Corporate clients with significant staff numbers to auto-enrol are struggling to pin down budgets for other employee benefits, an adviser has said.
Paul White, client director at Enrich Employee Benefits, said: "For a client with significant numbers to auto-enrol, they cannot predict what opt-out may occur so they cannot predict cost. So how can they then plan and decide what cover to offer?"
Paul Avis, sales and marketing director at Canada Life, said auto-enrolment presented a clear opportunity for group risk to grow but depended on what employers believed they could afford.
He said: "Advisers have to be creative about how they approach this from a costing perspective. The good news is that non-pension scheme members tend to be younger so while unit rates will go down the amount of benefit being covered will go up."
Avis added advisers could consider budget options such as tiering benefits for employees of varying eligability.
Canada Life estimated around 33,000 to 34,000 employers would be reviewing pension-linked schemes in light of auto-enrolment.
