Defined Benefit: Insured Advantages

Ernest Doe

Ernest Doe and Sons Limited (Ernest Doe) is a long established family business in the South and East of England. Managing Director, Colin Doe is the fourth consecutive generation of the family to run the business in its 100+ years of trading.

Ernest Doe supply an incredible amount of machinery and services to the agricultural, construction and professional grass machinery markets ranging from garden mowers and chain saws to combine harvesters and construction excavators. They are one of the UK’s largest dealerships in their sector and their success can be summarised by their simple philosophy; to supply the very best products and then to provide the very best service and support to their customers.

Over recent years the Trustees of Ernest Doe’s final salary pension scheme have encountered many issues in running the scheme which included a disappointing administration performance and a struggle to contain liabilities. These are problems with which many other scheme trustees will be familiar.

In 2008, following a series of meetings at which solutions to these problems were proposed, Ernest Doe appointed Creative Benefits (Creative) as their advisers.

The reason for doing so was simple says Colin Doe “When we discussed our concerns about our scheme, Creative Benefits not only understood completely what these concerns were but offered us solutions which no one else had suggested. It was like a breath of fresh air”

One of the first measures taken was to appoint AEGON Trustee Solutions (AEGON) as their administrators. AEGON provide the Trustees with a cost effective bundled service which includes all administrative, actuarial, fund management, accounting, and documentation functions.

Furthermore Creative provides the Trustees and the employer with client management services which includes all aspects of the investment process.

The result of the appointment of Creative and the resultant changes made by the Trustees is twofold. A vastly improved administration performance coupled with new services and products to help them manage their liabilities as effectively as possible, at a very competitive cost.

“Unfortunately there are no magic wands to help trustees and employers deal with all the issues relating to managing final salary pension schemes” says Colin Doe “but Creative Benefits certainly provide some interesting and workable answers. We’re very pleased we made the decision to appoint them– and AEGON”.

As demonstrated by Ernest Doe and the Trustees of their pension scheme, there is a solution that offers the ease and convenience of working with a dedicated core service provider like AEGON, and an employee benefit consultancy made up of experienced personnel. This combination provides both employers and Trustees optimum efficiency, service and value for money.

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