The official staging dates are throughout this year, and firms have a duty to enrol their employees by then. The National Employment Savings trust forecasts that the really busy period for companies with more than 50 employees will be next year, with more than 18,000 firms signing up in quarter two.
All this presents great opportunities for financial advisers. Many companies will be getting involved in group pensions for the first time, and will need plenty of guidance for when it comes to setting up their own scheme or when deciding to go into one of the large group schemes such as Nest or Now:Pensions.
But despite the efforts of the government to deal with the chronic lack of saving by the British population, there are still questions over whether it will be enough to address the savings crisis. Many believe that the small amounts being saved will only produce small retirement pots at the end of the saving period, and this may be hampered by the fact that people can opt out. Again, advising those with small pension pots is as an issue many advisers will have to deal with, whether this has only started recently under auto-enrolment or earlier under another saving scheme.
The pensions scenario is undergoing a great change at present, and many hope that it will solve the underlying long-term savings problem. However, it still has some way to go before everyone has a secure future.
Hal Austin is editor of Financial Adviser