Jelf Employee Benefits has released a guide to help employers communicate the recent raft of pension legislation to staff. ‘Your Guide to Pension Freedom’ will help employers meet their duty of care in explaining the changes to employees and in turn will help employees take more control over their pensions and retirement decisions.
The eight-step guide, part of the consultancy’s comprehensive library, relays the new rules in the context of the questions you need to ask yourself and the actions to take if you are considering accessing your pension savings. Topics covered include understanding the type of pensions you have; making decisions about retirement dates; making sure your savings will last; and how you are investing your money.
Lee Coles, head of Jelf life after work, said: ‘Unfortunately when it comes to pensions, some decisions are irreversible, so it’s important that employers support employees in getting things right first time. This guide is not just designed to regurgitate the proposed legislative changes; it has been created specifically to show those changes in the context of the choices individuals need to make in the lead-up to and at retirement.
‘Pension freedom offers up major pitfalls to avoid and opportunities to take advantage of. The guide can assist employers who are understandably nervous about communicating such a complex set of changes relating to the taboo subject of retirement. Best complemented by face-to-face workplace education on the new rules, the guide can act as tangible evidence that employers have tried to make their workforce aware of the traps and benefits such freedom will create.’
With 46 per cent* of companies admitting they have not reviewed their pension’s lifestyling investment strategy following the abolition of the DRA and freedom-of-pensions announcements, employees need to ensure they are up to speed to make informed decisions about their financial future.
To download a copy of Your Guide to Pensions Freedom, click here.
*Source: Jelf Employee Benefits research among 187 employers (October 2014)