Pension consultants Barnett Waddingham has announced today that it has partnered with Standard Life to develop auto enrolment services for small and medium enterprises (SME) companies with staging dates commencing in early 2014.
Barnett Waddingham’s partnership with Standard Life reflects the growing need for auto enrolment solutions in the SME market. It is estimated that there are more than 30,000 companies with workforces between 50-250* that will need to be auto enrolled in the next 18 months.
Damian Stancombe, head of employee benefits, Barnett Waddingham, says: “There is increasing behaviour in the marketplace which suggests that there is a growing fear of an auto enrolment ‘saturation point’ in the SME space, which may leave many companies out in the cold when it comes to complying with their auto enrolment staging date.
“We are looking forward to developing our relationship with Standard Life in a way which will allow us to create an auto enrolment product with the specific needs of the SME market at the core of it.
“Before entering this partnership we undertook full due diligence of the provider market. While many of the shortlist providers could demonstrate their capability, Standard Life scored exceptionally highly in its approach to investment, communication and commitment.”
Alan Reid, workplace distribution director, Standard Life adds: “We are entering an important period which could define the success of auto enrolment. Demand from SMEs for support around implementing a qualifying workplace scheme will increase dramatically and we will see more and more businesses looking to good, quality advisers for guidance.
“We’re therefore delighted to be partnering with Barnett Waddingham to support them and their SME clients through auto enrolment. Ultimately we share the same aim of putting in place workplace pension arrangements which deliver good outcomes for employees.”
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