Pensions

Company Pensions

If you're looking at this section you're probably responsible in your company for employee benefits for staff. You may be in charge of an existing scheme or you may be looking to set one up. The following are likely to be some of your experiences or dilemmas:

Existing Pension Scheme

• The scheme was set up and other than a cost it means really very little to anyone
• Nobody is clear about the detail, least of all those who are supposed to benefit from it
• Getting an answer from anyone takes weeks, if not months, at the end of which you're not sure what you asked
• Staff get "benefit statements" that are unintelligible or at best ambiguous
• Any contributions are just a cost and asking for information just sets the fee clock ticking
• Investment returns are presented without any comparative context

New Pension Scheme

• You get a barrage of "helpful" invitations to sample wares from banks, brokers & insurance companies
• It's not always easy to spot the hidden agendas
• Should you go for a PRSA scheme or a traditional Company Scheme?
• The decision process is left to you with little guidance as to what's really important
• Nobody talks in simple language and not many understand that you're new to this
• It's hard, if not impossible, to get a clear service commitment or communication process
• There's seldom an offer to talk to the staff (who will ultimately benefit from all this)
• Jargon is the order of the day

Meritas are different - Why?

We've been around a long time and we've been dealing with pensions and pension schemes here in Ireland long before they were in vogue. We've dealt with the massive & complex pension schemes to the small and often equally complex arrangements for executives and small companies. Because of our experience we don't need to persist with the mystique around pensions, on the contrary we strive to demystify everything and speak without jargon for everybody's sake. This is our approach:

• If your company is spending money on a pension scheme it's a valuable benefit and needs to be appreciated
• As a consequence we will spend time with you explaining it so that there are no grey areas
• We will talk to the staff and members telling them what it is and how good it is
• We will even tell them individually how their financial planning is going in an overall sense
• When the insurance company sends you the standard computer generated bumph we'll explain it & fix it if necessary
• If your insurance premiums are out of kilter, we'll make sure you get the best available
• If your fund performance is iffy we'll analyse it versus the alternatives and give you a critical assessment
• We believe in a niche approach and consequently you will always have access to advice at the top level
• There's nothing we haven't come across so you can feel secure in our knowledge and experience

Click here for a sample of some of the questions we get asked from time to time