Ian Hammond is managing director of Rowanmoor Group
Key points
* The investment restrictions and formal appointment of the Pensioneer Trustee were incorporated in the Joint Office Memorandum Number 58 issued in February 1979
* While the introduction of the new legislation took some years to come to fruition, it was clear early on that there would be certain clients who would take advantage of the absence of the Pensioneer Trustee
* A Ssas and a Sipp are differentiated in a fundamental manner as one is regulated by the FCA while the other is not regulated at all
A history of change
Significant changes in the management of a Ssas started with the Green Paper in December 2002, entitled Simplifying the Taxation of Pensions: Increasing Choice and Flexibility for All.
Apart from its perceived ambition of simplifying and reducing the number of types of pension arrangements, there were a number of issues included within the text which had specific relevance in the provision of a Ssas; namely a strong reference to the fact that there would be a lack of restriction on investments for pension schemes from then on, with the provision that if the HMRC felt a member was obtaining a personal benefit from any such arrangement, then there would be an appropriate tax charge raised and secondly (and most controversial and relevant for the Ssas) there would no longer be a requirement for a Pensioneer Trustee.
This was claimed to be a result of European legislation which required total mobility and availability of pension arrangements across all European countries and the restriction imposed by pensioneer trusteeship on a Ssas in the UK was therefore against European law.
