NEST: News from The Pensions Regulator

2009: Bureaucracy - Mark Perreault

As an independent financial planner based in Wimbledon (well only a mile away) I am working with a number of employers to ensure that they are ready and properly set up for auto-enrolment or NEST. This is in essence the Government's long overdue introduction of compulsory contributions towards a pension. Well, not quite - actually all it means is that you will be automatically enrolled unless you opt out. The contributions will eventually work the way to 3% from the employer and 5% from the employee. More can be contributed, but not less - unless you opt out. Many financial planners are not getting involved with this sort of work as it is fairly time consuming and not terribly profitable - but that's not really an issue for advisers that operate on a fee basis, which is  something we do at Solomon's - so there's no issue about ensuring you get the right and best pension arrangement for staff.

The Pensions Regulator has published some up to date information, quite a lot of pdf's to download and read - remember that this is a system that impacts every employer, even those with a single member of staff. Importantly as the work will be primarily conducted online and records of contributions need to be maintained properly (like PAYE)  this has implications for IT and virus software at every business in the land. So make sure you get some decent IT advice.