Willis Develops Auto-Enrollment Platform to Guide UK Companies through Workplace Pension Reforms

The UK Employee Benefits Practice of Willis Group Holdings plc, the global insurance broker, today announced the launch of its Auto-Enrollment platform, an online service providing employers with the tools they need to manage Workplace pension reforms due to come into effect in the UK from 2012.

Published on October 7, 2011

The 2012 Workplace pension reforms include a legal duty to automatically enrol all eligible jobholders into a qualifying pension scheme, and the introduction of a new compliance regime enforced by the Pension Regulator. There is a four-year timetable governing when each employer needs to comply with the new rules, starting first with the largest employers who must comply by October 2012.

Willis’ Auto-Enrollment platform is a solution tool which enables companies to manage these changes, and comply with the new rules and requirements.

Willis’ Auto-Enrollment services include:

* A consultancy service to enable companies to understand how the new requirements relate to their circumstances and what the impact on their business will be.
* Advice on whether current pension arrangements meet the criteria for a qualifying pension under the new rules, and an illustration of any additional costs that will apply.
* A market review of qualifying pension schemes to find the scheme which best suits a company’s requirements.
* A technology platform to manage the new duties and requirements of employers under pension reform, and to provide companies with management reporting and analysis across multiple pension schemes.
* Services to help communicate the changes and the options available to employees including the design, production and delivery of a multichannel communications strategy.

Tony Powis, Managing Director of Willis Employee Benefits Limited, said “Pension reform presents our clients with significant financial, operational, reputational and compliance risks and challenges. Willis Employee Benefits provides end to end solutions from an initial impact assessment report, to an on-going service to implement and manage the changes necessary. This new platform has been developed to automate the auto-enrollment process and new employer duties to ensure clients meet new requirements with the minimum disruption to their business activities.”