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Friends of AE launches Bristol chapter

28th Aug 2014
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AccountingWEB made it along to the first ever Friends of Auto Enrolment regional meeting in Bristol last week. Coinciding with the No-one gets left behind campaign kicking off this month, Robert Lovell reports back on what went down at the inaugural session.

Having attended one of the national Friends of AE meetings at The Gherkin in London earlier this summer, it was heartening to see a decent turn out for our more intimate Westcountry gathering. Great things often start small.

Racks Bar & Kitchen was the venue and after some of us had finished battling for a parking space in Clifton, it was on to introductions. As is often the case at roundtable events of more than a dozen people, introductions can take a while.

In addition to three of us from AccountingWEB (myself, Andy and Marina) the meeting featured a good cross-section of accounting firms, vendors and payroll professionals involved or interested in the auto enrolment programme. Representatives were there from Peninsula, Evans & Partners, Clifton Wealth, LP Auto Enrolment Solutions, LP Wealth, Auto-Enrolment Bureau, Aspirations Financial Advice, PPAE, Burton Sweet and Rebecca Bevins HR Consultancy.

After going round the table, co-chairs Steve Brice and AccountingWEB publisher Andy North kicked off proceedings and the topic of conversation soon came round to the role of accountants in AE.

Andy commented that it was interesting how some accountants have been educating clients as a “defensive strategy” so they don’t kick off when they put their prices up.

Others around the table agreed that for those already involved in client payroll, it was a progressive profit-making exercise.

Another adviser commented how “lower-end payroll costs are going to be doubled.”

Some of the payroll vendors in attendance also added that they had been approaching businesses about AE, but most came back to them that they didn’t need to deal with auto enrolment because “my accountant is dealing with it”. Whether this is actually the case is another question.

The issue of accountants being properly engaged by The Pensions Regulator cropped up, prompting one member to liken listening to the regulator to eating an entire pack of crackers without butter.

Financial adviser Duncan Reeves of Clifton Wealth also made the important point that: “there are not enough accountants or IFAs to deal with this all.”

The conversation soon moved on to capacity issues and the ability of NEST to step up to the plate.

Unfortunately the fact remains that some people still assume that a government organisation will take care of everything, including issuing communications, one attendee noted.

When it came to the topic of late staging, Steve Brice explained how some people were still coming to his firm very late in the day.

“Right, we’ve got two days to send out all the letters, set up the pension and start saving up for the first fine… and you still haven’t sent me the file with all the addresses on it!” he said.

Another question raised by one of the accountants there was the issue with “What's in it for the employee”. With so much focus on the employer, this issue continues to crop up in conversations with clients.

Our allotted time for the meeting came around quickly and our attention was brought round to the fact that Steve Webb would be at the next Friends of AE Bristol meeting.

We’re looking forward to greeting the pensions minister on 16 September. Places are limited, but if you’ve got any AE-related questions for him, I’ll try to put them forward.

AccountingWEB has launched the No-one gets left behind campaign to alert as many accountants as possible to the obligations implied by auto enrolment. Read our simple eight-point statement which sets out the auto enrolment facts you need to know.

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By Henry Tapper
29th Aug 2014 09:50

Great stuff

It's good to see what was a very London centric organisation expanding into the regions.

All of the comments reported resonate with me and this sounds like a lively debate.

 

The key is for those leading these groups to kick on and keep them going. Knowing Steve Brice and Andy North, I've no doubt that the Bristol group will have legs!

 

 

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By ollyevans
01st Sep 2014 12:31

Good to be involved

I am sure that interest in this group will continue to grow.  Worryingly there was a strong message that accountants are not up to speed with this but that their clients are looking to them for advice and support.

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