July 9, 2025
How to balance budget and employee choice in your flexible benefits scheme
A well-structured flexible benefits scheme can make sense for employers whilst improving engagement and retention.
Check out below all the articles and updates from Kellands.
A well-structured flexible benefits scheme can make sense for employers whilst improving engagement and retention.
Attracting and retaining the best quality staff remains a key focus for employers and the employee benefits you offer can be an important attraction for them.
With the impending rise in National Insurance contributions (NICs), many employers are looking to salary sacrifice to make NIC savings and reduce overall contributions.
How to make your workplace pension scheme work better for you and your employees.
The phrase ‘my business is my pension’ has been quoted by many small business owners and directors. But is this really a sensible strategy when it comes to planning for your retirement?
For many owners of small to medium sized businesses (SMEs), their business is their life, so it makes sense for them to try to keep it safe from all risks. Yet many SMEs overlook the need to protect their business from the potential damaging effects of a long-term illness or death to a key person.
Employees approaching retirement need to know exactly when they can retire and what their options are. Here’s how you can help.
Flexible benefits - giving employees what they want, rather than what the employer thinks they want, can be a powerful tool when it comes to attracting, motivating and recruiting staff.
As a business owner or shareholder of an SME, it’s important that you protect your business against the untimely death of a major stakeholder. Shareholder protection insurance can have a key role to play in this process.
Group life insurance is one of the employee benefits most highly valued by employees, yet only 19% of SMEs provide the benefit.
A significant portion of employees neglect their workplace pensions, impacting future financial security.
In the current economic environment, group income protection could have an important role to play for your business and your employees.
New research highlights concerning trends.
We take a look at what business owners should know about the Corporation Tax increase – and how we can help.
Some thoughts on how to get your employees thinking about their pension.
Only a quarter of pension savers using a workplace pension believe their current retirement saving rate will not be sufficient for later life.
The government is freezing the earnings threshold for automatic enrolment into a workplace pension scheme.
Many SMEs rely on director’s loans to fund their business; however a lot of them have not even considered Business Loan Protection.
What did the pandemic mean for workplace pension savings?
A spate of recent surveys shows both how people have responded to pensions throughout the pandemic and their general lack of understanding and engagement.
There is no doubt that the pandemic has had a major impact on people’s pensions, savings and jobs, forcing many to rethink and, in some cases, delay retirement plans.
Whilst many organisations were beginning to recognise that benefits programmes needed to evolve, the pandemic has speeded up that process.
Contributions to workplace pension schemes tumbled in the early stages of the pandemic.
Despite the massive impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy, employers have so far made few changes to their pension schemes, whilst most employees have left their contribution levels and investment choices unchanged.
Seeking to ensure the wellbeing of our staff and clients.
Opting out of your workplace pension might seem like a good idea at the time.
Most people will need to rely on their pension pots in order to live independently during retirement. However, a new survey shows that many – both women and men – could outlive their retirement savings by a good number of years.
A new study shows that those in auto-enrolment default funds could miss out by £500,000 to £2 million in their pension pot over a 50-year career.
Plans to introduce the first Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) pension scheme in the UK have been backed by the government.
More than 10 million people have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, according to newly released figures.
Two of our advisers, Charles Homer (left) and Matt Hodges (right), recently teamed up to represent Kellands at an innovative business networking event hosted by sixth formers at Bredon School.
Many SME business owners believe that their business is their pension. Yet research shows that 62% of them don’t know how they will exit their business.
Employee benefits are a key part of the process of motivating and rewarding your employees. So as a business owner or director, how do you plan to encourage employee engagement over the Christmas period as a way of saying thank you?
Auto-enrolment has been going for six years this month and the take-up so far has been very good. But auto-enrolment is a marathon not a sprint. It is an ongoing process, and the next round of contribution rises are now only 6 months away. So will the momentum be maintained and what should employers be doing to help the process? And is now the time to review your pension provider?
As owner or director of a small to medium sized business (SME), you are now a pension provider, courtesy of auto-enrolment. But what sort of pension should you have for yourself? You can obviously opt for an ordinary personal pension, but many owners choose a SIPP (self-invested personal pension) or SSAS (small self-administered scheme) instead.
A new report shows that the performance of pension default funds have delivered significantly worse returns for those in auto-enrolment than the wider market.
For small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) looking for investment to grow their business, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) can make a major difference.
Auto-enrolment minimum contributions are set to increase by law from the current minimum rates on 6 April 2018, with a second phase due on 6 April 2019. This means that auto-enrolment contributions must increase to the new minimum levels, to ensure that your pension remains as a qualifying scheme.
The recent auto-enrolment review by the Department for Work and Pensions covered most of the key issues facing workplace pensions. However, it did not talk a great deal about one of the major issues - the adequacy and suitability of the investments underpinning the provision of auto-enrolment schemes.
After the Spring Budget, which was seen by some as an attack on small firms and the self-employed, this week’s Autumn Budget made amends by looking to encourage small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).
Rumours are circulating that the chancellor, Philip Hammond could be looking to curtail the benefits available from the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) in the upcoming budget on 22 November. This would be a blow to many SMEs and entrepreneurs looking for start-up or growth finance.
Two separate research surveys indicate that millions of people in workplace pensions may not be getting the best deal from their default funds. One survey suggests pension savers could be more than £300,000 worse off.
The first phase of auto-enrolment, which started back in 2012, is pretty much complete, so now the process moves onto phase two.
In general, we tend to be good at insuring things, but not so good at insuring people. This applies to life insurance, but also to business protection.
With most businesses slowly coming to terms with auto-enrolment – the set-up, the payroll and the overall process – it is all too easy to forget the main reason behind it all – the pension.
The fall in the tax-free dividend tax allowance from £5000 to £2000 a year from April 2018 will hit the many businesses owners who pay themselves in dividends on top of a small salary.
Whilst there was no change in some areas, the two big talking points of the budget were the reduction in the tax-free dividend allowance and the increase in National Insurance (NI) for the self-employed.
There are still a few weeks to go for year-end tax planning, so here are a few guidelines to help you make any last minute plans.
9/7/2025
The EU remains hopeful it will strike a deal to avoid steep levies Trump has threatened on its exports to the US.
July 9, 2025
A well-structured flexible benefits scheme can make sense for employers whilst improving engagement and retention.
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