PensionsSep 2 2014

Friends of AE launches volunteer drive

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The Friends of Auto-enrolment initiative has launched a volunteer recruitment drive to increase its presence in anticipation of a flurry of demand.

The initiative, launched in January by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals, is seeking a national head of regions, as well as regional co-chairs in Belfast, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London and Manchester.

The Friends of AE provides both a pensions auto enrolment discussion forum and a mechanism for employers to find solutions.

In an email to its growing membership, Andy Agathangelou, head of pensions at CIPP, said: “It won’t be long before Friends of AE is 1000 plus members and I can see us getting to 10,000 plus by the end of 2015.”

Mr Agathangelou said that it is conceivable that the initiative could reach 20,000 members by the end of 2016.

He said: “As ambitious as that might seem right now, we must remember that even at 20,000 we’d be little more than a tiny fraction of the total AE marketplace.

“We need to build a volunteer infrastructure now that will enable this to happen without too much drama and we already have the strategy for that in place - there are 14 Friends of AE Regions presently but that number could double, treble or even more over the next year or two.”

Meanwhile Henry Tapper, founder of Pension PlayPen and director of Basingstoke-based First Actuarial, has become the initiative’s national campaigns manager.

Mr Agathangelou welcomed his appointment and said it came “at a critical time for the creation of a free and open data standard for AE that we can all use, if we want to.”

Adviser View

Laurence Sanderson, financial consultant at Essex-based Sterling and Law, said: “I fully support this important initiative. It is there to help employers, and works on the premise that no-one should be left behind. We have auto-enroled only 2 per cent of people so is much still to do.

“It is very important for the industry to ensure that AE is treated seriously and for employers know that support is available. An open data standard makes sense and will help those employers who will try and do AE themselves.”