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Finance Focus Morten Nilsson Ian Felice
CEO NOW Pensions Email: morten@nowpensions.com
Partner- Hassans & CEO- Line Management Services Limited 57/63 Line Wall Road, Gibraltar
Tel - +(350) 200 79000 Fax - +(350) 200 71966 Email - ian.felice@hassans.gi Website - www.gibraltarlaw.com
Pensions and Auto-Enrolment
Morten Nilsson is the CEO of NOW: Pensions, and has been working in the industry for many years with over 20 years of professional experience from the financial sector. He moved over from ATP, Denmark’s largest pension provider around two years ago to set up NOW: Pensions in the UK.
The multi-employer trust (or super-trust) was established just over a year ago, signing its first clients on 1st January 2012.
Although it’s a new trust, it’s built on a wealth of experience in pensions. In collaboration with ATP of Denmark – one of the largest pensions funds in Europe, Xafinity Paymaster – UK pensions administration specialist, and the extensive range of experience provided by the independent board of trustee directors, NOW: Pensions has set out to bring cost- efficiency, performance and simplicity to the UK pensions industry.
NOW: Pensions investment manager, ATP, has had strong returns of 10.3% a year for the past 10 years, doing well even in the tough economic climate.
Q
From October, eleven-million employees aged twenty-two and
over, and earning more than £8,105 a year, started to be automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes as part of a major bid from the government to ensure everybody has enough money in place to support themselves upon retirement. How can NOW: Pensions help employers and their employees in regard to the new Auto Enrolment legislation?
We tailor our modular solution to meet the needs of the employer by offering help
with the whole process of employee categorisation, numerous forms of member communications and pension provision so that employers can focus on running their business, or we can simply provide the pension provision and communications on their own.
We don’t care about the size of your organisation; we accept the smallest businesses as well as the largest companies. We also have no restrictions; you can transfer in and transfer out.
Charges are kept low with an annual investment fee of 0.3% and a monthly admin fee from 30p per member which can be paid by the employee or the employer. There are no hidden fees or extra charges.
Q
Is Auto Enrolment going to be cost efficient?
Auto Enrolment is quite complex, so might not be as cost efficient as it should be. For an employer to make it cost effective, they need to consider what they want to achieve, and find an efficient way to work with payroll and pension provider. It will cost employers money, so they need to know what they want to get out of it. They also need to be compliant with legislation.
Q
Why did the government introduce Automatic Enrolment?
There is a recognition that you can’t fund the
welfare state by tax alone, people have to save more for their future. People are living longer and not saving enough. Defined Contribution schemes provide savers with an additional contribution from their employer as well as tax relief incentives.
NOW: Pensions investment manager, ATP, has had strong returns of 10.3% a year for the past 10 years, doing well even in the tough economic climate.
Q
Have there been any legislative changes recently (12 – 24
months)? What changes would you like to see happen?
The big change was in January; the dates for Auto Enrolment were pushed back for smaller employers, so they had more time to implement it.
There has been a lot of debate on how you can aggregate your savings; people average 11 employers in a lifetime, so there will be money in various pension pots unless you can aggregate them.