Pension landscape and charging: Quantitative and qualitative research with employers and pension providers
The trust-based schemes included in this study were typically insurer-administered, single employer schemes; although larger schemes were more likely to use multiple providers for different services like fund management, scheme administration and investment consultancy.
Over two-thirds of the contract-based schemes used by employers were Group Personal Pensions (GPPs); just under a third were Group Stakeholder Pensions (GSHPs). Providers reported that GSHPs had declined in sales in recent years, and they represented fewer than one in five of the contract-based pensions sold in the 12 months prior to the research. GPPs were seen as offering greater flexibility than GSHPs, providing a ‘happy medium’ between more expensive trust-based schemes and less flexible GSHP schemes, which often offered members fewer investment choices.