Technology firm Sapient has halved its pensions annual management charge (AMC) by switching providers for its group personal pension (GPP).
The firm has also introduced a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) and 12 core fund ranges.
Sapient switched from Friends Life to Scottish Widows to reduce its AMC from 0.8% to 0.4%. In making the move, it was also keen to highlight the fund choices available to employees because nearly all of its 560 UK staff are in the GPP’s default fund.
Its new Sipp has more than 1,000 funds to choose from. Anne Teggart, European compensation and benefits manager, said: “It is more appropriate for someone who has an independent financial adviser or knows a lot about investments to be able to manage it properly.”
To give staff further choice, Sapient’s broker, Aon Hewitt, has designed 12 core fund ranges offering a mixture of UK and global equities, cash, property and gilts. “It is to remind employees of their choices,” said Teggart. “We wanted to highlight to staff that there are other options.”
The changes were communicated to staff via Sapient’s People Portal intranet site, and weekly onsite and web presentations in August by Scottish Widows and Aon Hewitt.
Read about Hitachi Data Systems’ switch to a GPP
Read more about group personal pension (GPP) plans
