Big Bad Boss is on a mission to improve our financial wellbeing. I have told him the best way to do that is to increase salaries, but he is having none of that kind of negativity. We will not be spending any more budget; we already have a financial platform called Poke which was rather expensive. I have been disappointed with Poke because all it really does is just that, it pokes you to review your finances from time to time. I got so fed up with it I have turned off all notifications. It continues to give me silent pokes which I continue to ignore.
Getting creative
I have now been set a typical challenge: how to look like I am doing something interesting and creative with benefits, without making any actual changes or spending any money. Can our providers come to the rescue? Who haven’t I poked for a while? Normal Life, our pension provider can be helpful. Indeed, it tells me it works with some wealth advisers, Pricey and Cost, which will run a financial training course for free. Excellent.
The adviser, Penny, even helps me to set up the boardroom. We will be recording the seminar online for all UK staff, but some people in the office can come and enjoy tea and biscuits at the same time. This is the kind of perks you get nowadays. I introduce Penny and she explains her role, her firm and the connection to Normal Life and us. She is going to give us some financial hints and tips to help us stop worrying about money. And all for free. I love it.
Back to basics
She starts by covering the basics of UK tax and benefits. I am surprised to hear how many additional allowances are available if you qualify. I was pretty au fait with UK tax limits, but still there are nuances she explained on higher-rate taxpayers which are interesting. I see several in the room taking notes. In practice, I think most of our employees will earn too much to qualify for many of these, but I note once again that parents get a lot more tax breaks. What do we childless cat ladies get? Perhaps I should investigate company-funded pet insurance. It would only be fair.
Penny covers statutory sick pay and even talks about our group income protection; I did not give her details, so I wonder where she got that. It is all correct so that is good. She goes on to talk about savings and compound interest. Rattling on at speed, she covers tax-free savings like individual savings accounts (Isas), and premium bonds. Then she goes on to explain mortgage interest and stamp duty. As things have changed recently, it was a good refresher for me, and as people are still taking notes, it seems good for the room too.
Financial guidance
Penny talks a lot about equity investments and attitude to risk, leaning heavy on the importance of getting advice. Well, she would, wouldn’t she; that is the core business of Pricey and Cost and she talks a lot about the clients she advises and how much money she saves them. She goes on to talk about pensions in detail, starting with the state pension and the number of years contributions required to get a full pension and the opportunity to top up any missing years. All necessary contacts and links are in the presentation. I am impressed with the level of detail she is getting through.
Penny goes quite deep into pensions, and I am a bit worried because we have recently held a lot of webinars from Normal Life on this topic. I look around to see if people are getting bored, but it would appear not. She has several examples showing how benefits accumulate if contributions are made over decades or even years. Key takeaway: it is never too late and there are tax advantages of saving this way.
After pensions comes death and there is far too much about that for my liking; inheritance tax, wills, and power of attorney; these are all covered in a few slides. We are certainly getting our money’s worth today.
She even covers financial wellbeing for women specifically, talking about the pension gap and gender pay gap reporting, explaining the difference between pay gaps and pay equity, and other aspects of pay in terms of diversity and inclusion. We are an American organisation, and I hope our leaders are not listening. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) has had to go a bit underground of late. We still work on DEI projects; we just do not boast about it to HQ.
Total reward
I am astounded how much Penny covered in just one hour. It is almost like a total reward refresher for our employees, with additional information on state benefits too. I do wish we had allowed more time though. Penny covered so much, so quickly that I did not take it all in, even though there was very little new to me. Luckily, it is recorded.
At the end, Penny covers her services and contact details. It is fair enough that she touts for business on the back of this workshop. Really, she had provided a lot of useful content in a short time, so she should get something back.
Far from making me feel more relaxed about finance, the workshop has given me more to worry about. The information given has nudged me to check a few things, like my years of state pension contributions and the current interest rate on my Isa. I am sure that the Poke platform has been asking me to do those things for months, but what I really needed was one giant poke from Penny instead.
Next time…Candid looks at culture
