What Are The Potential Benefits of a UK Self Invested Personal Pension

Before discussing the potential benefits of a Sipp, it is worth briefly describing when Sipp's came into being and who are eligible to have a Sipp.

Self invested personal pensions started in 1999 as a product available to UK consumers. The Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) is essentially a pension wrapper that is capable of holding investments and providing you with tax efficient savings for when you retire. As a form of personal pension scheme they differ in several ways from a standard Personal Pension product. Presently, there are over 600,000 SIPPS in force in the UK. Anyone is eligible to have one, even Children can benefit from receiving Tax Relief.

The benefits of a Sipp highlight the main differences when compared to a Standard Personal Pension.

SIPP Benefits: Children

A Sipp is held in Trust and forms part of Estate upon death so in effect any residual fund value in retirement can be left to your beneficiaries, on death. Personal Pension plans finish on death in retirement and the Annuity provider (Insurance Company) benefits from the pension finishing.

Nomination of Beneficiaries can take place when applying for a Sipp and can be changed if needed by altering the trust form.

SIPP Benefits: Cash

25% Cash Lump sum can be taken from the age of 55. Though this also applies to Personal Pensions, it does not apply to most Final Salary schemes which are taken from 60-65 years of age. However, a major difference when compared to a standard Personal Pension is once a lump sum has been taken, a SIPP allows the remaining fund to remain invested. What this means in effect is the remaining fund can continue to grow and provide increased retirement benefits going forward.

The level of income taken is also flexible so allowing greater choice. This is a really big difference that can benefit a retired person. Standard personal pension funds have to purchase an annuity and set conditions on how much income will be received in retirement and annuity rates are correlated against interest rates. Therefore, if retiring in an era of low interest rates this can have a massive effect on income received.

SIPP Benefits: Control

Most pension funds are correlated which means they are linked to the stock market. In recent times this has meant volatility and reduced returns. A dear friend of mine has recently received his annual statement and having paid in £1,500 gross over the last 12 months has seen his investment worth £592 taking into account charges and performance. The funds invested within are not high risk, just the general funds made available for pension investing.

A SIPP offers control over investments. Most alternative investments offer potential for higher growth than other "Standard Products". Though generally deemed high risk, investment returns are the single most important aspect of pension planning. The alternative to low returns is to pay greater contributions.

SIPP Benefits: Charges

Most people are not fully aware of the charges levied against their pension. With a SIPP the charges are transparent, with fixed costs and highlighted on annual statements. Charges against a SIPP can be seen to be high when applied to a small pension fund (<£20,000) but competitive when applied to a decent pension fund value (>£30,000+).

It is worth considering alternatives to standard pension products especially if you are concerned with the amount of contributions you would be required to make to achieve a reasonable pension pot prior to retirement. Preserved or Frozen pensions can be used to fund a SIPP and countless people have pensions from previous employers or previous personal pensions that are not working hard enough to achieve a retirement aim. Existing Personal pensions plans can also be used to fund a SIPP compliant investment.

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