Benefits, Pensions and Share Schemes

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Course Overview

This course is designed to equip participants with the confidence, skills, knowledge and insight required to make an influential contribution to the management of their organisation's benefit plans, pensions and where relevant, share schemes. The programme takes account of different approaches to public, private and voluntary sectors and covers the challenges faced in a wide range of organisations - from global to UK SME.

Audience

HR generalists who wish to build their understanding of benefits and share plans, including those who have recently acquired responsibility for pensions and/or a remuneration committee. In addition the programme is ideally suited to reward practitioners seeking to broaden their experience beyond pay analysis, benchmarking and compensation management.

Skills Gained

By the end of the course you will be able to:

• position your benefit programme within a wider reward strategy
• assess how individual benefit plans operate, from company cars to insured benefits and pensions
• manage the design, implementation and communication of a flexible benefits solution
• identify and evaluate the key tax and National Insurance considerations associated with any benefit plan, share scheme or termination payment
• present the pros and cons of different types of pension plan design
• assess the wider regulatory, governance and investment management context in which pension plans operate
• influence long-term incentive plan design, drawing from a well-rounded appreciation of the different forms of share plan available for use.

Course Outline

DAY 1 Benefits strategy

• why do companies provide benefit plans?
• current practice
• positioning benefits within the overall reward strategy

Benefit plans in focus

• company cars
• insured risk benefits

Flexible benefits

• key concepts and definitions
• business case for flex
• designing and implementing a flexible benefits plan
• demonstration of online flex
• voluntary benefit programmes

Understanding income tax, capital gains, IPT and social security taxes

• income tax
• social security taxes and state benefits
• insurance premium tax
• capital gains tax
• pension scheme taxation
• employee share scheme taxation
• international assignment taxation
• termination payments.

DAY 2 Pensions

• social security (state pension)
• occupational pensions - key concepts
• market practice
• pension trusts
• pension contracts
• pension plan design in focus
• investment strategy
• current issues

Share schemes

• company philosophy
• share scheme currencies and taxation
• share plans in focus - key features

Long-term incentive plans (L-TIPs)

• key features

Action planning.

Benefits, Pensions and Share Schemes / REWBPS