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Pensions

Pensions are not
a benefits sideline

The short answer

A workplace pension is usually the largest single thing an employer funds for its people, and the one employees think about least. It also sits under different regulation from insured benefits, supervised by a different regulator, and it demands expertise that placing insurance does not teach.

This page is about where that boundary sits, because a broker who treats pensions as an add-on gives you an add-on.

No pension advice given or implied General information only Last reviewed 15 August 2026

Why it is a different discipline

Insurance broking and pensions work overlap in the room and almost nowhere else. A workplace pension involves:

  • Automatic enrolment duties, which sit with the employer and are supervised by The Pensions Regulator.
  • Governance: who reviews the scheme, on what cadence, against what.
  • Contribution design, including how it interacts with pay and with salary sacrifice arrangements.
  • Fund range and default fund performance, which is where most member outcomes are actually decided.
  • Member outcomes and engagement, which are measured over decades rather than renewal cycles.

None of that is the same skill as arranging a group risk policy, and advising on it can be a regulated activity in its own right, carried on under different permissions. The Financial Services Register records which permissions any firm holds, and it is worth checking rather than assuming.

What an insurance broker can usefully do

The honest version of the answer is narrower than "yes, we do pensions", and more useful than "no".

  • Coordinate. Hold the whole picture of what an employer provides, including the pension, so that decisions in one place are taken knowing what is happening in the others.
  • Surface it. Make sure the pension appears wherever employees look at what they get, and that the employer contribution appears in any total reward figure. The largest thing an employer funds should not be the least visible.
  • Introduce specialists. Bring in people who do pensions and nothing else for the parts that need them, and stay at the table so the employer is not managing two disconnected relationships.

What this page and this firm do not do

Alltoogether does not provide pension advice. It does not select or recommend funds, does not run scheme governance, and does not determine whether an employer is meeting its automatic enrolment duties. Those are matters for a pensions specialist and, on the duties, for the employer with The Pensions Regulator's guidance.

Nothing on this page is advice about your scheme, your contributions or your duties. It is general information about where the boundary sits, written so that the question can be asked properly of whoever you ask it of.

Questions people ask

Can an employee benefits broker advise on our workplace pension?

Not by default. Pensions advice is a different regulated activity from arranging insurance, carried on under different permissions, and supervised alongside employer duties that sit with The Pensions Regulator rather than the FCA. Some firms hold both permissions and many do not. The Financial Services Register records what any particular firm may do, and it is worth checking.

Does Alltoogether provide pension advice?

No. Alltoogether does not provide pension advice, select or recommend funds, run scheme governance, or determine whether an employer is meeting its automatic enrolment duties. What it does is coordinate the wider benefits picture, make sure the pension is visible to employees alongside everything else, and introduce pensions specialists where specialist work is needed.

Why should the pension appear in benefits communication at all?

Because for most employers it is the largest single thing being funded per employee, and because employees consistently underestimate it. A benefits summary or total reward statement that omits the employer pension contribution understates the package by its biggest component.

Sources and limitations

What this page is, and is not

This page is general information about how workplace pensions sit alongside insured employee benefits. It is not pension advice, not advice about your scheme or your contributions, and not a statement about whether you are meeting your employer duties. Alltoogether is an appointed representative of Sante Partners Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and does not provide pension advice.

The Pensions RegulatorEmployer duties and automatic enrolment
Supports: that automatic enrolment duties sit with the employer and are supervised by a different regulator from the one that covers insurance broking
Published or updated: current guidance as published. Retrieved: 15 August 2026.
Limitation: guidance for employers generally. It says nothing about any particular scheme, and it is not advice.
Financial Conduct AuthorityThe Financial Services Register
Supports: that a firm's permissions can be checked independently, including which activities it may and may not carry on
Published or updated: live register. Retrieved: 15 August 2026.
Limitation: the register records permissions and status, not the quality of a service.
AlltoogetherHow this page was written
Supports: the boundary above and the decision to describe categories rather than any particular policy
Published or updated: set 15 August 2026. Retrieved: 15 August 2026.
Limitation: this row records the method, not a fact about any scheme.

Related guides

ZF

Zak Fenton · Founder, Alltoogether

Written by Zak Fenton, MSc Workplace Health and Wellbeing (Distinction), founder of Alltoogether, a UK employee-benefits broker and workplace-health platform. Alltoogether is an appointed representative of Sante Partners, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Last reviewed 15 August 2026.

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