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Investing pension savings

All workplace pension plans need to have a default investment plan.

Award Winning Investing

You do not need to have investing experience to select one of our ready made portfolios.

What is a portfolio?

Portfolios are a combination of investments, which are grouped together. Each portfolio is created by us and invests in diverse asset classes across a range of sectors. 

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Our portfolios are ranged depending upon the amount of risk, and tolerance for loss for the investors.

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What underpins a great pension is its returns

A pension is a long-term investment, give your employees the best performing portfolio and maximise their future retirement savings. 

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We win awards for our investing, and whilst we can never guarantee future returns, take a look at our current performance compared to our peers.

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Actively managed for you

Default funds are essential for employees who are automatically enrolled into workplace pensions. We invest with the worlds biggest money managers with each portfolio being globally diversified.

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Each portfolio is monitored and the funds within them will change over time depending upon performance.

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Portfolios

Prospective Risk Level

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Cautious

2 out of 10

You accept some risk and aim for a reasonable return. You accept the risk of a small to moderate loss with modest yet frequent fluctuations in value.

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moderately cautious

3-4 out of 10

You don't seek risky investments but don't avoid them either. Your aim is a longer term return. You accept modest yet frequent fluctuations in value and the risk of a moderate loss. 

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balanced

5-6 out of 10

You are aiming for higher long term returns and accept significant fluctuations in value. You accept the risk of a greater than moderate loss. 

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moderately adventurous

7-8 out of 10

You are aiming for higher long term returns and accept significant fluctuations in value. You accept the risk of a moderately significant loss. 

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adventurous

9 out of 10

You are aiming for higher long term returns and accept frequent, significant fluctuations in value. You accept the risk of a significant loss. 

ESG and Sharia Funds

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ESG

7-8 out of 10

You are aiming for higher long term returns and accept significant fluctuations in value. You accept the risk of a moderately significant loss. 

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Sharia

9 out of 10

Managed according to the principles of the Islamic faith and seek to adhere to Sharia law.

strong performance

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  • What is the update on the Court Application and how long will a transfer to a new provider take?
    The Administrators have now issued the court application with a hearing date of 29 February and 1 March 2024. Therefore the Administrators expect to commence the transfer out process in March 2024. It is expected that a transfer out of all clients to new appropriately regulated operators will take 12 months and therefore clients can expect the latest that they will be transferred out to a new operator is February 2025.
  • What has happened to Hartley Pensions Limited (''Hartley'')?
    As you may be aware Hartley entered into administration on 29 July 2022. This decision was made as a result of serious operational and regulatory issues which caused the Financial Conduct Authority (''FCA'') to impose a number of voluntary requirements on Hartley. Upon seeking professional advice, the director of Hartley concluded that Hartley was or was likely to become cash flow insolvent in the future and therefore opted to place Hartley into administration. The administration of Hartley is conducted by Peter Kubik and Brian Johnson of UHY Hacker Young LLP (the "Administrators").
  • Can I transfer my pension to another provider now?
    The Administrators are incurring costs in continuing to administer the SIPPs and Hartley cannot continue to trade in administration without further funding. This is because prior to Hartley entering administration, its source of revenue was a combination of the charges placed upon clients for the establishment of their SIPP within Hartley and the continued administration of their SIPP thereafter. However, as the Administrators team are made up of professionals with attendant market charge-out rates which are higher than the salaried costs of the employees at Hartley, the annual administration charges are insufficient to cover the costs of continuing to administer the SIPPs, identify and agree terms for new operator(s) and subsequently transfer the SIPPs to the new operators. As a result, the Administrators intend to replace the current annual administration fees with a single 'exit and administration charge' (''EAC''). Whilst the SIPP client's terms and conditions grant the Administrators the authority to impose the EAC, the Administrators have filed a court application seeking confirmation that the Administrators can validly apply the charge, whether under clients existing terms and conditions, or under amended terms and conditions. Therefore until such time that the court application process has finished and the EAC has been imposed, the Administrators are unable to process any transfers out of clients to new operators.
  • What is Administration?
    Administration is an insolvency process whereby Hartley has been placed under the control of insolvency practitioners who will manage the affairs of Hartley, instead of the director. The Administrators have a statutory objective of achieving a better result for the creditors as a whole than would be likely to be achieved if Hartley were wound up (without first entering administration). As such the Administrators have been operating Hartley since 29 July 2022 (when it first entered administration) in order to transfer out all SIPP clients to a new provider.
  • Do I get a choice on which provider I am transferred to?
    Yes, all clients will have the opportunity to identify which new provider they wish to transfer to.
  • What is the alternative to Administration?
    The alternative route to Hartley being in administration and the Administrators transferring all SIPP clients to new operators would be to place Hartley into liquidation. This would have a detrimental impact for all SIPP clients as they could be faced with a de-registration tax charge. This de-registration tax charge is 40% of the cash held in the SIPP plus the market value of any other assets held within the SIPP immediately before it is de-registered.
  • Can employees alter their funds?
    Yes. Members can alter the funds they are invested in at any time, free of charge.
  • Can we select an alternative default fund?
    Yes you can. When selecting a default fund, consider what is suitable for all of your employees.
  • What happens to members funds if they were to die?
    The fund value would be passed on to their beneficiaries, in most cases free of inheritance tax.
  • Do you have Ethical and ESG default portfolios?
    Absolutely, if you’d like to discuss portfolios that are Ethical and those that adhere to Environmental, Social and Governance measures, please contact us.
  • Do you have Sharia compliant funds?
    Yes we do. If you would like to discuss the options further please contact us.
  • What is a portfolio?
    A portfolio is a collection of investments, usually made up of shares, funds and other instruments.
  • What happens if someone opts out?
    Once a worker selects to opt out, as an employer you must stop deducting contributions and refund any contributions already taken via payroll.
  • What happens if a worker wants to opt out after their one month opt out period?
    If a worker does not opt out within their one-month window, they can still choose to stop contributing, however anything paid into the pension will remain invested until such a time they are able to access their pension.
  • Can they re-join?
    Yes, workers can re-join and choose to opt in. In addition, and by law, an employer will be required to re-enrol workers every every 3 years.
  • What is opting in?
    Workers can choose to opt in to your qualifying pension scheme if they are not currently an active member. Workers will benefit from the obligatory employer contributions. An entitled worker can use their joining rights to become an active member, however the employer is not obliged to pay any contributions.
  • Can I ask them if they want to opt out?
    No. The Pensions Regulator can view this as an inducement. As an employer you cannot encourage or force workers to opt out. Doing so may result in a penalty from the regulator. Using a provider such as Onepension can help keep you as the employer independent.
  • When can opt-in or joining requests be refused?
    As an employer, you can choose to not process a workers request if; the worker has given or received notice to terminate their employment OR a worker opted-in or joined within the past 12 months and subsequently the worker ceased membership of the scheme.
  • Opting out - what is it?
    Workers who are enrolled into the scheme have the right to opt out of the pension scheme within one calendar month. It starts from the later of: · The date active membership was achieved · The date they received a letter from you as their employer with the enrolment information Workers must be enrolled as an active member before they can opt out, details of how to opt out will be provided in their joining letter.
  • Can one scheme have varying levels of contributions?
    Absolutely. You will pre-set the scheme eligibility rules and we shall apply this to contributions and assessments.
  • What level of contributions do I need to pay?
    This depends upon what basis your scheme is set up on. Each certification level will have minimum amounts. If you would like to talk this through with us please use our contact form or call us.
  • How will the contributions be collected?
    When we set up your scheme, we’ll also ask you for bank details to set up the direct debit for your member contributions. We will need at least 14 days’ notice before your first contribution to do this.
  • How are member contributions invested?
    You can choose a default portfolio for members contributions to be invested in, usually this would be a balanced portfolio. After first contributions are collected, members can choose a portfolio which suits them.
  • What information is required?
    Either by API integration or by CSV upload, we will require workforce data to set up their pension policy, issue member communication and assess the workforce where required.
  • Can we choose to reivest some of our national insurance savings?
    Yes you can. Automatically you will keep 100% of the savings you make, however some employers choose to reinvest the savings to boost pension contributions. Common percentages are 25%, 50% or 75%.
  • How will our workforce benefit?
    By sacrificing a proportion of their salary your workforce will pay less Income Tax and National Insurance on the proportion sacrificed. You can choose to take the savings in two ways: Use the Tax and NIC savings to increase your contributions and keep your take home pay the same. Use the Tax and NIC savings to increase your take home pay and keep your pension contributions the same
  • Would HMRC have to be told about salary sacrifice arrangements?
    No, salary sacrifice constitutes a change to an employees contract of employment, it is not within the remit of HMRC and they do not need to be advised.
  • What happens if the employee starts parental leave/long term sick?
    The employer will have to continue making the payments while the individual is being paid unless the agreement is written in such a way that it stops at certain events, such as parental leave or when long term sick leave starts. Remember that under the rules for parental leave the employer is required to maintain the employees pension contributions at the level they were before the individual started parental leave. They should continue until paid parental leave ends.
  • Is Salary sacrifice right for everyone?
    Salary sacrifice isn’t for everyone, and you will not be able to exchange part of your salary if it reduces your earnings below the minimum wage.
  • How are member contributions invested?
    You can choose a default portfolio for members contributions to be invested in, usually this would be a balanced portfolio. After first contributions are collected, members can choose a portfolio which suits them.
  • What level of contributions do I need to pay?
    This depends upon what basis your scheme is set up on. Each certification level will have minimum amounts. If you would like to talk this through with us please use our contact form or call us.
  • Can one scheme have varying levels of contributions?
    Absolutely. You will pre-set the scheme eligibility rules and we shall apply this to contributions and assessments.
  • How will the contributions be collected?
    When we set up your scheme, we’ll also ask you for bank details to set up the direct debit for your member contributions. We will need at least 14 days’ notice before your first contribution to do this.
  • What information is required?
    Either by API integration or by CSV upload, we will require workforce data to set up their pension policy, issue member communication and assess the workforce where required.
  • Can my employer contribute?
    Yes absolutely, contributions can be collected from multiple sources.
  • Do I have to pay in regularly?
    You can choose to contribute monthly, or as one-off payments.
  • Can I choose my own investments?
    We have a range of portfolios to select, depending upon your own attitude to risk. There are also a range of self-select funds for you to create your own portfolio with.
  • Can I transfer an existing pension into my plan?
    Yes, we accept transfers into your plan. We can also help you trace any old pensions that you may have collected previously.
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