Secondary Pensions approved by the States of Guernsey

The States of Guernsey have announced the approval of the long-awaited Secondary Pension legislation, meaning that employers in Guernsey and Alderney will soon be required to provide a Qualifying Pension scheme to their eligible employees, who will then be automatically enrolled into that chosen scheme. 

More details are due to be announced shortly, but it has already been indicated that the introduction will be staggered over several months with larger companies, of 26 or more employees, required to have a scheme set up first, with medium sized and smaller companies following later. 

Director of Gower Pensions, Scott Rowe, commented “The introduction of Secondary Pensions and Auto Enrolment has been a great success in the UK since being introduced in 2012 and it is hoped that it will do the same for Guernsey.  There is greater onus today on the individual to provide funding for their own retirement and this is only going to increase in the future, so it is positive news that pensions will now be offered to employees as a matter of course, so they can start their savings journey as soon as possible”.

At Gower, we specialise in providing Guernsey corporate schemes and have a qualifying corporate pension scheme for local employers, The Horizon Guernsey Pension Plan.  We’ve been busy setting up Qualifying schemes for many firms over a wide range of industries, as employers have looked to get schemes in place in anticipation of the legislation.  Now that this has been approved, we are able to help any company with queries about what they need to do now and in the coming months.   As well as our Qualifying pension scheme, we have ‘explainer’ presentations for both business owners/management and staff alike and we can come into your place of work to present these, or we can welcome you to our offices.   

In addition, Gower offers a wide range of financial planning services so that pension scheme members can benefit from added value services such as investments, mortgages, life insurance and financial advice. 

Please contact Scott Rowe on 700200 or by email at [email protected] to discuss your requirements.