“It requires a different approach, more about educating employers and staff, letting them know you are on their side and will get them through this process at the lowest possible cost.”
Mr Harris also warned that as the market is essentially unregulated, literally anyone can help a company arrange an pension scheme, “from accountants, to bookkeepers, to the guy who washes the windows”.
He added that while it is often not the simplest or most profitable area of the business, he is still keen to expand.
FTAdviser recently focused on auto-enrolment in a series of special reports, one of which focused on the opportunities for advisers as those with less than 50 employees start staging from now until October, followed by those with less than 30 employees from January next year.
Research conducted by Defaqto for Now: Pensions in November showed that around one in five IFAs will not advise the smallest companies on auto-enrolment, with more than half of the 244 advisers polled saying micro business would not represent profitable business for them, with a further 25 per cent deterred by how much time it will take.
Tim Jones, chief executive at the National Employment Savings Trust, said that there was evidence of advisers ‘skilling up’ to be a one-stop shop for all their clients’ needs, from scheme selection and set-up to payroll integration and ongoing maintenance.
The auto-enrolment scheme’s own figures showed that around 74 per cent of 45,000 small and micro businesses set for 2015 staging dates wanted support from the advisory community.
peter.walker@ft.com
