COMPANY GUIDE. This guide aims to give you an understanding of how Legal & General s WorkSave Pension Mastertrust can help you provide a cost efficient, flexible and valued workplace pension scheme for your workforce.
2 WHY CHOOSE OUR WORKSAVE PENSION MASTERTRUST? The Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust is a defined contribution occupational pension scheme created for multiple employers under a single trust arrangement. When you join, your membership is administered separately from the other participating employers but it retains the benefits associated with being part of a single trust agreement. It can help you manage the long-term cost of pension provision, especially with auto enrolment, by reducing future liabilities attached to running your own DC Scheme. It can also offer a high level of scheme governance to benefit you and your employees. We can provide a flexible approach to tailoring your scheme according to your budget, contractual obligations and company ethos. We ve developed our Mastertrust to give maximum choice. You can choose to delegate every aspect of responsibility to the Trustees in what we call sole governance. Or, you can choose to share the governance and scheme design as one of our shared governance schemes, where you can help shape how your scheme operates in terms of investments and communications. We even offer two versions a traditional net pay version and a tax relief at source version more commonly associated with personal and stakeholder pensions so you can choose the best way for your workforce to gain tax relief on their contributions. Both versions can be combined with a Salary Sacrifice arrangement to give you more flexibility. FEATURES Our WorkSave Pension Mastertrust offers a range of features and benefits including: Sole or shared governance 3 A set of comprehensive service packages and options 3 A default investment for auto enrolment 3 A choice of investment options including: A wide range of our own funds, including index-trackers and actively managed funds A large number of funds from specially selected external fund managers A choice of lifestyle profiles Full online access for employees allowing them to view their savings, change funds and update their details whenever they want 3 3 A range of employee educational materials and useful tools 3 The ability to operate a salary sacrifice arrangement 3 The Mastertrust Annual General Meeting 3 A choice of retirement options including Flexi-Access Drawdown, Cash Lump Sums and Annuities 3 This document outlines our services for companies participating in our Workplace Pension Mastertrust scheme. Our Mastertrust scheme has achieved the Pensions Quality Mark Ready accreditation an independent award that recognises its high standards of governance and engaging communications strategies. Participants whose contribution structure achieve prescribed criteria can automatically be awarded PQM status.
3 ADVANTAGES OF A MASTERTRUST The advantages of a Mastertrust over a single trust are that it removes the need for you to create and register your own scheme, appoint scheme administrators and practitioners or liaise with HMRC and The Pensions Regulator (TPR). It also removes the need to appoint Trustees or Member Nominated Trustees. This avoids the associated cost, risk and resource time that running a scheme can involve. Our Mastertrust operates on a bundled basis where the administration and investment charges are paid for by the members. There are no other fees payable to us although an employer may choose to pay fees if you wish to reduce or remove the administration charge. TAX RELIEF OPTIONS We can offer a Net Pay product that allows participating employers to provide tax relief on member contributions by reducing their taxable earnings when contributions are paid to us directly from payroll before tax is deducted. Another option is our Tax Relief at Source product, this means that members contributions are paid from their net pay and we will automatically add basic rate tax relief. A Relief at Source scheme can be a big financial advantage to a workforce that pay little or no income tax. Both versions can be combined with a Salary Sacrifice arrangement. INVESTMENT OPTIONS We can offer bespoke fund strategies where they can be tailored at either client or adviser level and can also be a combination of blends and lifestyle profiles. This is subject to underwriting criteria. Please speak to your usual Legal & General contact for more information. You may also choose for your governance committee to influence options offered to your members and request they have access only to a certain range of funds from the full investment options available. These choices can be the only options visible to members online and within the scheme member s booklet. We can provide the wording to describe these options for your member s booklet. AUTO ENROLMENT The Mastertrust is can be used as your auto enrolment scheme as long as you pay the required level of contributions to eligible employees. Many companies have already designated our Mastertrust as their auto enrolment solution.
4 KEEPING YOU INFORMED. We produce the following reports for your scheme: MEMBER STATUS REPORT A summary of membership movement for a specific period this includes membership at the start and end of the report period. Detailed membership status an employer overview of the member information at the start and end of the report period. This also details any claims made during the period and the value of the benefits paid. This report shows the member name, NINO, payroll/staff reference (if held) and start and end dates where applicable. MEMBER ACCOUNT STATUS REPORT The same as the member s status report but this shows each account that a member holds. CONTRIBUTION REPORT A summary of contributions for the period including transfers and ISPs. This details contribution groups for payments received within the reporting period split between Regular, Single, Transfers and Intra Scheme Payments. FUND VALUE REPORT A summary of the overall fund holdings including units, number of members invested in each fund and fund values for the valuation date per fund. An employer/category overview detailing the investment fund breakdown per member s account. Details include: member name, NINO, payroll/staff reference number, account number, fund name, number of units held, unit price and fund value. We also issue Governance Reports and Investment Reports if required on a quarterly basis.
5 BALANCE OF POWERS. The Trust Deed and Rules (the Scheme s formal governing documentation) requires us to have an Independent Trustee, appointed from The Pension Regulator s list of approved Independent Trustees. BESTrustees and Pitmans Trustees Limited are the fully independent professional Trustee companies on the Mastertrust board. The Trustees hold the legal title of the scheme assets and therefore have strict legal duties to ensure that those assets are used to provide benefits in accordance with the terms of the trust (except where overridden by statute). THESE RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE: Holding the trust assets Prudently investing the assets in accordance with the terms of the trust Collecting the contributions as required by the terms of the trust Paying the benefits in accordance with the terms of the trust Agreeing which investments to be made available Monitoring scheme administration Ensuring member communications are clear and accurate. However, each participating company can choose to create rules within rules specific to their scheme. For example: GENERAL Eligibility Contribution levels Salary Sacrifice arrangements Qualifying service definition Normal retirement age Member access to online tools At retirement options (including a choice of annuity broker/income drawdown adviser). INVESTMENTS Tailored fund range from the 170+ funds available A default investment option or options for your membership demographic. COMMUNICATIONS You can influence the design, style and content of your communications including the membership booklet and benefit statements.
6 SCHEME GOVERNANCE. Scheme governance under our Mastertrust is a collaboration between: The Trustees Investment Sub Committee Communications Sub Committee Discretionary Payment and Dispute Resolution Sub Committee The Mastertrust employer group who meet quarterly The Members annual general meeting where fund performance, government changes, ethical investing, member communications and other topical issues may be discussed. For Shared Governance schemes, the Company s Governance Committee In shared governance schemes we can provide regular reports on funds, Membership profiles, contributions, online usage and performances against our Service Level Agreements. OTHER SUPPORT We can also provide Legal & General branded supporting communications including: Post sales member communications Auto enrolment communications Education videos Member education modules Generic flyers and posters Online planning tools, including Retirement Planner, Attitude to Risk and Manage Your Account.
7 WHY LEGAL AND GENERAL? As one of the biggest providers of workplace benefits in the UK we understand, through experience, what it takes to build a successful pension plan. Having managed group schemes since the early 1970s, we now run over 3,650 schemes. ABOUT US The Legal & General Group, established in 1836, is one of the UK s leading financial services companies. As at 31 December 2015, the total value of assets across the group was 746.1 billion, including derivative assets. We also had over nine million customers in the UK for our life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans. Legal & General is one of the biggest providers of index-tracking investments in the UK, managing 274.3 billion as at 31 December 2015. STRENGTH FOR LIFE Legal & General Assurance Society Limited is highly rated for financial strength amongst UK insurance companies. This has been recognised by three of the world s leading independent rating agencies, Standard & Poors, Moody s and A.M. Best. OUR AWARDS Auto Enrolment Provider of the Year FT Pension and Investment Provider Awards 2014 Group Pensions Winner Gold Standard Awards 2014 Best Master Trust Corporate Adviser Awards 2014 and 2015
CONTACT US For more information about our WorkSave Pension Mastertrust, or any of our other WorkSave products contact: Neil Kempshall Corporate Sales Director 07850 981364 neil.kempshall@landg.com www.legalandgeneral.com/workplacebenefits Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust and Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust (RAS) are regulated by The Pensions Regulator. Administrator: Legal & General Assurance Society Limited. Registered in England and Wales No. 166055 Registered office: One Coleman Street, London EC2R 5AA Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Q0031904 04/16