Employers often ask “can I promote my pension scheme?”  Their concern is that they might be giving financial advice when they are not authorised to do so by the FSA (or whichever body takes over this role – insert potential acronym of choice) – or that an employee might have the shirt off their back if the advice turns out to be wrong.  However there is less to fear than you might think, both for occupational pension schemes, and, thanks to some recent changes in financial promotion rules, for group personal pensions and stakeholder plans. 

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Do you remember that old BT ad where the girl at university phones home to talk to her parents – but never says much to her dad other than “Is Mum there?”?

I get the feeling that some employers and their employees might be having a bit of a similar experience when it comes to pensions.  We get a lot of questions from employers (and indeed trustees) about how much it is safe to say to employees about pension benefits – and I sense that employers and trustees are worried about running into trouble with the Pensions Regulator or the FSA if they stray too far into the realm of “bigging up” the company pension scheme.  In fact, the NAPF released a survey last week which showed that 57% of employers feel that the law prevents them from providing information and support to their employees on pensions, despite the fact that the company pension scheme is often one of the most significant benefits on offer to employees.  

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But how much should employers be doing to encourage employees to save for retirement?

I’m at the 2009 NAPF Annual Conference at the moment and this is one of the themes of the conference. Postal communications do not seem to work – it is face-to-face presentations and discussion forums which make a difference.

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