Leading Surrey IFA wins Gold Standards Award/ Churchouse Financial Planning Limited

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited, Independent Financial Advisers and Chartered Financial Planners, was one of the winners of the Incisive Media Gold Standards Awards 2011 for Independent Financial Advice in London today.

Esther Dadswell and Keith Churchouse, owner-directors of the Guildford-based company, received the prestigious Award at a reception at the House of Commons.

Keith Churchouse said: “We’re delighted! The Gold Standard Awards require a complex and demanding application process and they are extremely thorough in their examination of our processes and client proposition. Having achieved the ‘Highly Commended’ awards in two previous years, we are very pleased that the continued attention to the delivery of our service has been recognised with this winners’ award. I would like to thank the team for all their hard work and diligence over the last few years in achieving this accolade.

“We have many plans for 2012, including our business name change to Chapters Financial Limited in January and the award is an excellent start to this exciting development.”

Chair of the judging panel, Deborah Benn, said: “Churchouse details an impressive set of robust processes. A very transparent and forward thinking business structure that has the client firmly in mind. Judges were particularly impressed with the firm’s industry reputation, which was described as exceptional. Qualifications, training and expertise taken extremely seriously.”

A consumer website, Trust Your Money, will shortly be launched to highlight the principles of the Gold Standard Awards. The website will inform and educate consumers on the key issues when buying financial products and services, which are the same issues that underpin the Gold Standard Awards. The site will offer Gold Standard winners the opportunity to highlight what they are doing to promote trust in financial services.

For further information contact Keith Churchouse on 01483 578800 or info@churchouse.com Esther Dadswell on 01483 578800 or Gail Goodwin on 01483 534388/07801 755477/gailgoodwin@sky.com

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

No individual advice is offered by this blog. Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is not responsible for the content of external website content.

Auto-Enrolment, NEST & Workplace Pensions? What do they mean to you?

The pension’s world is ever developing. This is nothing new and many remain apathetic to contributing to a pension, especially in these times of austerity and economic turmoil. Many have been aware that they have not been saving enough for their retirement over recent years and the situation does not seem to be improving, especially when you consider the ever rising retirement age of State Pension benefits.

However, unfamiliar terms such as Auto-Enrolment, Workplace Pension and NEST Pensions are likely to become household phrases and will affect most employers and employers over the next 5 years.

Auto-Enrolment or Workplace Pension are designed to correct these low contribution levels for those aged 22 or above, introducing mandatory pension savings arrangements through employers, unless an employee opts out. And these changes are only around the corner, with many directors and business owners already having started their planning processes, both for the implementation and for the additional cost that this will add to their overheads.

With reference to timing, full implementation and the start of large employer schemes are being introduced in October 2012 and most employers with more than 50 people in PAYE being joined into the pension arrangement by September 2014 (based on the size of the employers PAYE Scheme at April 2012). Those employers with between 1-49 people in their PAYE scheme will see a staged introduction process between the following dates: August 2014 and February 2016.

28/ 11/ 2011 News Update: Auto-enrolment will be delayed for small businesses, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed. Pensions minister Steve Webb said today that auto-enrolment for small businesses would not go ahead until after the end of this parliament. Mr Webb MP said: 'Auto-enrolment will not go ahead for small businesses until the start of the next parliament,' he said. 'However this still means more than half of employers will be enrolled before the next parliament. This means the government will extend the deadline by a year for firms with fewer than 40 staff, from 1 August 2014 to 2015.

There will obviously be a cost to this initiative. The initial minimum contribution level is set at 1.0% per annum for employers and 0.8% per annum for employees of their earnings, with 0.20% pa tax relief added. This is effectively 2.0% pa funding of earnings at the outset, although it is proposed that this will climb to a higher total level of 5.0% pa of earnings in 2016. In addition, there is also a third proposed phase in late 2017 at a minimum of 8.0% pa of earnings onwards. Each employers and employees circumstances will be different and therefore, this blog should not be seen or used as individual advice.

More detail on these plans and changes can be found at the following website: http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/future-pension-reforms/auto-enrolment

As noted above, there are many requirements and some costs to this pension planning and Churchouse Financial Planning Limited, Chartered Financial Planners, has detailed these, and many of the other points further, at its website, www.churchouse.com . Alternatively, please call Keith Churchouse on 01483 578800.

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (Registration number: 402899).

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is not responsible for the content of external websites.