Actuarial Post - Issue 3 - (Page 20)

20 Pension Pillar As many of you will already know, Friends Life was launched in March this year, bringing together the UK operations of Friends Provident and the life assurance businesses acquired from BUPA and AXA UK. From now on I’ll be here every month in a new regular column talking all things pensions – and there’s certainly a lot to talk about: AutoEnrolment; NEST; the RDR; Removal of the Normal Retirement Date; changes to women’s retirement age; the impacts of new technology – the list seems endless. There’s no doubt that the pensions industry is going through the biggest changes it has ever seen, and whilst some of the changes will prove challenging, there’s real opportunity too. Focus on Auto-Enrolment In my role as head of Pensions marketing Auto-Enrolment is certainly one of the key areas of focus for myself and the team here. It’s clearly going to have a revolutionary impact on the industry and if it succeeds will help address the serious cultural shift away from saving for the future - but launching Auto-Enrolment is only step one towards solving the issue, step two is to engage with people to ensure they think about how much they will need – or want – to have available to them in later life and to save enough for the lifestyle they actually want in retirement, and that’s something Auto-Enrolment can help with but not necessarily fully deliver. Our estimates are that there could be a JULY 2011 ACTUARIAL POST Welcome to the new pensions blog from Friends Life. Every month in a new regular column Martin Palmer, Head o doubling in the number of members taking up corporate pensions as a result of Auto-Enrolment. This in itself will require providers to launch new, innovative technological solutions to ensure a smooth, straight-through processing operation. Employers will have a lot of work to do as well, preparing themselves for a host of new data management and regulatory reporting and record keeping. They’ll need to decide whether to offer employees a new or existing scheme, NEST or whether to offer a combination of these depending on the nature of their employees. After the initial set up, including assessing eligibility for all employees, there will be work to get the triennial re-enrolment process in place. At Friends Life we’re providing as much support on these elements as possible. In talking to employers there’s a mix between those who’ve started making plans and those who have yet to give it consideration. Our message would be start thinking about it now. We must remember that the ultimate scheme members will need to adjust to new challenges too. Even modest reductions in take home pay will be tough for some, so it’s essential that employees are kept in mind throughout preparations. For Auto-Enrolment to be a true success it needs to be a catalyst for engagement with staff, not just a push in the right direction. Because whilst Auto-Enrolment will act as a nudge to start saving it is by no means a complete fix. To have a decent level of income in retirement we each need to

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Actuarial Post - Issue 3

Actuarial Post - Issue 3
Contents
News
A Day in the Life of ...Gareth Haslip Solvency II Expert
Group Structure: The Next Focus
Review of the Amazon Kindle
Luddite
Mentioned in Dispatches
Talent Shortages Offer New Career Opportunities
Recruitment

Actuarial Post - Issue 3