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CREATEThe Complete Management, Pension and Administrative Solution for Auto Enrolment

Employers CREATE

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Introduction

This brochure is designed to describe how using our Creative Pension Service can bring real benefits to employers and their employees.

• We will save you money. Our streamlined payroll procedures save our clients time, money and anxiety

• Your business will never be hampered by the complexities of Automatic Enrolment. Our unique CREATE system removes the threat of disruption to normal business procedures

• Improved benefits for your workforce. Our 21st century Creative Pension Trust pension scheme brings a range of benefits to your employees

Most of all, unlike any other provider, we can Guarantee your AE solution will be compliant. Our service allows employers to avoid the ‘horrors’ that have emerged in the Auto Enrolment market during its first four years of existence.

Auto Enrolment was introduced in 2012 and has proved to be one of the largest ever shakeups in the history of UK pensions. It is designed to enable every employee to build up pension savings for their retirement, while helping to shift the onus away from the State benefit provision Employers are now obliged to enrol all eligible employees into a qualifying workplace pension scheme, to which employers and employees will contribute, unless employees make an active decision to opt out.

The new legislation was introduced for the largest employers in October 2012 and all employers (except new companies formed after September 2017) must have enrolled their employees by February 2018. By the end of 2016, 7.2 million employees had been automatically enrolled by over 370,000 employers and it is estimated that by 2018 around 9 million employees will have joined a pension scheme for the first time.

Strict compliance regimeAuto Enrolment legislation and regulations impose a strict compliance regime on employers. They must assess their employees for eligibility, communicate all the relevant information about Auto Enrolment in a prescribed format, enrol eligible employees and facilitate opt outs for those who do not wish to participate in the pension scheme.

Administratively, employers must process employee contribution deductions from pay, provide all the relevant employee data for the pension scheme operator and ensure that contributions are remitted correctly. All this has to be handled within appropriate notice periods and with strictly imposed timing requirements.

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Introduction (continued)

coordinated process with major efficiencies. It provides a complete online pension solution without manual intervention once the simple operation of a single file has been dropped into the system.

We have great confidence, built up by introducing the service to thousands of employers, that it will be of enormous value to all our clients.

A new service For Your BusinessWe have monitored the impact of the introduction of Auto Enrolment legislation carefully and in particular the way it has provided challenges to employers and service providers alike. We have observed a wide range of scheme management processes and possibly dealt with every payroll system and operator in the country.

This background has enabled us to develop new software based systems and services which are now being very successfully operated by many thousands of our clients. Having gained the relevant experience we are now proposing to transfer your company pension scheme to the new CREATE system and The Creative Pension Trust, a 21st century pension scheme for your employees.

Our unique new service combines Auto Enrolment compliance and scheme management in a single

There have been major problems with the operational, administrative and particularly payroll deduction procedures by some of the pension scheme and payroll operators. In some cases these problems have caused delays in payroll processing and as a consequence delays in paying staff. Communication problems and errors in processing contributions persist which have caused difficulties for employers and employee relation issues.

The Pensions Regulator is responsible for ensuring that companies comply with their Auto Enrolment duties. The legislation gives them the power to censure employers and to impose fines (in exceptional cases imprisonment is possible) for failure on their part to meet their obligations. Since Auto Enrolment was introduced in October 2012 some 10,000 employers have been fined by The Pensions Regulator which emphasises the importance to them of performing their Auto Enrolment duties properly.

Employers CREATE

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The Creative GroupThe Creative Group is an award winning business specialising in Pension and Benefit Schemes, Auto Enrolment and Personal Financial Advice.

Creative Auto Enrolment Creative Auto Enrolment is the scheme manager and sponsor of The Creative Pension Trust, as well as providing a comprehensive service, including advice, to enable employers to meet all their onerous duties under Auto Enrolment legislation.

Creative Employee BenefitsCreative Employee Benefits specialises in developing and managing innovative and highly tax efficient pension and benefit schemes dedicated to delivering outstanding value to employers, their staff and their executives.

Creative Wealth Management Creative Wealth Management provides wide ranging personal financial advice to the executives and employees of our clients and other individuals to cover the entire financial planning spectrum – investments, pensions, retirement planning and counselling, protection and estate planning.

ProfessionalismCreative Employee Benefits and Creative Wealth Management are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They are also Chartered businesses which means we must meet rigorous and demanding standards to ensure we deliver the highest quality advice and work in an ethical manner that places the interests of clients first.

The Creative Pension Trust has received Master Trust Assurance Framework Accreditation which is recognised as an important benchmark by The Pension Regulator (TPR). The Trust is on the TPR’s list of approved pension schemes published on their website.

Award winnersWinning awards is always a great endorsement so we are delighted to have won a number of accolades including the 2016 Financial Adviser – Group Pension Adviser of the Year Award and the Group Pension IFA and Overall IFA of the Year Award in 2011 and 2012. We have also been shortlisted for a number of other prestigious awards.

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CREATE – A one-stop end to end service

Creative Auto Enrolment’s philosophy is to separate an employer’s Auto Enrolment duties from the day to day running of their business thus ensuring, as far as possible, that a complex matter like Auto Enrolment cannot threaten normal business procedures, in particular the smooth running of payroll systems. Auto Enrolment duties are largely made up of two disciplines – firstly, ensuring administrative compliance as regards assessing and communicating with employees and secondly, operating the pension scheme. CREATE is unique as it is the only solution on the market that allows employers to operate both of these disciplines without disrupting normal business procedures.

CREATE is a straightforward Online one-stop Auto Enrolment management and administration system that eliminates all problems. It is designed to ensure that employers are able to meet all their Auto Enrolment responsibilities – assessment, communication, enrolment, opt-outs, processing contributions and all other administrative functions without interrupting or threatening the running of payroll.

Since the introduction of Auto Enrolment in 2012, payroll administration has been a particular problem for employers and their professional advisers. Whether using payroll software or independent software that sits between the payroll and the pension provider many delays and processing issues have been experienced. CREATE overcomes all these problems by using traditional pension deduction processes within payroll and if any Auto Enrolment duties are required these are carried out after the payroll has been run. Payroll is ‘locked down’1.

The correct pension deductions are automatically calculated by payroll and employees are paid. Any newly eligible employees are enrolled into the pension scheme after payroll has been run and their first pension deductions are taken from the next payroll run. These employees receive their enrolment notices and have until payroll is next run to decide if they want to remain enrolled in the scheme.

CREATE has proved to be effective and robust. More than 12,000 employers already use it for their Auto Enrolment compliance duties and pension scheme on a daily basis, the best possible advertisement for its continuing success.

CREATE has been designed to operate in conjunction with The Creative Pension Trust, an occupational defined contribution Master Trust pension scheme approved by HMRC with Master Trust Assurance Framework Accreditation. It is a market leading scheme with low charges and a range of investment options aimed at producing strong investment performance.

However, CREATE can provide Auto Enrolment compliance services in conjunction with any Defined Contribution pension scheme used for Auto Enrolment without the need to make any changes to scheme benefits and design.

1 ‘payroll lockdown’ is Creative’s unique method of taking care of Auto Enrolment duties after payroll has been run and closed

Employers CREATE

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CREATE in operation

The strengths of CREATE are:-

• CREATE is the only complete online Auto Enrolment system. It does everything to ensure employers are able to meet all their Auto Enrolment responsibilities

• CREATE works using traditional pension payroll functionality without the need for so called middleware or the need to purchase payroll upgrades from payroll operators

• CREATE automatically issues postponement and assessment notices to employees and our service includes help with opt-outs through our dedicated Helpdesk

• CREATE enables employers to ‘lock down’ their payroll in advance of the payroll run with confidence that pension contributions will be properly processed automatically each pay period. Recurring contributions need no further intervention each pay period

CREATE therefore enables employers to run their payroll and pay their employees automatically and crucially, have the peace of mind of waiting until the next payroll run to make any Auto Enrolment driven changes or compliance adjustments. This removes any threat to the payroll run posed by Auto Enrolment – this has proved to be the biggest administration issue in the market. Almost all other systems demand that any changes or compliance adjustments are made within a live payroll run which can cause unnecessary stress for payroll operators. CREATE removes this threat.

• CREATE provides timely communication for employees –they are notified before pension contributions start – other systems do it the other way round

• CREATE usually automatically passes employer and employee contribution data to the pension scheme operator without the need for manual employer intervention

• CREATE is the only solution that automatically includes Regulator compliance declarations as part of the process – this is an area where failure has caused the most fines from The Pensions Regulator

Complete credibilityCREATE is tried and tested and removes the fears and gambles from automatic enrolment management and administration. It offers a true safe pair of hands and many thousands of employers now successfully operate CREATE for Auto Enrolment. The system is recommended by advisors and payroll administrators across the United Kingdom.

CREATE also meets the highest of professional standards.

In summary CREATE allows Employers and their payroll administrators to be in charge of the complete Auto Enrolment process.

Helpdesk supportCREATE is supported by a Helpdesk for telephone or email enquiries from both employers and employees. Experienced staff are on hand to help with all queries related to Auto Enrolment and the CREATE solution, from helping employers with questions about payroll matters, to employees who have questions about their pension scheme membership. Calls and email enquiries are dealt with quickly and efficiently.

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CREATE - The complete service at a glance

Creative Auto Enrolment’s unique solution to the initial and ongoing complexities of Auto Enrolment compliance is to separate Auto Enrolment complications from the payroll process.

We are able to provide these services to employers reaching their Duties date for the first time and to employers who staged some time ago and are looking for a more straightforward process.

When using our service employers can:

• Lockdown their payroll

• Pay their employees on time

• Then deal with all things Auto Enrolment

• Any payroll changes are dealt with in the next payroll run

• The payroll operator has plenty of notice of changes that need to be made

The employee journey is vastly superior to other Auto Enrolment solutions because:

• Employees are informed if they have been auto enrolled before any pension deductions are taken from their pay

• Employees have time to make an informed choice about their future participation in the scheme

• They can contact our Helpdesk if they have any questions;

• They can opt out via the Helpdesk

OUR SERVICE HELP FOR YOUWe will: So that:

Take care of all AE duties on the employers behalf The employer does not have to worry about day-to-day AE responsibilities

Deal with all AE duties after the payroll has been run

Any payroll changes can be dealt with in the next payroll run

Provide a ‘One-Click’ payroll data upload (with three day buffer built in to allow changes and correct errors)

Employers save time by having negligible manual intervention

Automatically issue Postponement Notices to newly eligible employees

Employers save time and money by not having to issue the noticesAutomatically issue Assessment Notices both to

new employees and existing employees on the re-enrolment date.

Deal with all Opt Outs/Opt Ins via a dedicated Help Desk Employers save time and money by not having to

become a pensions expert in order to deal with often complicated queriesDeal with any other Employee query via a dedicated

Help Desk

Usually pass pension contributions data directly from file upload to pension provider

Employers avoid hassle as the pension data is sent directly with minimal intervention and only one file ever needs to be uploaded2

Submit the Re-Enrolment Declaration of Compliance directly to TPR every three years

Employers will never receive a compliance notice. (No other provider does this for employers.)

2 This may be different where The Creative Pension Trust is not the recommended pension scheme

Employers CREATE

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The migration & implementation process

On our appointment, we will provide a dedicated Implementation Consultant who will take care of all the practical set-up actions and training. With the employer’s input, the Implementation Consultant will complete a Fact Find, confirming all the information we need to complete a successful migration onto our system.

We will take (and check) an initial download of employee data to ensure all the information we require can be easily obtained. The data we need can be obtained either from your existing pension provider or from your payroll software. The Implementation Consultant will be able to assist with this process.

Ongoing assistanceYour dedicated Implementation Consultant will provide training of your key personnel to enable your administrators to carry out the ongoing day-to-day operation. Once everything is up and running your Implementation Consultant and the Creative Auto Enrolment Helpdesk are both available to provide ongoing support to you and your employees.

Employee support and communicationsCreative Auto Enrolment will provide all of the necessary support to ensure that employees are able to understand and receive all the help they need related to the migration to CREATE and The Creative Pension Trust (where it is being used for the pension solution).

Creative Auto Enrolment will arrange for communications to go to employees detailing the changes being made and what it will mean for them.

If appropriate and agreed with the employer, Creative Auto Enrolment will offer to make a presentation to employees to help them to understand how they will be affected by any of the changes being made.

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The Creative Pension Trust

Defined contribution pensionThe Creative Pension Trust provides retirement benefits on a Defined Contribution basis. In Defined Contribution schemes, your employees have personal Retirement Savings Accounts in which your and their own contributions accumulate to provide their retirement benefits which can be taken from age 55 onwards. Your contribution liability is limited to the levels you agree to pay for each employee.

The Creative Pension TrustThe pension scheme is offered through The Creative Pension Trust, a centralised Master Trust pension scheme, approved by HMRC and regulated by The Pensions Regulator (TPR). Creative Auto Enrolment is the scheme manager and sponsor. The Creative Pension Trust is one of a relatively small number of pension schemes that have received Master Trust Assurance Framework Accreditation. It is subject to robust governance from a professional board of Trustees which includes PAN Trustees Limited, one of the UK’s leading and award winning pension trustee companies.

The pension scheme benefits enormously through economies of scale. Many thousands of employers participate in it, benefiting from common management and administration procedures and the pooling of assets which significantly reduces pension management and investment costs. Consequently, the charges associated with the Trust are very low and as a result extremely competitive.

The scheme has the flexibility to deal with any contribution structure or combination of contribution structures. Whether it is a simple contribution basis designed to accommodate Auto Enrolment contributions and investment requirements or a scheme with a more complex contribution structure and a wide range of investment options, the scheme fits the bill.

Wide investment optionsA successful investment strategy is a key element of any defined contribution pension scheme. The Creative Pension Trust offers a wide range of investment options for your staff including:

• An extremely competitively priced “default” fund utilised when they do not make their own investment choice

• A range of “Target Date” funds and “Risk Rated” funds using “Fund of Funds” investment strategies to diversify investment risk and optimise returns

• A range of specialist individual funds to provide your employees with an even wider investment choice

Market leading scheme In our opinion, The Creative Pension Trust is one of the most wide-ranging and price competitive pension schemes available today - a scheme for the 21st century.

Employers CREATE

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Investment Management

The key to a successful Defined Contribution Pension Scheme is a strong investment strategy, highly competitive rates of return and low investment fund charges. The Creative Pension Trust offers your employees wide ranging investment options that satisfy these criteria.

A “Fund of Funds” investment strategyAll too often employees select an investment fund when they first join a pension scheme but do not check it regularly and rarely change their fund choice. A fund may seriously underperform but most employees simply do not monitor the situation as they should and make no changes - often to their great disadvantage.

The investment strategies of The Creative Pension Trust recognise this by using a “Fund of Funds” investment strategy designed to provide consistent competitive levels of investment performance.

A choice of fundsThe “Fund of Funds” strategy offers a series of funds for your employees to choose from, each investing through other individual funds offered by two of the worlds largest and leading investment fund managers - Legal & General and Blackrock Investments. However, the Trust’s fund management system allows the option to select other investment fund managers if appropriate.

The investments in each asset class are monitored within each fund as is the performance of each individual fund with changes being made automatically where appropriate. This investment fund approach is targeted to produce consistently competitive performance levels.

There are two investment strategies that follow the “Fund of Funds” approach.

The “Risk Rated” fundsThe five risk rated funds available are specifically designed to accommodate the degree of investment risk an employee wishes to take. These funds are designed for employees who prefer the level of risk in their investments to remain constant. Where an employee’s attitude to risk changes they can change their investment choice to any of the funds offered through The Creative Pension Trust.

The “Target Date” fundsThese funds are constructed to meet a target retirement date. For example the 2045 Fund will start with more high risk based equity investments, to take advantage of the potential higher returns gradually changing towards more cautious assets to protect the employees’ Retirement Savings Accounts from fluctuations in asset prices as they approach 2045.

The specialist individual fundsWe believe the “Fund of Funds” investment approach offers the best opportunity for consistent competitive investment performance. However we recognise that some employees wish to be more personally involved in asset class and individual fund selection.

The scheme therefore also offers your employees an additional choice from a wide range of specialist individual funds offered by Legal & General, Blackrock Investments and other leading investment fund managers.

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Investment Management (Continued)

The Default Investment StrategyFor those members who do not make their own choice on how their pension assets are invested, the Scheme provides a low cost Lifestyle Strategy Fund. The fund follows a phased investment strategy with the risk profile of the investments changing from higher risk equity funds, which take advantage of the potential for higher returns, to cash as they approach retirement age in order to protect the value of their Retirement Savings Accounts.

Changing investment fundsYour employees may wish to change the funds in which their Retirement Savings Accounts are invested. They can make a change to any of the funds offered by The Creative Pension Trust at any time without being charged.

The investment management approachThe investment managers of the scheme are Mobius Life (Mobius), specialist investment fund managers with over £10 billion of assets under management. They are regulated by the FCA, authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and as a life insurance company provide The Creative Pension Trust with the security afforded by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Using the Mobius “Fund of Funds” platform enables The Creative Pension Trust to change the underlying investment fund managers in an easy and efficient manner if and where a change is required. This keeps down costs and removes the need to change your pension scheme if a change of fund manager is required.

Low investment costsTo keep investment costs low Mobius are able to negotiate discounts with the investment fund managers to reflect investment volume. This enables The Creative Pension Trust to offer extremely competitive annual management charges.

Unit prices and investment riskThe value of each fund is calculated on a daily basis by Mobius based on the value of the assets within it and is expressed as a single unit price inclusive of the annual management charges applicable to the fund.

It is very important to stress that the investment performance of any fund is not guaranteed and that the value of units can fall as well as rise depending on the performance of the underlying assets.

MORE COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE INVESTMENT FUNDS CAN BE FOUND IN THE “INVESTMENT GUIDE” BROCHURE

Employers CREATE

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Investment guidance or advice

One investment solution is not right for everyone and we strongly believe your employees will benefit from investment guidance or advice.

This provides real benefits because understanding which asset types and the funds in which to invest pension savings can seem a daunting prospect. Our aim is to make sure that your employees have access to broad based investment guidance on the funds available to them or, where appropriate, FCA regulated advice specifically tailored to their personal circumstances.

When using The Creative Pension Trust, the investment options available to your employees are designed to optimise returns according to their attitude to risk. Our guidance and advisory services can help them make better informed investment decisions.

Investment services

Investment guidanceOur standard service includes investment guidance for your employees through systems designed to help identify their individual attitude to investment risk. The service is able to be delivered through meetings at your work place or through our dedicated Helpdesk. FCA regulations mean that under this service we are unable to make a specific recommendation based on the employee’s personal circumstances but we can provide factual information and guidance about the most appropriate funds to enable your employees to make a better informed choice.

Tailored investment adviceWhere appropriate and desired, detailed investment advice and specific recommendations can be provided to your employees based on their personal circumstances. Such servoces are available through the FCA regulated investment advisers within Creative Employee Benefits and Creative Wealth Management, and the service can be provided via telephone or personal one-to-one meetings.

The Creative Pension Trust provides your employees with a pension scheme that benefits from a wide range of investment options. Our investment services enable them to utilise the scheme to their maximum advantage.

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The Pension Transfer Service

Many employees have accrued benefits and assets in pension schemes to which they have previously belonged. The amounts of assets or benefits are often quite small and over the years your employees can easily lose track of them.

Our experience is that employees are keen to have all their pension benefits in one place. To help your employees consolidate their pension scheme investments, we offer a Pension Transfer Service designed to make the process of transferring their previous pension entitlements to the investment fund(s) of their choice in The Creative Pension Trust as easy as possible.

Appropriate explanatory material will be provided for your employees and they can obtain guidance and additional information through workplace meetings as appropriate or through the Creative Helpdesk.

We recommend personal FCA regulated investment advice is obtained by any of your employees who have substantial pension savings related to their previous employment, and this can be provided through the teams of regulated advisors in Creative Employee Benefits and Creative Wealth Management if appropriate and desired.

Where your employees have deferred benefits from a Defined Benefit scheme valued in excess of £30,000 regulations require they must obtain advice from a regulated pension transfer specialist before a transfer can take place. We are able to provide this advisory service for them through the team of Pension Transfer Specialists within Creative Wealth Management.

Our comprehensive Pension Transfer Service enables your employees to obtain guidance or advice on the best way to consolidate their pension assets.

Employers CREATE

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Summary

Auto Enrolment has brought an entirely new dimension to the provision of pension benefits for employees. The pensions industry, employers and employees have been going through a ‘learning curve’ as everyone adapts to the new regime of compulsory private pension provision. Inevitably, with something new and complex, there have been difficulties along the way, many of those difficulties continue as evidenced by the large number of fines imposed by The Pensions Regulator.

CREATE has been developed based on the practical experience obtained by the Creative Auto Enrolment from being actively involved in Auto Enrolment from the time the idea was first broached by the Government some years ago. It is being successfully used by thousands of employers and the numbers grow by the day. Real proof that it is the best, all inclusive system available, to meet all the Auto Enrolment requirements of any employer.

Whilst able to operate with any Defined Contribution pension scheme, most employers choose to operate CREATE in conjunction with The Creative Pension Trust. It is a 21st century, flexible pension scheme adaptable to any circumstances. It can accommodate contribution strategies from the minimum to meet Auto Enrolment requirements to more extensive contribution structures offered by the most sophisticated schemes. It offers employees a comprehensive range of investment options from a simple Default Investment Fund to a suite of sophisticated “Risk Rated” funds.

When not used with the Creative Pension Trust, CREATE provides full Auto Enrolment compliance services in conjunction with any Defined Contribution pension scheme without the need to make changes to scheme benefits or design.

Where appropriate and desired, the full range of services available to employers and employees from the wider Creative Group offer all you need to ensure that your scheme offers a wide range of options to your employees, is managed effectively and complies with all Auto Enrolment regulatory requirements.

Every UK employer has a legal obligation to offer a pension scheme to their employees to invest the employer and employee contributions – the alignment of CREATE and The Creative Pension Trust ensures delivery of the best possible value for you and for them.

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The Creative Pension Trust – Key information

Scheme managers and sponsorsCreative Auto Enrolment LimitedStephenson House2 Cherry Orchard RoadCroydonSurreyCR0 6BA

Corporate trusteesPAN Governance LLP3 Castlefield CourtChurch StreetReigateRH2 0AH

Individual trustees Mr Roger MattinglyMr Robert Branagh

This brochure has been prepared by the Creative Group (the Group) as a guide for employers. It does not create any rights or obligations and the services provided by the Group are subject to the terms of the formal agreement between the Group and the Employer.The value of pension investments may go down as well as up and investors may not get back what they initially invested.

Creative Employee Benefits is a trading style of Creative Benefit Solutions Limited (company no 6293305); Creative Wealth Management is a trading style of Creative Benefit Wealth Management Limited (company no 8196422); Creative Auto Enrolment is a trading style of Creative Auto Enrolment Limited (company no 8554978). Creative Auto Enrolment Limited and Creative Benefit Wealth Management Limited are subsidiaries of Creative Benefits Solutions Limited. The registered office is Cannon Place, 78 Cannon Street, London EC4N 6AF.

Creative Benefit Solutions Limited and Creative Benefit Wealth Management Limited are both regulated by the FCA to provide regulated investment and advice services, FCA numbers 473893 and 590290 respectively. Details can be found on the FCA register – www.register.FCA.org.uk.

The Creative Pension Trust operates under the terms of the Trust Deed and Rules which are available on request.

The Creative Pension Trust is an occupational pension scheme governed by Pan Governance LLP (company number OC333840) of 3 Castlefield Court, Church Street, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0AH.

Address: 2 Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 6BA.

Tel: 0345 850 0884Fax: 0203 053 4845Online: www.creativepensiontrust.co.ukEmail: team@creativeae.co.uk

CAE/0418/344