In an uncertain climate for all businesses, McKnight Associates Wealth Management is a trusted source of information about employee benefits and financial matters for employers and their staff.
A Principal Partner Practice of St. James’s Place Wealth Management, the Aberdeen based firm offers financial services to individuals and corporations.
One of the ways it helps businesses is through its employee benefits service. From pension planning to death-in-service and salary sacrifices, McKnight Associates will help you identify a benefits strategy and the appropriate products to suit your business plans.
And the great news is it’s available to businesses of all sizes; after all, whether you’re setting up an employee benefit for five people or 100, it’s important to get it right.
“People shy away from looking at employee benefits because of the size of the company, when really, happy employees means a happy workplace,” explains Sean Mills, financial consultant at McKnight Associates.
“Having the right benefits in place goes a long way to making people want to stay in that company and work for you. So no matter the size of the company, we want to be able to make sure you’re set up correctly and you’re reflecting your appreciation for your employees with appropriate benefits.”
Staying informed
While putting the right benefits in place is the key first step, the McKnight Associates team are passionate advocates that it should go hand-in-hand with education.
That means first making sure you, as the employer, understand the scheme you’re setting up – what contributions are you making, for example? Are you meeting all your legal obligations?
Then, it’s all about helping your employees understand and appreciate the benefits they receive through unique financial education training.
As part of this, your McKnight Associates financial consultant will tailor presentations to suit the employee benefits you have in place before delivering these directly to employees.
Covering subjects like the ins-and-outs of your pension scheme, training could take place over weeks or months, through lunchtime sessions or virtual Zoom meetings – whatever works best for your staff and business.
And importantly, it doesn’t all just stop after the initial training is finished.
“We wouldn’t just pop in, do the presentation, then disappear – we want to be there and be present, and make sure that we’re available to them when they actually need the help,” explains Sean.
Afterwards, you and your employees will have a personal point of contact at McKnight Associates – a financial consultant you can turn to for further information and any questions that arise from the training.
With many employees lacking in-depth knowledge of how their employee benefits work, and many people worried about how recent events like the global pandemic might affect their pensions and finances, this type of education and support is more important than ever.
Which might explain why providing financial education for businesses of all sizes has become such a focus for McKnight Associates.
Sean says: “It’s something that we think every company should do at some point, and make sure everyone in their company has an understanding of what’s going on. And it comes at absolutely no cost, other than time of their employees.”
And, as always, St. James’s Place guarantees the suitability of the advice given by members of the St. James’s Place Partnership when recommending any of the wealth management products and services available from companies in the Group, more details of which are set out on the Group’s website at www.sjp.co.uk/products. All client presentations are thoroughly checked by St. James’s Place, providing an extra layer of protection and due diligence.
There to help
Although financial education training is a relatively new offering from McKnight Associates and St. James’s Place, it’s already a tried-and-tested success.
Going forward, McKnight Associates will continue offering employee benefits and financial education to businesses of all sizes, to help give both employers and employees more peace of mind about their finances during these uncertain times.
To find out more about employee benefits and financial education training from McKnight Associates, please call 07747 568049 for a friendly chat.
The Partner Practice is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The ‘St. James’s Place Partnership’ and the titles ‘Partner’ and ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives.