It gives us great pleasure to acknowledge that we have been listed as an approved provider of workplace pensions by The Pensions Regulator.
This honour is a great achievement as well as a select one as True Potential is one of just two providers of group personal pensions in the UK to be approved by The Pensions Regulator and listed on its website. The list was opened in April to help businesses find a suitable provider for their workplace pension under the Governments automatic enrolment scheme.
The Pension Regulator only lists providers that accept all types of employers, regardless of how many people they employ. Many providers have opted not to service small companies, preferring larger ones instead and those where employees contribute greater amounts to their pensions. We choose to campaign for democratised pensions investments which is an ethos that extends across our business endeavours. Alongside our recently honoured auto enrolment solution, we have also demonstrated this through our micro-investing tool impulseSave® where investors can top up from as little as £1, and our work with the Open University which offers free financial education courses to the UK.
True Potential was approved by The Pensions Regulator as we are committed to providing effective, accessible solutions for all. We provide free auto enrolment technology services to the entire market and accept all contributions in line with auto enrolment minimums. We are proud to currently power schemes for around 8,000 employers and over 50,000 employees across the UK.
We believe that The Pension Regulator’s list is a lifeline to very small firms who may have struggled to find a provider in time to meet their deadline, meaning that they could be fined.
To become approved and listed by The Pensions Regulator, providers must meet certain criteria, including
• providers will be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (and Prudential Regulation Authority where applicable) for group personal pensions provision
• the provider will confirm that their group personal pension is open to all employers who wish to use it to comply with their automatic enrolment duties regardless of projected membership numbers or contribution amounts
• all charges imposed on members in a default fund will be within the charge cap
• providers will need to confirm that their independent governance committee or governance advisory arrangement has assessed the group personal pension (or relevant group personal product series) under offer
• member communications must include a clear description of how tax relief is delivered.
Selecting a provider that is not approved by The Pensions Regulator could have costly consequences for firms, who face fines if their pension provider falls below The Pensions Regular standards.
Neil Johnson, Senior Partner at True Potential said: “The Pensions Regulator has given us their stamp of approval and a listing on their website, which is a valuable resource for companies looking for a provider. We don’t think auto enrolment should be a complicated process. That’s why we have built a system that is quick to set up, easy to use and free. It works equally well for a business with one employee as it does for one with 1,000.
“Lots of businesses have embraced auto enrolment and want to offer the best services to their staff. They like our system because it enables their employees to engage with their finances, see how they are performing and make top up payments whenever they want to.”
The roll out of workplace pensions nationwide began in 2012 and it’s estimated that up to almost 900,000 employers in the UK are still to roll out workplace pensions under automatic enrolment.
To find out more about our workplace pension solutions visit www.tpinvestor.com/autoenrolment or call 0191 242 4863.
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