What is the difference between Standard and Plus Membership?
Patrick Carter, membership co-ordinator at IPSE, explains the benefits of the Standard and Plus memberships.
Pension and life assurance for the self-employed: What do IPSE members get?
- 25 Oct 2022
We want to make sure that your IPSE membership has you covered against every eventuality, in both the long and the short term. In addition to guaranteeing that you are protected against tax investigations into your past engagements and in the here-and-now, IPSE membership also allows you to plan and prepare for your future with our pension partner Penfold and our life assurance scheme. These optional membership benefits allow you to put aside cash for your retirement and, if the worst should happen, ensure that your family are taken care of financially.
IPSE members will receive £25 into their account when they open a pension with Penfold, and can receive a generous group rate through our life assurance provider Legal & General. Here I hope to answer some of the questions the membership team are commonly asked about each.
Life assurance for the self-employed
As unpleasant as it is to discuss, having life assurance in place means that, if anything should happen to you, you know that your loved ones will be looked after. IPSE membership lets you choose cover from £50,000 to £250,000 (in increments of £50,000) and premiums start from as little as £2.65 per month.
The life assurance is really easy to setup from your member dashboard. Just click on ‘Your Life Assurance’ and you’ll have to provide a little bit of information and complete a medical questionnaire.
Depending on your answers, you may be required to undergo a further telephone assessment with Legal & General. In this case, your life assurance will be valid at the base rate until this takes place once you have completed the online application and setup a direct debit. You can then decide if you wish to continue should the price be increased.
Who will benefit from my life assurance?
The life assurance scheme allows you to specify a beneficiary or beneficiaries by completing an expression of wishes form, found on a link on the dashboard. If you have not setup an expression of wishes, the benefit will paid directly to your estate. We strongly recommend you complete your expression of wishes form to ensure we get the funds to the correct person as quickly and easily as possible.
We make the claims process straightforward, when informed by your next of kin of your passing there is a very brief form to fill in and we, as the group policy holder, take care of the rest to make things as easy as possible at a difficult time. Payment is made quickly, usually within a couple of weeks of a completed claim being received.
Please note that the voluntary life assurance is in addition to the £5000 life assurance automatically provided to IPSE Plus members.
All you need to know about the Penfold pension
Over the years, IPSE has received feedback from our members that they would prefer to have a more flexible pension option to better align with their fluctuating incomes.
Based on this feedback, IPSE researched the market to find a more suitable option, and have now partnered with Penfold as our preferred pension provider. Launched in 2018, Penfold is a digital-first pension service provider, which aims to make savings as straightforward and as easy as possible. Penfold allows users to set up, manage and track their pensions online or through their award-winning app.
You can top up, adjust and even pause payments anytime, all managed either online or with the simple-to-use Penfold app and you can automatically set your contribution as a percentage of your income, allowing you to manage your contributions flexibly so that you can adapt to an income that may change from month-to-month.
With Penfold there are no hidden fees, instead there is a single annual charge of 0.75% and, after you have selected from carefully tailored plans to suit your investment requirements, your money will be expertly managed by the biggest fund manager in the world, BlackRock.
If you have other pensions from previous jobs or with other providers, the helpful team at Penfold will take care of consolidating these for you, free of charge, so you can concentrate on running your business.
Through the new partnership, IPSE members will receive £25 into their account when they open a pension with Penfold. Learn more about Penfold, including how to transfer your pension or start a new one here.
If you have any questions about the IPSE pension, life assurance, or any of your membership benefits please contact the membership team by email at [email protected] or by phone on 0208 897 9970.
Where can IPSE members find support?
Whether you are an experienced contractor or just starting out, your IPSE membership is a gateway to the best guidance, resources, and information to help you make your business a success.
IR35 contract reviews: Find out if your contract is inside or outside IR35
Not sure if your contract is inside or outside IR35? One way to protect yourself is get your contract professionally assessed. Find out how today.
Meet the author
More on