The most significant change in the pension arena for many years is the introduction of Personal Accounts and auto enrolment. Without doubt the press and publicity will result in increased employee awareness of the need for pension provision and Xafinity welcomes this.

Many employers currently provide excellent pension arrangements that will exempt them from major changes but they may still see increased employee take up and, therefore, increased costs. For those employers not exempt there will be the need to take a much closer look at their arrangements.

Many employers will question whether:

• They are exempt
• Whether their Stakeholder Scheme is competitive and efficient
• The arguments for Trust based or Contract based plans
• They need to look more closely at governance issues
• To run a Personal Account arrangement in alongside their existing arrangement.

Xafinity Consulting has significant experience of helping companies undertake a strategic review of pension arrangements taking into account their existing arrangements, current and future legislation as well as tends in benefit provision.