Helping your employees plan for retirement

Retirement is an important part of all our lives. For some employees it might just be a few years away, compared with others who have decades to go. But no matter what age, it’s important for everyone and making sure we are ready for whenever the day comes, is a significant part of our long-term financial planning.

And, as an employer, there are some things you could do to help your employees towards achieving their retirement goals and their desired lifestyle in the future.

Keeping their pensions on track 

The first way you can help your employees is by encouraging them to find out if their pension is on track. This information will either reassure them that they are doing everything they can or highlight the need to make some changes.

A good place for your employees to start is by gathering all their pension schemes together  and find out their fund values. Remind them to also include their state pension as this can be a great top up for them. If they are unsure on how to do this, they can visit the Government website to find this out.

This information can then help your employees to begin the forecasting process. There are many tools which can support your employees with this, but your pension provider is the best place to start. They are likely to have additional information on their pension pots as well as tools or resources which employees could use to help them. You can also direct employees to other free online services including Pension Monster, Money Helper and Money Advice Service. Or for more in-depth report, they should seek the help of a financial adviser.

How to support employees whose forecast isn’t what they expected

Review their target

We all like the idea of having as near to 100% of our current salary as possible when we retire, which is something not easy to achieve, therefore it’s important that employees have a realistic target. Encourage them to review their target and work out two main things: what do they absolutely need and what would they ideally like to have.  By setting these out it can help them to come up with a more realistic pension target.

Review their retirement age

The earliest you can retire is 55, but this will be changing to 57 soon. And although this might seem like a nice option, employees need to be realistic about whether they can afford to retire at this age. So, by reminding your employees to check their predicted retirement ages, and making any necessary changes, could help them reach their targets in the future.

Choosing a suitable fund 

Most employees are automatically enrolled in a standard fund but it’s likely that your pension provider will have 100s of funds available.  Another way for your employees to ensure they are on track with meeting their retirement goals is to seek advice and guidance on whether there is a more suitable fund for them, based on their objectives and circumstances.

No matter what stage of life your employees are at, they should remember that retirement planning is more than just paying into their pension. Helping your employees to keep on track with their retirement goals will help them maintain good financial wellbeing.

Our latest Financial Fitness Fridays webcast on Planning for retirement covers a range of information to help your employees achieve their retirement goals as well as information on how much employees should be paying into their pension and the best ways to invest in retirement. They can view the recording for this here.

If you are looking for new ways to support the financial wellbeing of your employees, and ensure they’re on track to meet their short, medium and long term financial goals, our Financial Fitness Show could help. Find out more about this new initiative here.

Secondsight is a trading name of Foster Denovo Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Please note:

What you get back at retirement cannot be guaranteed and will depend on how much you pay in, investment performance and interest rates when you retire.

The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

Accessing pension benefits early may impact on levels of retirement income and your entitlement to certain means tested benefits.

Accessing pension benefits is not suitable for everyone. You should seek advice to understand your options at retirement.