Auto enrolment is an upcoming area for small practitioners - which is why I decided to talk this week about the opportunities that it may throw up.
In the below video blog, I discuss what accountants can do to educate their small business clients about their responsibilities and give warnings on what potential pitfalls practitioners may face.
Comment below to let me know what you're doing around auto enrolment - are you taking it on?
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Transcript
Would be good to have a transcript of these for those of us without time to watch videos.
None available
Hi chatman, unfortunately there is no transcript available for these videos.
However there was a helpful comment from a member on the last video blog about how you can get one from YouTube videos.
Video Transcripts
Thanks Rachael. I thought the comment to which you refer was about one's own videos, as the first step is "Go to the video that you have created via your 'uploads' tab"
Accountants can advise clients on which pension to choose
In your video Tony, you mention that accountants would fall foul of the FCA if they advised clients on which pension to choose. Amazingly this is no the case!
The Pension Regulator in conjunction with the FCA have put out a paper that states in clear English that
"advice to employers is not regulated"
I have personally queried this with the respective heads at FCA and tPR and had it confirmed.
If you would like to see this in writing, please go to
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/guide-to-the-regulation-of-w...
The statements are on page 11 in the middle of the diagram
Research by tPR and NOW Pensions independently confirms that employers see the choice of workplace pensions as important (but that they have no place to compare and no-one to help them make comparisons).
In the light of this information, do you think that this represents a further opportunity for practitioners?
Surely your instititute woud get you though
I am sure my institute would hammer me if they caught me offering advice on which pension to choose.
Advice or not?
Whilst a general discussion of the implications of the legislation to the client is not "regulated advice", the conversation will typically lead to "so what scheme do you recommend?" or " can I use my existing Stakeholder/group personal pension plan to meet the regulations?" - which then moves firmly into the IFA sphere.
Advice or not?
In our view you can answer the questions "so what scheme do your recommend?" and "can I use my existing Stakeholder/GPP pension plan to meet the regulations?" without fear of having given regulated advice.
Provided that is that you are providing this information to the employer.
There is a second question which is whether you feel competent to give an opinion on these questions and how this sits with your PI.