Strawberry, the direct-to-consumer investment platform, today announces the launch of its Strawberry Pensions auto-enrolment offering for the SME market, www.strawberrypensions.org.uk.
This proposition will further Strawberry’s stated intention of simplifying savings, and will sit alongside its ‘Make It Easy’ service, which feeds into its SIPP, general investment account and ISA propositions.
Strawberry Pensions, provided in association with TRUST¦Pensions, is a guaranteed acceptance Mastertrust and is administered by professional trustee company Bridge Trustees Limited to provide a hassle-free answer for businesses that need to auto-enrol their staff.
The Mastertrust has been developed specifically to make auto-enrolment as low cost and straightforward as possible for SME companies approaching their staging dates, as well as employers reviewing their initial arrangements. The default investment option is the dynamically-managed BirthStar® Target Date Funds, which are also used in Strawberry’s ‘Make It Easy’ investment service.
Employers will not be charged to join the pension scheme, but can select additional options to tailor the setup process. There is an optional Assisted Set-Up service, as well as optional Assessment & Communications middleware.
For those employers who are keen on signing up more quickly and can manage the process themselves, there is an express route which uses standardised terms.
James Priday, founder and managing director of Strawberry Invest, explained: “The Strawberry Pensions solution introduces a simple and efficient way for small to medium business employers to meet their auto-enrolment requirements, and given that 1.4 million SMEs will have to do so in the coming few years, we anticipate this additional capacity is definitely required.”
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