"It remains ‘full steam ahead’ for the team here at NOW: Pensions, with the focus remaining firmly on gearing up for 2012,” comments Morten Nilsson, CEO of NOW: Pensions.
“We are ready to sign up businesses and will be in operation by 1st January. We have set up our trust and believe we have a very compelling offer and a robust business model, so we don’t expect the Government’s latest developments to result in any changes to our product offering. We have always said we would be willing to serve any company that can integrate with us in a sensible way, and our solution fits all types of companies and all their employees. In terms of our position in the pensions market, scale does matter, but there is still a very big market out there and plenty of room for new competitive offerings in the UK pension space.”
Morten Nilsson continued: “We can understand why, in the current economic environment, the government is trying to see how it can help small businesses grow. However, we believe this move disadvantages those people at the heart of Turner's target audience – UK employees. Given it is usually smaller companies who tend not to have adequate pension provision in place for their employees, we question the logic and the long-term vision of the decision.”
“It is also important to consider other potential unintended consequences of the planned development. For example, it could lead many companies into spending money trying to avoid going over the "50 employee" limit rather than using the funds to provide their employees with a pension and helping them save for retirement. Furthermore, the delays could also have a knock-on effect on employee sentiment, whose confidence in auto-enrolment may start to wane, leaving them questioning whether the initiative will ever get off the ground.”
Nilsson concluded: “Formally establishing the UK Trust means the members of the Advisory Board now become official Trustee Directors for the NOW: Pensions offering, whose role will continue to be safeguarding the interests of members.”
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