funds, stocks and shares.

Existing schemes

It’s not just helping you select the best workplace pension scheme that we can assist with.

We can also help with the servicing, administration and governance of your firm’s existing pension schemes too, which can sometimes be, or become, an administrative burden.

Handing direct administration responsibility over to our professional and experienced team can therefore be a much-welcomed relief to your pension-related workload.

We can provide a range of services to help across many forms of in-house pension schemes, which include: Defined Benefit (or final salary); Defined Contribution (or money purchase);

hybrid and career average (CARE); and pension schemes.

Here at Purity Financial we also have our own multi-employer Master Trust that’s available to all UK-based companies, and we can also provide value added enhancement services for clients with GPPs (group personal pensions).

You can find more details on the ways in which we can help in this respect below.

Administration

We are not only proud to boast a team of seasoned experts when it comes to financial advice, help and support, but we also deploy the latest state-of-the-art technology to further ensure that we achieve the very best outcomes for our clients.

In order to meet the highest expectations of members, trustees and employees, our modern pension administration software therefore features facilities which allow extensive member recording, calculation and reporting.

Pension fund accounting and treasury services

As well as managing the daily financials of your chosen scheme, we can also help in many other ways to further alleviate your company’s financial workload.

These include, but are not exclusive of, the following: preparing your draft annual scheme reports, preparing accounts, and managing the process of auditing.

Pensioner payroll

We not only offer our clients the use of our helpdesk for any pensioner enquiries that may arise, but, with advanced, primary pension administration software in place, we’re also able to give your business access to a full pensioner payroll facility, enabling you to deal with all your company’s comprehensive requirements through us, without having to go elsewhere.

Web-based member and client services

With this helpful online service our clients and members can gain immediate access to the latest scheme information and documents as and when required without any delay.

Pension scheme transfers

When an employee moves from one company to another, whether that be to your business or away from it, companies often need to assist with pension scheme transfers.

This will allow the individuals to transfer their pension from one scheme to another, from a current employer to a new employer.

As respected financial advisors, you can rest assured that we’ll ensure that the individual’s pension is reinvested into the best option for their desired outcome, as a result of thoroughly researched forward planning advice and support.

Board member training for a Trust-based occupational pension scheme

If your chosen pension scheme involves setting up a board of trustees, or updating a board, then this is also something that we can assist them to ensure a smooth, efficient transition.

Training, guidance, help and support is something that our team of knowledgeable pension experts are also on hand to offer to ensure your board has the understanding to effectively manage and administer a trust-based occupational pension scheme.

With training from our accomplished team, we can ensure that all your trustees understand the responsibilities of being part of the board and are compliant with all aspects of trust and pensions law.

Our comprehensive training programme will include:

• Understanding the Pensions Regulator’s code of practice;
• How to administer the chosen scheme;

• How the selection process works on the range of funds offered to the members;
• Investment of scheme assets;
• Funding of pensions schemes;
• Governance of the scheme;

• All elements of scheme documentation – trust deeds and rules, the statement of investment principles, statement of funding principles;
• And, managing member communications.

Workplace pension contributions

In addition to the Government contributing to workplace pensions in the form of tax relief, as an employer you’re also required to make a contribution to your employees’ pensions.

What percentage of contribution you make will inevitably form a key part of your employee benefits package and therefore can be an attractive incentive on both a recruitment level and when it comes to workforce retention too.

While the percentage that employers commit to varies considerably, there is a minimum requirement for you to contribute at least 3% (as of April 2019).

There are many factors to consider in making your decision – including what others in your industry are offering and what you can afford – but our well-versed team will work closely with you to identify the best contribution for your individual scenario.

Workplace Pensions are regulated by The Pensions Regulator

A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available.

Auto-enrolment

The automatic enrolment process makes it obligatory for employers to automatically enrol employees into pension schemes, and compulsory for all firms to pay money into them to support their workforce in saving for their future.

With your individual business needs identified, our expert pensions’ team will pinpoint the perfect solution for your circumstances and provide ongoing advice and support.

If you have an auto-enrolment solution already in place, it’s important to ensure that it still meets your company’s needs.

We can carry out a comprehensive review of your current plan and, in the event that it no longer represents the optimal choice for you, in an ever growing market, we’ll identify the best alternatives, as well as help implement any required change of solution.