CASE STUDIES

CASE STUDIES

What can we do for you?

Our involvement with clients depends on what they need. We have no set formula that is rolled out to all and no products that we need to sell. We listen. We understand. We act.

We have clients on retainers and as you would expect, have regular contact via email, telephone and face to face.

We also have clients that just pick up the phone when they need some help from time to time. What we have tried to capture here is a couple of examples of why organisations may seek our help. If these situations sound familiar - perhaps that is your prompt to contact us. If your circumstances differ, please contact us because we may well have experience with your situation.

Charges that are ahead of the market

We work with a client that was a new start-up in the UK for an established company. They had plans to grow rapidly and needed a benefits package that could help them with their growth plans whilst also keeping an eye on costs.

Due to numbers employed, when they approached us they were 3 years away from their auto-enrolment date. We undertook a market review and selection process which resulted in a Group Personal Pension with a leading insurer. At the time there was no cap on the charges for workplace savings, but due to the way we have always operated, we were able to negotiate an annual management fee of only 0.45%. This is some 40% lower than the charge cap of 0.75% that was subsequently introduced. The take up was 100%.

Since then we have introduced a Group Life Scheme, but the main ongoing activity is based around employees understanding the employee benefits that have been put in place.

Making existing benefits work better

Another client we work for is very different. They found that they had a well-charged pension scheme already, but since the scheme was installed, they had received no support from consultants and what support they did receive from the pension company had been steadily reduced.

The company are paternalistic and wanted to support the staff. The first thing that we did was to secure additional resource from the pension company to support staff briefings. We were involved in providing updates from the world of pensions to staff, and also monitoring the performance of the pensions company (Governance - which is becoming increasingly important).

After more restructuring, the pension company withdrew all support. We were able to run the staff briefings and h ave also been able to help support the employer as the support from the insurer worsened. This was especially important during automatic enrolment. As a result of the decline in service, we are now seriously considering a change in pension provider. A good Governance process supports a structured framework in which a pension providers performance can be objectively assessed.

Cutting through complexity

We undertook a project for a client when they discovered an issue with one of the pension schemes that they inherited as a result of a merger. After rectifying the situation the company wanted to reassure staff so we designed and ran a series of roadshows.

 In general people dislike pensions because they perceive them as complex. It is our duty to make pensions more understandable for people. The clients are always keen on measuring the effect of communications; these were just some of the many positive comments from the feedback:

"Gavin did not use any jargon and kept it simple as pensions to me are confusing. I was able to understand what had happened and what had been done to correct it"

"Gavin was very clear in his presentation, he didn't speak too quickly and gave time for us to digest the information and ask questions"

"I thought Gavin explained things very simply without being patronising"

"Plain English, avoided jargon and offered explanations if needed"

"Pensions is a difficult subject to grasp I think, but his presentation examples made things easier to understand"

"Very well explained"

Regulatory Notice

Workplace pensions are regulated by the Pensions Regulator. A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until age 55 (57 from April 2028) Your capital is at risk. The value of your investment (and income from them) may go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. 


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