Nest Corporation publishes its annual reports and accounts 2017/18

NEST recently discovered an error in the way we labelled investment returns. In the 2017/18 Corporation and Scheme annual reports, all the investment performance should be recorded as gross instead of net i.e. the performance returns do not have the 0.3 per cent annual management charge deducted.

NEST Corporation today (12 July) published its annual report and accounts for 2017/18, along with the annual report and accounts 2017/18 for the NEST pension scheme.

Both reports summarise the performance of the Corporation and Scheme for the previous year. They also highlight the achievements of the Corporation over the past year, including helping more than 289,000 employers auto enrol 1.9 million workers.

Commenting on the release of the reports, Otto Thoresen, NEST Corporation's Chair, said:
“NEST continues to grow and have a positive influence on the retirement prospects of our millions of members. We have performed well to-date, operating a well-run scheme which puts our members’ interests first and foremost.

“These reports help demonstrate to our partners and the wider industry our commitment to transparency. We’re confident that our long term financial projections are robust and that we’ll continue to deliver value to our members, while also providing value for money to the taxpayer.

“I would like to thank everyone involved with NEST for their continued hard work in helping our members build their retirement savings. I look forward to building on NEST’s successes in 2018/19.”

Helen Dean, NEST’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Staging has been a once-in-a-lifetime event and a unique challenge. At its peak we saw more than 1,800 employers sign up to NEST in a single working day, compared to 500 per year at earlier stages of auto enrolment.

“It’s testament to everyone here at NEST that we’ve been able to handle these unprecedented volumes of new business with exceptional efficiency and supported every employer who wanted to use us.

“We’ve also helped lead the way in developing our innovative retirement date funds and responsible investment strategies. We don’t want to settle for doing the minimum but are finding ways to help drive improvements right across the pensions industry.

“Now staging is complete, we’ll continue building on our achievements to help our members save for the best possible retirement.”

Summary of achievements, as at 31 March 2018:

• NEST is managing £2.7 billion on behalf of approximately 6.4 million members and 616,000 employers. This is compared to £1.7 billion for 4.5 million members and 327,000 employers at the same time last year.
• The final part of staging was completed with small and micro employers being onboarded. At peaks more than 1,800 employers were signed up to NEST in a single working day.
• We have increased our allocation to our Climate Aware Fund in the growth and foundation phases of our default funds.
• We are reporting against the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework for the first time, showing commitment to improving transparency and standardisation in reporting on climate risks.
• The DWP’s Tailored Review of NEST concluded that there is a need for an organisation like NEST and that our corporation is well-run.
• NEST has delivered average returns of 8.8 per cent per annum (after all charges) over the last five years for funds in the growth phase of our default strategy.
• 99 per cent of the employers that have enrolled with us were able to do so through our website or web services.

Notes to editors

The annual report and accounts can be found here:

• NEST Corporation
• NEST pension scheme. 

As of July 2018, the latest scheme details for NEST are:

• NEST membership has grown to around 6.8 million members.
• The average opt out rate is 8 per cent on average, and lower for younger members. 
• NEST is working with more than 656,000 employers.
• NEST has more than £3 billion in assets under management.
• There are more than 20,000 NEST Connectors helping employers use NEST. NEST Connector numbers refer to the number of unique organisations that have set up to be a NEST Connector.