Personal Pensions I SIPPs, SSAS and Stakeholder Pensions

Our cross-departmental personal pensions team has decades of experience advising wealth management firms and personal pensions providers on all relevant legal and regulatory matters

Overview

We advise leading providers on all areas relating to SIPPs, SSAS, and stakeholder pensions and are familiar with the technical and commercial issues from the provider side.

Our personal pensions team brings together experts from across our pensions advisory, financial regulation, disputes, tax and fintech teams. With such wide reaching expertise, we are able to respond quickly to changes within the sector.

We are known for our pragmatic and flexible approach and our client centric focus. We recognise that SIPPs, SSAS and stakeholder pensions providers operate in a very complex framework and we will always tailor our approach to your requirements.

Areas of focus

Our personal pensions expertise includes the following:

Advising on the regulatory considerations for the development of SIPP propositions by reference to the changing regulatory landscape for SIPP providers.
Assisting with the FCA authorisation process for new SIPP operators, product development considerations in the context of different distribution models, terms and conditions and ongoing legal compliance.
Drafting and updating documentation.
Providing Finance Act 2004 taxation advice covering relief at source regulations, HMRC determinations, lifetime allowance and authorised payments issues.
Advising providers on the pensions regulatory environment, for example on auto enrolment schemes and where SIPP and SSAS provision falls under the Pensions Regulator.
Supporting SIPP and SSAS providers with the pensions and regulatory aspects of corporate activity such as acquisitions, disposals and restructuring along with integration and onboarding.
Being familiar with the full life cycle of small and large schemes, from advice around set-up and maintenance of template documentation to wind-ups and business transfers.
Advising on the legal structures for holding SIPP assets.
Advising on claims against SIPP operators/trustees in relation to asset classes, statutory, regulatory and trust law obligations and pensions ombudsman and financial ombudsman claims.
Assisting with registration for supervision of a SIPP trustee as a trust or company service provider with HMRC for the purposes of the Money Laundering Regulations.

Experience

Providing full life cycle legal and regulatory advice on the design and operation of new SIPP products, including drafting scheme documents and related literature, supporting with FCA authorisation and permissions and including subsequent updates for legislative and tax changes.

Advising a SIPP provider in relation to its due diligence obligations when onboarding non-standard investments including by reference to FCA rules, guidance and publications and potential exposure to financial ombudsman and other claims.

Advising on legal and practical changes for documentation upon the transfer of SIPP business from one provider to another, with particular reference to the change of Scheme Administrator.

Providing advice to a SIPP provider on changing client money arrangements and the implications under CASS.

Supporting sales and acquisitions of SSAS and SIPP providers by drafting warranties and indemnities and pension aspects of winding up trustee companies.

Acting in a multi-million pound breach of warranty claim in connection with the acquisition of a SIPP operator relating to potential breaches of FS regulatory requirements.

Acting for a client in appeals against HMRC determinations in the Tax Tribunal on in-specie contributions and unauthorised payments.

Working with a fast-growing platform technology provider to develop its own SIPP product.

Operating a helpdesk for a well-known financial services provider on technical, regulatory and compliance queries.

Meet the team