I have been approached by several providers of AE services and platforms who are looking to sign up accountants for their AE offering. Thus far none of them has given me a satisfactory answer to the question of whether, regardless of the fact that they may not be IFAs themselves, if I advise my clients to go with any particular provider, I would be providing Financial Advice in breach of my Institute and FCA regulations. I haven't checked whether my PI would cover this but that is another concern. So for now at least I am suggesting that clients review providers themselves and make their own mind up.
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The Pensions Regulator has confirmed that you can even recommend a pension provider without falling foul of FCA regulations, and so I can't possibly imagine that recommending an AE service provider will cause any issues at all.
As I understand it
Regulated "financial advice" means advice given to individuals, but you can recommend a pension provider to a company employer without being regulated.
However, I would not "recommend" for the reason that you (probably) know nothing about the respective merits of the various pension providers and so, have no basis on which to recommend one over the others. I am simply telling clients that if they want me to carry on processing their payroll, they will have to choose one of the pension providers for which my payroll software can produce upload files in the format required by the pension provider.
I know nothing ....
However, I would not "recommend" for the reason that you (probably) know nothing about the respective merits of the various pension providers and so, have no basis on which to recommend one over the others.
Absolutely. So I wouldn't sign up with a single AE provider and promote their offering to my clients. But there are a number of providers seeking to enter referral arrangements with accountants, and it would be interesting to hear the views of those who have done so.
Dose the Regulator mean a
Is the Regulator meaning a company that provides a pension or one the carries out AE procedures to recommend one, which it does not itself provide?
No-one can be comfortable recommending a non IFA to any client. I wouldn't.
What criteria can you use for checking the bona fides of the possible scallywags who cold call you?
It's a nightmare - go with NEST ( that's not financial advice you understand) then at least you can sleep safely at night knowing your clients money is not invested in penguin farms in Antarctica
Registered scheme providers
What criteria can you use for checking the bona fides of the possible scallywags who cold call you?
Perhaps if they are registered with the Pensions Regulator that gives some reassurance, but I don't know how stringent the criteria for registration are. Here's what one provider says:
"We are not an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) and therefore not able to provide financial advice. You do not need to use an adviser to select our plan as we are a Trust Based Multi-Employer Scheme, however you may wish to consult an adviser to ensure the design of any scheme meets your overall employment strategy ..."
NEST
We were told by one of those AE scheme promoters that the charges within NEST will be more and that the investment decisions are more cautious. They also said that it will take about 90 hours to deal with the whole set up process. Any thoughts anyone?
AE start up
Tim Good an I have spent quite a lot of time this summer trying to decide what constitutes offering advice. Our conclusion is that recommending a scheme is a bit like walking a long a cliff edge - fine if that's it and you're very careful but, one slip and you've got problems, especially if it wasn't the best option for that employer. That conclusion is what lead to us working with an IFA to produce our 'AE start up pack'. Gets it of your desk without the worry of leaving yourself vulnerable.
Fact sheet
We have purchased a personalised PDF and letters from Mercia and are in the process of sending it out, on the basis that they will have ensured that what they say doesn't constitute advice, if a client asks us we tell them that we can't advise and if they want guidance they should speak to an IFA.
I envisage virtually all of our payroll clients going with one of the big 3, but we make sure that they make the decision. In terms of schemes all the guide does is inform them of the existence of the big 3 and that there are others.
Pension Enrollment
Hello, if anyone would like any help with this please contact me on 01202438711, call and ask to speak with kerry. would be happy to help.
Kelly Why would anyone phone you when we don't know who you are. Are you an IFA or another AE "agent"
Not at all sir, we are a marketing company, we are working along side a pension company who are only offering a 0.3% charge where as most pension company`s are charging around 1.6%, it was just to see if we could be of any help at all, there are a number of very good pension company`s that offer good deals, so might be worth having a look around. was just trying to help.
I'm surprised that you won't
Kelly
I'm surprised that you won't mention your company's name when you are a marketing company touting for business. Not very good marketing !!
I wasn`t so much " touting
I wasn`t so much " touting for business ", rather than just trying to help if anyone needed it explaining, like i said in my other post, there are so many pension company`s to choose from it can be quite confusing.
Using an IFA
That's another minefield. How can I recommend an IFA to a client without, er, recommending them. How do I know they will give my clients good advice about AE?
I think on balance the approach suggested by Euan and others of simply naming the main providers and identifying which ones fit the current payroll system is the way to go. Obviously larger firms and those with established IFA relationships have other options.
registered IFA
Guys, why wouldn't you use a registered IFA (therefore have some come back on him/her) that would be able to advise of which company use? Also use an IFA that has a business proposition that suits all of your smaller employers. What I say to all my introducer is that they should have somebody to recommend that they would be happy with themselves. my company is www.workplacepensionsonline.co.uk I am registered IFA and specialise in smaller companies. we charge no setup fee and £5 per month per scheme member.
Most of the introducer's I use (for 20% payaway) just do not want to get involved in pensions be it advised or not, they are just not interested
As for NEST ! really expensive and the software is not great and by the way what will happen when they get swamped by the 1.75 million companies yet tp stage.
NOW pensions have just said they will charge £40 per month if not registered in the next 10 weeks !
Am I touting for business, yes I am, its the way the market works. I am letting prospective customers provide their customers with a solution.
Having read many of the posts before this there really needs to be some clear direction. The answer to your clients shouldn't I think be "up to you".
Good luck everybody, keep smiling.
Questions
1. Do you get paid commission by the pension companies you recommend
2. What do you do for the £5 per month per employee
As others are posting...
Dear All,
As others are listing product details...
With us £299 buys you are review by a fully registered IFA, a detailed report with a conclusion as to which scheme would be best and the registration of that scheme for the client. The adviser can be involved or not. Up to you.
No ongoing charges.
If you want to talk about this feel free to PM me.