The cost burden of setting up schemes should fall on the shoulders of employers rather than employees as proposed through consultancy charging, says Brian Morgan, director of business development at Heath Lambert Consulting.
In a heated debate during the Corporate Adviser Summit last month, Morgan said companies could not expect their employees to pay for what was essentially a service to their employers, adding that it should be a defining feature of quality company benefits packages.
“There is absolutely no way that the employee should be paying the services which should rightly being paid for by the company. To me, an issue is being created when you merge commissions and fee charging. They are like oil and water.”
“If you had a situation where you were establishing the scheme, you were doing things which were really employer-services, and fees were charged to the employer but then come out of the commission charge built in to the plan, its wrong. If it is for advice and that advice would be then be for the member, whether it’s member clinics or even regulated investment advice then that is a valid way forward. But everything else will be a fudge.”