Sipps Pensions - Sipp Pension Guide
From the 1st October 2008 the government has announced that it will be removing the restriction on placing accumulated Protected Rights funds into a SIPP (self invested Personal Pension Plans). For many people this eliminates one of the last remaining reasons to favour a personal pension over a SIPP. Whilst there are a variety of separate issues that may be addressed by investors if they are currently still contracted out (contracting out is scheduled to be abolished in 2012), the vast majority of investors will only need to be addressing their accumulated Protected Rights benefits. Estimates suggest that there may as much as £100 billion of Protected Rights held in insurance company pension funds. As SIPPs will allow protected rights to be paid out in a variety of ways that may not be available via original insurance company arrangements (such as unsecured pensions and alternatively secured pensions) this may make SIPPs even more attractive to some investors.
In simple terms, a self-invested personal pension puts the investor in control of their pension planning. Whilst in the recent past prohibitive high charges have made SIPPs less accessible increased competition in the marketplace has seen a sharp drop in costs (both initial and on going).
In its simplest form, a SIPP allows an investor much greater access to the investments markets. When you consider that over the last 15 years the average Unit Trust has outperformed the average pension fund by 61%, having access to the whole marketplace rather than being tied to only pension funds.
Whilst SIPPs can potentially be extremely sophisticated and complicated and can provide excellent tax planning solutions, there is no reason why they cannot be used simply to provide an investor with more control over their pension planning by providing a wider range of investment options. In the current difficult financial markets it is essential to have the maximum amount of flexibility when planning for retirement.
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