Theworkplace pensions

experts

Who we are

Our expertise means we can provide a solution for your entire workplace pension needs. Our approach is to demystify the complications that surround corporate pension provision.

We are an owner-managed business, based in Bristol. We offer director involvement for all clients, excellent value for money and have never lost a client due to poor service.

Why BBS?

• get the best advice, promptly and efficiently

• deal with people who are pensions experts but also understand your business needs

• benefit from market-leading performance standards

• experience true transparency by sharing our data and systems

• work with friendly and approachable actuaries, consultants and administrators who are skilled in making complex things seem simple

“OneofthebestoperationsIhaveeverhaddealingswith”

BBS are vastly experienced and highly qualified workplace pension specialists. Our friendly, helpful and handpicked team of actuaries, administrators and consultants ‘live and breathe’ pensions.

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What we do

Our services include:

• pension scheme administration

• actuarial and investment advice

• scheme actuary services

• workplace pensions consultancy

• trustee secretarial services

• scheme governance and trustee training

• communications and member engagement

We can provide solutions for all your corporate pension needs, be they trust or contract-based, defined contribution, defined benefit or hybrid arrangements. We bring the expertise, rigour and innovative solutions of an actuarial consultancy to all aspects of workplace pensions.

More detail on the various services we provide to our clients is given on pages 10 and 11.

“Firstclassprofessionalservice”

BBS provides a full range of workplace pension services to trustees and sponsoring employers. Our philosophy is ‘get it right, first time, on time, every time’.

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Client case study: Corporate pension strategy review

The employer

A manufacturing company with 450 staff, around 200 of whom are pension scheme members.

Existing workplace pension arrangements:

1. A frozen final salary scheme (FS scheme) – a deficit meant the employer was paying significant deficit reduction contributions

2. A trust-based contracted in money purchase scheme (CIMP) – with old-fashioned investment options, a variable member annual management charge (AMC) and no advice or support from the adviser who established the scheme

3. A group personal pension (GPP), inherited via a recent acquisition – with poor member support as it had been set up directly with an insurer, and a high AMC compared to current market terms

The company was concerned about the impact the introduction of compulsory employer contributions and auto-enrolment would have, as well as the inefficiencies of running multiple schemes.

How we helped

BBS carried out an exercise to establish the facts, data and documentation in relation to all the employer’s schemes. Once we had gathered all necessary information, we undertook a full strategic review of the options (and associated costs) available.

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Our recommendations

• offer a window for members to voluntarily transfer benefits out of the CIMP, and then buy out the remaining benefits

• wind up the CIMP, enabling active members to join the GPP and transfer benefits

• renegotiate the AMC on the GPP

• amend the GPP to meet the new compulsory employer contribution requirements

• introduce salary exchange for member contributions, resulting in substantial employer National Insurance Contribution savings, as well as savings for employees

• create a governance committee to ensure the GPP continued to meet members’ needs and ran efficiently

The results

With BBS’s help, the employer now has a more streamlined workplace pensions offering, providing employees with access to a competitively priced scheme with wide investment choice and extensive communication and education support.

The administrative burden has been reduced, and risks have been managed and mitigated. Governance has been strengthened, with more employee involvement, and the employer is fully prepared for the new auto-enrolment regulations.

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How we do it

A joined-up approach

We believe that a joined-up approach to actuarial and investment advice, together with our extensive range of proprietary modelling tools, enables our clients to make better-informed decisions, saving you time and money.

Efficient and effective technology, shared with our clients

We know technology can make a difference – our administration, actuarial and investment modelling systems have been specifically developed for our clients and are maintained in-house. Every single one of our database, administration and workflow systems is linked through the ‘BBS Hub’.

You can link directly to the BBS Hub, via our secure client access website, www.4mybenefit.co.uk

4mybenefit is set up for each individual client and can be scheme or employer branded. This excellent governance tool gives you direct access to:

• the actual member data we hold for your scheme, with the facility to download membership listings

• a secure data transfer facility

• your current scheme documentation

• meeting packs, agendas and minutes

“Alwaysdowhattheypromise”

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• details of work we have in progress for you

• a facility to view or download benefit statements or to tell us about work that needs to be undertaken

Demystifying the complexities of workplace pensions

We know it isn’t just about formal advice, so we provide our clients with briefing notes on topical issues and hold regular seminars and conferences to help keep you up to date in a more informal way.

Keeping your employees and scheme members informed is equally important to us. Pensions can be a complicated subject for many people to understand. As a scheme sponsor, you will want to make sure you are achieving best value for your pension spend. Helping your members understand, and therefore value, the benefits you are providing for them is key to this. We provide our clients with engaging and effective workplace pension employee communications, including:

• scheme booklets

• announcements and flyers

• trustee annual reports

• bespoke scheme websites

• group presentations

“Anexemplaryservice”

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Client case study: Reducing investment risk

The scheme

Our client had a defined benefit scheme that had been closed to future accrual for a few years. The scheme carried a funding deficit of around £7million and assets of £25million, 75% of which were invested in equities and 25% held in investment grade bonds.

The valuation results, and volatility in the scheme’s funding position caused by movements in investment markets, led to difficult ongoing negotiations between the trustees and the sponsoring employer.

How we helped

BBS’s approach was to treat the funding and investment issues as ‘one problem’ that could be best solved if all parties worked together openly. We worked closely with the trustees and employer to create the ‘team’ environment that was needed.

We undertook an analysis of the current investment strategy, focusing on aspects that were likely to give rise to volatility in the scheme’s funding position. We also used our modelling tools to design a long-term funding and risk management plan, to reduce the volatility over time in a cost effective way.

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Our recommendations

Our work highlighted that the scheme’s current investment strategy was the main cause of volatility in its funding position. We recommended that the trustees:

• make use of investment approaches that utilise a wider range of asset classes that are expected to generate long-term returns similar to those obtained from equities, but with less short-term volatility

• buy assets, such as bonds, whose value would move more closely in line with that of the scheme’s liabilities

• monitor the market for other investment approaches, such as Liability Driven Investment vehicles and annuity contracts, which could be used to provide further protection against funding volatility

We designed a pragmatic long-term investment plan where reaching pre-agreed improvements in the scheme’s funding level triggered the sale of growth assets. This avoided locking in the current deficit whilst seeking to protect any future improvements in the funding level.

The results

With the help provided by BBS both during this project and on an ongoing basis, the trustees and the sponsoring employer now have in place:

• an improved risk management framework for the scheme’s investment strategy, with key asset allocation decisions made as part of a long-term ‘trigger-based’ plan

• a long-term funding solution that works for all parties, whilst tackling the issue of volatility

• a process by which BBS monitors the investment markets for alternative products the trustees may be able to use in future

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What we do (in a bit more detail)

Pension scheme administration – everything you need to manage your data, members and banking

Actuarial and investment advice – BBS offers you a full range of services and specialises in joined-up investment and funding advice

Scheme actuary services – BBS fulfils the required Scheme Actuary role

• maintaining the membership database and dealing with member movements

• calculating benefits and dealing with member queries

• producing annual benefit statements

• running the trustees’ bank account and bookkeeping

• drafting the Annual Report & Accounts

• pensioner payroll

• continuous mortality screening

• making tax and other HMRC online returns

• actuarial modelling

• establishing employer covenant review processes

• investment strategy reviews and portfolio modelling

• advice to a sponsoring employer, including pensions accounting disclosures for company accounts

• investment manager research and monitoring

• formal actuarial valuation and advice on assumption setting

• annual funding updates

• advice on actuarial factors

• scheme funding advice

• formal certification

“Theservicehasbeensuperb”

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Workplace pensions consultancy – helping you deal with all aspects of corporate pension provision

Scheme governance and trustee training – helping you make sure you have well controlled processes in place and that your trustees have the knowledge they need

Trustee secretarial services – providing you with the comfort that compliance and administration requirements are being met

• pension strategy reviews

• advice to help set benefit and/or contribution levels

• contract-based pension scheme provider selection and management

• regulatory compliance

• reporting scheme management information and producing regular administration reports

• maintaining risk registers and reviewing internal control procedures

• tailored trustee education sessions ranging from individual topics covered at trustees’ meetings to full day workshops

• formal training seminars to help trustees meet the Pensions Regulator’s knowledge and understanding syllabus

• communications and member engagement – enabling you to not only meet disclosure requirements but also educate and support your members

• producing written documents such as annual newsletters, member booklets and summary funding statements

• delivering member presentations

• bespoke scheme websites, interactive PDFs, webcasts and other online tools

• mortality screening

• arranging meetings, preparing and issuing agenda packs, producing draft minutes and following up action points

• maintaining a scheme compliance report setting out key events and deadlines

“Anexcellentstandard”

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Contact us

To find out more about BBS and how we could help you, please contact James Stanfield at:

BBS Consultants & Actuaries Ltd Canard Court 23-25 St George’s Road Bristol BS1 5UU

Telephone: 0117 937 8700 Fax: 0117 937 8701 Email: info@bbs-actuaries.co.uk

www.bbs-actuaries.co.uk

BBS Consultants & Actuaries Ltd Registered in England and Wales, no. 7165366

Financial Services and Markets Act 2000

Investment activities referred to in this brochure may be classed as regulated activities under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. BBS is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are licensed by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide, and any regulated activities undertaken will be subject to these requirements.