The regulator has also published a tool to help employers to check whether their existing DC scheme meets the minimum criteria for an automatic enrolment scheme as set out in legislation.
To support employers further the regulator has published a leaflet, Selecting a good automatic enrolment scheme, that sets out a number of questions that employers may want to ask advisers or product providers when they are selecting a pension scheme for automatic enrolment, or when assessing their existing scheme.
The Pensions Regulator's chief executive Bill Galvin said: "It's important that employers and retirement savers have confidence that their chosen scheme is likely to deliver good outcomes.
"With these principles and features, we want to support the industry in demonstrating to employers and members that schemes are well designed and governed. These will also form an important part of our regulatory approach - we will consult formally on that in 2013. In the meantime, we hope that those responsible for designing and running schemes to be used for automatic enrolment will take these principles and features into consideration.
"The qualifying tool and accompanying leaflet are aimed initially at large employers who are the first to reach their staging dates, but will be available for use by all employers reviewing their existing pension scheme or looking for new products in preparation for automatic enrolment."
For product providers and trustees, the regulator has published a list of the draft features that represent its current view of the core components of DC a scheme that are most likely to result in a better income for savers at retirement.
Each of the features sits beneath one of the regulator's six principles for the good design and governance of DC pension provision, which were first published last year. The features have been developed following a series of discussions with the pensions sector during the early part of 2012.
