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Our guide gives you a clear overview of the support available to you and your workforce. Inside, you’ll find straightforward explanations to help you understand
Employee benefits are the support you provide alongside salary, such as pensions, protection and health cover. A well‑built package helps you attract and keep good people, supports well being and engagement, and gives your business a more consistent approach as it grows.
Workplace pensions help employees save for retirement and understand the value of long‑term saving. For the business, a well‑run scheme supports compliance, improves your overall benefits offer and can contribute to recruitment and retention.
Salary exchange is a way of setting up pension contributions where an employee gives up part of their salary and the employer pays the pension contribution instead. It can reduce certain payroll costs and can increase pension contributions for employees, depending on how the scheme is set up.
Group protection usually includes life assurance (often called death in service), income protection and critical illness cover. Some businesses also add private medical insurance or a cashplan scheme to support everyday health needs. The right mix depends on your workforce, budget and what you want the benefits package to do.
Business protection is designed to reduce the financial impact on the business if something happens to a key person or owner. This can include key person insurance, shareholder protection, loan protection and relevant life plans. The right approach depends on your ownership structure, borrowing and the roles that are most critical to the business.
A structured benefits programme makes onboarding, communication, renewals and day‑to‑day administration more consistent. Clear employee information and education also reduces routine questions, giving internal teams more time to focus on higher‑value work.
Shareholder protection can help by setting out how shares are to be managed if a shareholder passes away.
The policy can also include critical illness and is taken out on the lives of each shareholder by either fellow shareholders, or the business.
Should a shareholder die or become critically ill, pay-outs can be used to purchase the shares of the holder.
Most businesses will have some form of commercial debt and the average business borrowing currently stands at £344,000. This can include overdrafts, commercial loans/mortgages or directors’ loan accounts. These types of liabilities can be protected against both death and diagnosis of a critical illness.
Possibly the most under-used business protection product available, relevant life plans enable large businesses to set up group life plans, providing cost effective life assurance protection for employees and directors alike.
This is particularly useful for business owners as it can provide life cover for themselves, paid for by the business with no adverse tax implications (P11d) and in the event of death, the sum assured can be paid without impacting on their estate from an inheritance tax perspective.
Key person insurance is a policy that helps to safeguard a business against the financial impact of death, terminal illness or critical illness of a key person during the policy term.
It will usually cover recruitment and training costs as well as the value of lost business. The policy is written on the life of the key person but owned and paid for by the business.
There are a range of potential solutions that will provide both you, and your employees, with tax efficient retirement benefits. This includes auto-enrolment, Small Self-Administered Schemes (SSAS) or group SIPPs (Self-Invested Personal Pension).
Your Fairstone adviser can provide further information and help you decide on the right route for you and your business.
We have over 1200 local advisers and staff specialising in investment advice all the way through to retirement planning.
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