Focus 118 – Polarisation of SIPP Market

Bill Gates famously said “the first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency”.

Wise words from a very wise and successful man, especially when applied to the SIPP and SSAS market.  There has been a blinkered drive towards platform based SIPP products at a very low cost that need vast volumes to be profitable for the platform provider.  But they ignore the fact that technology can be married with personal service to produce a better outcome for you and your clients.

Providers have rushed towards platform based solutions in the belief that cost and functionality were the sole drivers for the SIPP marketplace.  But service is being sacrificed at the altar of technology and there is a vacuum being left in the once heavily populated ‘bespoke’ SIPP marketplace.  The sad reality is that many of the so-called platform SIPPs are in fact personal pensions.

For advisers, there was a move to platform SIPPs but there is an increasing number of these adviser firms looking to move their books of business back to the bespoke providers.

A key reason is that platform SIPPs are not necessarily a ‘SIPP for life’, rather they are often only appropriate for part of the journey towards retirement, whereas a bespoke SIPP offers all investment options and can flex with a client’s changing circumstances.

You tell us that there are some key reasons that help you decide where to place SIPP business, they are:

• Having access to a named administrator
• Cradle to grave administration
• Access to the senior team when required
• Fast intervention if an issue occurs
• Clear and clean charging structures that do not penalise high value clients
• Efficient use of technology, online applications etc but not at the expense of personal service
• A strong Adviser support function

Technology and service are not mutually exclusive.  The technology that everyone has worked hard to develop over the past decades can work in tandem with a personal, customer/adviser led approach.  We are committed to providing high levels of service in partnership with the clever use of technology.  We also have the ability to help advisers move books of business efficiently and without stress.  This is important with the number of advisers becoming disillusioned with the impersonal approach of platforms and moving books of business to us.

We aim to ensure that the technology and personal service that we provide magnifies the efficiency we have created.

For more information about the assistance we can provide to IFAs in relation to moving books of SIPP business please contact: