Corporate Clients

1st Financial Foundations provides business owners with corporate financial planning advice in addition to looking after their own personal financial affairs. We work in conjunction with other professional advisers that assist our clients' businesses, including accountants or solicitors.

1st Financial Foundations have the expertise to help business owners develop a robust financial planning strategy that includes the provision for pension planning through to business protection and commercial insurance.

Deciding on the best benefit strategy for our clients' businesses is also another integral part of building a successful company. We ensure that our business clients are able to continue to meet the challenges of a competitive business environment and ensure they are adequately protected.

It could simply be a case of reviewing, strengthening or streamlining your existing requirements, or it may be time to introduce a whole new set of employee benefits. You may want to empower and reward your employees by allowing them the flexibility of being able to choose their own employee packages from a range of options you set. Working with 1st Financial Foundations means you take the lead, you set your priorities and you choose a 'package' of assistance and advice to suit your needs.

From straightforward life cover to complex pension planning, we make the process as pain-free as possible. In today's world of tight budgets and timescales, we will work with you to organise a simple, well-organised and headache-free package of benefits for your employees.

Company Pensions

The ageing population in the UK continues to put a significant strain on the ability of the state system to provide any degree of financial support in retirement for future generations. Pension reform, increasing the State Pension age and new auto-enrolment requirements are just a few of the ways the Government intends to reduce the financial burden on the state and place greater emphasis on employer-sponsored provision. At 1st Financial Foundations, we have the professional experience and skills to help you manage what is a critical element of your employee benefits provision.

What we offer employers

The design of a pension scheme tailored to suit your business and your employees can be time-consuming and complex. We take time to understand your business needs and those of your employees before providing our recommendations and solutions.

To get the best from investing in your employee benefits package, it is vital that employees understand the value of the benefits you are providing for them. 1st Financial Foundations will take great care and pride in designing and tailoring scheme communications which are easy for your employees to understand and benefit from. We will make your scheme simple to administer and run, while making sure that your employees get the maximum from any arrangements put in place, leaving you to concentrate on the most important issue of running your business and making financial profit.

Tax-efficient pensions for directors and business owners

The financial health of a business generally has a direct impact on the personal financial situation of its owners and directors. At 1st Financial Foundations, we make sure we understand all aspects of your financial affairs.

We often find that businesses and their owners can benefit from advice on areas such as:

• Taking profits out tax-effectively
• Setting up pension schemes for all employees and meeting their auto-enrolment duties
• Buying business premises as tax-efficiently as possible
• Planning their exit strategy tax-efficiently and in a way that gives the business the best chance of longevity
• Offering employees a competitive benefits package that is also cost-effective for the business

Auto-enrolment Pensions

At 1st Financial Foundations, we provide specialist auto-enrolment advice to corporate clients that need to get their business ready for their auto-enrolment staging date, taking a step-by-step approach to employers and helping walk them through what decisions and actions they'll need to take.

Each workplace pension scheme we set up is managed using the latest software that we've developed to provide a seamless service and to make the process as simple as possible, allowing you to focus on running your business.

Our dedicated auto-enrolment advisory team can help you:

• Prepare your business to make the right decisions about your pension scheme
• Create a plan of action to ensure your new pension scheme is ready to go
• Help you to start performing your legal auto-enrolment duties

Workplace pension obligations

Since October 2012, millions of workers have now started to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. Larger employers were the first, with small and medium-sized employers following over the coming years.

Every employer will have a date from when the auto-enrolment duties come into force for their business. This is called an employer's 'staging date'. Auto-enrolment is being staged in over a period of six years, which started with the largest employers in 2012.

Employee Benefits Package Consultants

The right employee benefit schemes can help you to attract, retain and motivate the best staff, but can also be complex and time-consuming to administer.

It is clearly important to ensure that the benefits you offer are cost-effective. Regular reviews will highlight opportunities to restructure benefits, which can lead to significant cost savings and added value for your business.

At 1st Financial Foundations, we can help you to review, design and operate a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to achieve your business goals. We advise employers and trustees on pensions (defined contribution and defined benefits), group risk benefits, healthcare provision, salary exchange and other benefit options. Alternatively, you might simply want us to provide advice on just one aspect of employee benefits, or assistance with your statutory duties under pension auto-enrolment.

Key Man Insurance

If you lose a key person, it could have a devastating effect that results in a reduction in sales or a slowdown in production. You may experience a loss of confidence in your business from staff, shareholders, customers and suppliers. If staff leave and customers and suppliers take their business elsewhere, the final outcome could ultimately lead to a loss of profits and imminent closure for some companies.

With Key Man Insurance you will receive a financial payout that can help to shield your business and keep things running smoothly. It is possible to insure any of your key members of staff – they don’t necessarily have to be shareholders.

The cost of Key Man Insurance varies depending on the level of cover you take out. If you cannot afford insurance for the full amount, you could opt for a lesser amount of cover and add to it at a later date when you can afford it. This would be better than having no Key Man Insurance at all. At 1st Financial Foundations, we have a range of policies available through leading providers, which offer many benefits.