After a staff buyout from KBC Bank, broking house Peel Hunt had the opportunity to create its own reward strategy to increase employee engagement.†
Over the years, Peel Hunt had accumulated three pension schemes with different providers, and it turned to Thomsons Online Benefits to help it harmonise these schemes to provide a more consistent approach to retirement planning.
An employee focus group highlighted a broader-than average range of needs. Some staff required retirement
planning, simple charges and passive investment, while others needed specialist tax planning and investment functionality.
A new group personal pension (GPP), launched with Scottish Widows, has adopted an active member discount (AMD) to virtually halve charges for most scheme members.
By using the AMD structure, employees that remained at Peel Hunt would no longer cross-subsidise the provider's costs for those who left, and those who left could continue to contribute or transfer without penalty.
For more sophisticated investors, Scottish Widows provides a self-investment option that offers a discounted fund supermarket and share-dealing facilities within a low-cost wrapper. The GPP can act as an accumulation vehicle for those wanting to use the self-invested personal pension (Sipp) in future.
Peel Hunt says this approach has allowed it to deliver better value to employees, while catering for the more sophisticated investor willing to pay for extra flexibility.
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