5 types of client that can really benefit from the IPM SIPP

We have recently put together a guide to the IPM SIPP, which showcases some of the areas we feel the IPM SIPP stands out among other providers in the market. You’ll also find useful information on how best IPM can assist you and your clients when you are planning for a client’s retirement.

While we would hope that IPM is your first choice SIPP provider for the clients you work with, we understand that this may not always be the case.

We have previously looked at the different types of SIPP options that are available in the market and it may well be that a simpler SIPP solution best meets your client’s needs.

For example, clients with a small pension who contribute £100 a month may be best served by an online SIPP with a more restricted number of investment options, as opposed to a bespoke SIPP offered by a firm like IPM.

With that said, there are still many occasions where the flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and service levels offered by the IPM SIPP will be of benefit to your clients. We are the first-choice SIPP provider for adviser firms of all sizes throughout the country, as well as for large national networks and investment houses.

Given the bespoke nature of our SIPP, we do not have a “typical” client. However, to help you understand the types of clients who are likely to benefit from our SIPP, here are some of the recent scenarios we have worked on.

SSAS break-up

Although there is still very much a place for SSAS in the retirement planning landscape, a lot of schemes have now been in place for several decades.

While a SSAS may have been beneficial originally, as clients grow older and begin to wind down their working lives they become less and less useful. This, coupled with the fact that clients will usually be required to act as trustee in a SSAS, often leads to us being asked to move benefits from a SSAS into one or more SIPPs.

We recently worked with an adviser who was recommending a transfer of a SSAS for four clients (company director husbands and wives) who had stepped back from day-to-day dealings with the company.

One of the couples was considering taking benefits from the SSAS in the next couple of years and wanted to do this independently of the other couple.

The SSAS held the four trustee investment bonds of equal value as well as around £500,000 of investments managed by the adviser on a platform, and a small amount of cash. Each of the clients had a 25% share of the SSAS.

We worked with the financial adviser to set up four SIPPs for the clients before establishing a platform account within each SIPP.

The SSAS trustees then transferred 25% of the assets held in the SSAS’ platform account to each of the individual SIPP platform accounts, in accordance with the SSAS ownership split.

While this was happening, deeds of assignments were prepared to re-assign each bond to an individual SIPP for each client. Any small discrepancy in the value of the bonds against the SSAS ownership split was corrected by the transfer of cash from the trustee bank account.

The end result is that the clients still have the assets held within a pension as they did with a SSAS. However, now each client has their own individual SIPP arrangement where they can make decisions independently of each other.

When a client needs more than a platform SIPP

Most of the advisers we work with have two types of SIPP provider they look to: a simple SIPP solution and IPM.

As previously mentioned, we would always like to be your choice of SIPP provider for every client you work with! However, we understand that some client’s requirements can be met with a platform or online SIPP.

With that said, there are still many occasions where your client’s circumstances may require something more than a simple SIPP can offer, including:

• Where a client wants to hold investments with more than one investment house. Our investment flexibility means clients don’t have to choose from a panel of investment houses. You can work with any DFM, platform, bond provider, stockbroker, or third-party deposit account you wish.
• Where a client’s investment falls into the non-standard category as defined by the FCA for SIPP operators. While IPM does not take volume business of this nature, we can consider scenarios on a case-by-case basis. For example, we can consider quarterly dealing hedge funds or deposit accounts with notice periods in excess of 30 days that cannot be broken.
• At the high net worth end of the market, we can provide the personal, tailored service some clients require. This might relate to how the SIPP is structured from an investment perspective, how benefits will be drawn, or any other specific support your client needs.

Commercial property purchase

We regularly talk about IPM’s strength in the area of commercial property purchase.

With more than 1,100 properties owned on behalf of our clients, and a third of our staff dedicated to our property team, we offer wide experience in this area. You and your clients will also benefit from a high level of personal service throughout the purchase and beyond.

We have one of the most cost-effective offerings for holding a commercial property in a SIPP in the market. This is because we do not charge an additional annual property fee, annual borrowing fee, or additional fees where a property is owned by more than one SIPP client.

We have previously written about:

• The typical types of property IPM we’re asked to purchase
• Some of the more unusual property requests we have had in the past
• Different types of land purchase we have undertaken
• Transferring a property in-specie from another SIPP or SSAS provider.

We’ve also shared some case studies that illustrate how a SIPP can help clients and their businesses with their cashflow.

Transparency on fees

We recently took a SIPP from another provider where the adviser’s comment was: “With ABC SIPP provider, we were never sure what the client was going to pay in fees each year.”

We are proud of our simple approach to administering SIPPs, both in terms of offering the IPM SIPP as well as the fixed-fee structure that we charge.

Where clients are not in drawdown or purchasing a commercial property, usually your clients will pay our annual administration fee of £540 + VAT and nothing else.

Of course, we do need to caveat this by saying that there are additional fees in certain circumstances, such as investing in a non-standard asset, paying out death benefits, or following a pension sharing order.

There are no charges to set up a SIPP, arrange transfers from other providers, pay contributions on a one-off or regular basis, make standard investments, hold multiple standard investments, or move money to or from the trustee bank account.

Even where a client is in drawdown, we charge a flat annual fee of £150 + VAT. This covers all the income payments a client may request in a 12-month period, both regular and ad hoc.

Overseas clients

Although Brexit has caused some complications in this area, IPM still has many clients that hold SIPPs but live outside the UK.

We have previously written about overseas clients and how we can help them. The thing to consider here is where a client wishes to draw benefits if they are in a country other than the UK.

If a client lives in Spain, for example, they may only have the option to receive their pension benefits in GBP and then convert this into EUR with their existing provider before they can spend it. This may become more problematic if the client no longer has a GBP bank account.

We are happy for investments in the SIPP to be held in any currency. Where a client lives in the United States, or a country that accepts EUR, we can pay both pension commencement lump sums and income payments (subject to certain criteria) in EUR or USD.

The benefit here is that the investments do not need to be converted back to GBP for IPM to send to the client, which they would then need to convert back to their local currency.

This saves time and various exchange rates and costs.

Get in touch

If you have any SIPP-related queries, or if you have any clients for whom SIPP advice would be beneficial, please get in touch. Email info@ipm-pensions.co.uk or call 01438 747 151.