In our article in the Autumn issue “Pensions - the writing on the wall”,
part of it described “the only remaining alternative therefore is Provident 3”
- this was not the case.
At STM Fidecs Pensions they feel that the profile of pensions in Gibraltar needs to be raised significantly and in particular their own offering.
A dedicated pension team has been established with David Erhardt as Director and Jane Caulfield as the Technician to achieve this goal.
Their Gibraltar Approved Pension Scheme operates along similar lines to the Government’s scheme but differs significantly in the areas of flexibility and diversity. It has flexibility to allow companies to create a tailor-made product and has the diversity to allow a full range of investments, including commercial property which could be rented back to the company.
Everybody agrees that pensions are important, either to provide employees with a better future or to recruit/retain key staff in a competitive marketplace. The difficulty is overcoming the stigma of the old defined benefit schemes with large deficits and educating companies on the benefits of the less costly defined contribution schemes.
Compulsory pensions may arrive to focus the minds of the private sector (there was mention of this in the GSD 2007 manifesto), however STM Fidecs are assisting many progressive companies to use their initiative rather than waiting until they are forced to act.