Small Self-Administered Schemes

A Small Self-Administered Scheme (SSAS) is an occupational pension scheme that lets you save for retirement whilst keeping an unprecedented level of control on how your money is invested and looked after.

SSAS schemes also offer pension holders various tax benefits. Employer and member contributions typically qualify for tax relief, based on certain requirements. Investment income and gains are usually exempt from UK income tax and capital gains tax. Lump sum benefits on a member’s death is usually free from inheritance tax. When taking benefits, a tax-free lump sum of up to 25% of the member’s share is usually available, depending on the members remaining lifetime allowance.

SSAS Schemes and Barnett Waddingham

We act as a professional trustee of our SSAS pension schemes to ensure it is compliant with tax legislation and our co-trustees are kept informed of latest developments. As part of this SSAS management service, we provide comprehensive pension scheme administration including dealing with regulatory returns as well as member and investment transactions with the pension fund.

As a SSAS administrator and trustee service acting for thousands of clients for over 30 years, we have built up a huge amount of knowledge of pensions and experience in dealing with these schemes and the variety of investments that are held within them. Our clients own over 2,800 commercial properties within their portfolios and every year we agree to around 65 loans back to a business owner’s limited company.

Our SSAS clients include:

• business owners interested in succession planning with family members who are employees
• entrepreneurs wanting to invest their personal pension savings into their business
• high net worth individuals seeking pension saving that is independent of the pension provider
• adventurous investors wanting access to more unusual investments

For some clients, we simply act as scheme practitioner, essentially being an appointed agent to act for the trustees to submit regulatory returns. We are happy to provide consultancy advice to trustees, noticeably where there has been an issue with non-compliance with rules in the past. We no longer set up SSAS schemes unless we are appointed as professional trustee given the new HMRC requirement that essentially means there needs to be a skilled pension person associated with the scheme.

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