A “Repair Shop” for SSAS
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
If you’ve ever watched The Repair Shop you’ll have seen a bunch of very talented people mending broken items, many of which are quite old. By lavishing care, attention and serious skill on artefacts which often look beyond saving but have huge sentimental value, it is more than possible to bring broken and dilapidated heirlooms back to glorious and useful life.
Warning - dubious link ahead!
SSASs aren’t often thought of as artefacts which bring to mind delight and sentimental value but, like a family heirloom, they can at least now be passed down the generations. A well looked after SSAS could provide financial security for decades which, if not exactly a thing of joy, certainly adds to the wellbeing of the family. So they are worth looking after.
"A well looked after SSAS could provide financial security for decades which, if not exactly a thing of joy, certainly adds to the wellbeing of the family. So they are worth looking after."
Unfortunately though, there are a large number of SSASs which are, well, looking a bit second hand. Often professional trustees stopped being involved from some point after April 2006 when they ceased to be compulsory. Maybe there have been investments which don’t match the rules for tax efficiency: perhaps loans that aren’t in the right shape, or the scheme holds the wrong sort of property. Perhaps the members do not know how to work out who is entitled to what portion of the assets.
Do the trustees know what is expected or required of them at all? Maybe the scheme has just pottered along, because it appears to save costs and no authorities were pressing for information. Do the trustees really know where it stands in terms of the current tax rules or regulatory requirements?
Repairing your SSAS
If your scheme, or your client’s scheme, might be in need of repair, updating or just some professional TLC, we may be able to help. I can’t promise that we will always be able to make people quite as happy as The Repair Shop does, but what we can do is give consultancy to set out the position a scheme is in, and hopefully help guide the trustees through any remedial work that might be needed.
We do not need to act as a trustee or in the role of “Scheme Administrator” to do this. We will work on a time-costed consultancy basis to assess the scheme and work out what needs doing. Then it would be up to the trustees whether they wanted us to help them. One thing to note is that, unlike in the workshop, with these pension schemes the trustees have to be part of the repair work. They might sometimes have to engage other professionals to help with legal or other points. We have some good, independent contacts in those areas.
If you think we might be able to help your scheme, or a client’s scheme, please contact one of our team who work on these cases*:
*Warning: only some of these are as photogenic as the tradespeople on the telly!
Please bear in mind that the SSAS team do not provide regulated financial advice. So while we can help with the repair work, we cannot provide guidance on what might be the most suitable investments, or course of action regarding benefits, for individuals.
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