Recent research highlighted by The Independent (1) showing that some employers are being put off offering financial advice as a workplace benefit has certainly left us scratching our heads.
According to the survey from Close Brothers’ Workplace Financial Wellbeing Service (2), 34% of employers don’t offer financial advice, rising to 51% in the case of organisations with fewer than 500 employees.
The most common reasons given by those with no imminent intention of offering such advice revolved around the perceived risks of inappropriate advice being given – which could in turn reflect negatively on their own organisation’s reputation.
However, the study – conducted amongst over 1,000 employees and 500 employers between this March and July – also indicated that employees aged between 25 and 34 would be particularly keen to receive financial advice.
Another key finding was that the workplace benefits most likely to have a positive impact on employee wellbeing were pension (52%), private medical insurance (PMI) (38%), and financial advice (36%).
Financial advice coming a narrow third to PMI seems relatively encouraging and does not altogether surprise us as we have noticed a marked recent surge in the popularity of PMI in the wake of the NHS crisis.
The importance of independence
However, the idea that providing independent financial advice could reflect badly on an employer goes against everything we have been hearing from our clients.
Many employers we work with in fact volunteer that providing financial advice through Chase de Vere has actually enhanced their reputation, and we can’t recall having any negative feedback.
We can only imagine that the Close Brothers’ research included a lot of employers who don’t use an adviser, or certainly don’t use one with an independent financial adviser (IFA) arm. Unlike many of its competitors in the employee benefits space, Chase de Vere has such an arm.
Our clients value the fact that Chase de Vere are a completely different independent entity to themselves, and that the and whole-of-market advice given by our expert private wealth advisers to their employees is clearly ring-fenced from clients firms.
Retirement planning
Advice and guidance we can give on retirement planning is especially appreciated because the sooner you can help individuals make decisions in this area the sooner they can discuss their intentions with their employer – which can help with succession planning.
Indeed, part of the governance meeting we have when advising employers on the employee benefits side is to work with them to make sure they are meeting requirements to give employees good outcomes in retirement.
Generic guidance for employees in this respect is available via seminars and workshops in our financial education programme – presentations on pre-retirement and pensions being two of its four pillars.
Those who attend the sessions, which can be either virtual or face to face, often want to go a step further and receive one-to-one regulated financial advice.
For anyone close to retirement a lot of such meetings involve discussing the options open to them. But one-to-ones also prove useful for many still some way off retirement who need advice on issues like how much they should be contributing, risk profiling and tracking and transferring other pension schemes.
Other areas
The other two pillars of our financial education programme are presentations on budgeting and on investment and risk. And, once again, these can be followed up with one-to-one advisory sessions.
We can also tailor presentations to suit employers’ particular needs. So, if, for example, a firm has recently introduced a PMI scheme or started enjoying significantly increased take up from an existing scheme, we can bespoke a session specifically to address understanding of that product.
To give a more niche example, one client employs an exceptionally large number of female workers, and a lot of these return on a part-time basis after taking maternity leave. So, we devised a course that specifically focuses on the considerations involved with switching to part-time work.
If you would like to find out more about how our financial education courses and one-to-one financial advisory sessions could benefit your employees, then please don’t hesitate to contact your Chase de Vere Consultant.
The information contained within this article is for guidance only and does not constitute financial advice.
Sources
1 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/yougov-b2590819.html
2 https://www.closebrothersam.com/employers/research-and-insights/financial-wellbeing-index