Idiot's guide to SSAS please!

trippy

I used to work for a pensions consultancy administering final salary and money purchase pension schemes. For the last 7 years I've been looking after my children and am now about to go back to work. I didn't expect to be going back to pensions so haven't kept up-to-date with the changes in legislations etc.

But next week I have an interview for a big company that administers SSAS and SIPPs. I need to do 2 things at the interview 1) show that I have an awareness of recent legislation and 2) show an understanding of SSAS and SIPP schemes.

I am able to find out a bit about these but am not too sure what administering them would involve. I wondered if anyone could give me some tips please so I can to convince them to employ me. Thanks.

EdInvestor

Gosh.You're in for some heavyweight reading then: the A-day legislation and amendments is massive.

All on the HMRC site but where to start?

I should start by Googling and also looking at the websites of some of the leading SIPP providers eg

https://www.sippdeal.co.uk
https://www.alliancetrust.co.uk
https://www.suffolklife.co.uk
https://www.h-l.co.uk
https://www.jameshay.co.uk

DRS1

You may to have a look at this site (may be the people you are applying to for all I know) but they have some stuff in a Technical Centre which may be of interest. And if you are applying to them you can at least show you have read up on what is bugging them about the new law.

http://www.ajbell.com

Good luck

JeremyZerg

I am able to find out a bit about these but am not too sure what administering them would involve. I wondered if anyone could give me some tips please so I can to convince them to employ me.

I work for a leading pension administration company. "A-day" is the big one, in terms of changes to legislation; but it's also important to note that as at the start of this financial year, SIPPs are regulated by the FSA.

Just blather on about the importance of FSA compliance and proper checks and safeguards in the pensions industry! (I doubt they will expect you to know the exact legislation...)

As regards the administration of each product (SSAS and SIPP), the major difference between these and conventional pension schemes is the flexibility of investment options.

You'll need to show familiarity with collective investments and equities, as well as trustee investment plans (Zurich, NU etc.) - dealing with fund managers and investment managers is an important part of the overall administration process.

Good luck!

trippy

Thanks for that info. Very useful.

So are SASS and SIPP more like 'Personal Pensions' in terms of administration?

Have read about A-day now. How embarassing would it have been if I'd not known all that? They'd have shown me the door there and then. :embarasse

EdInvestor

SIPPs allow a much wider range of investment options than PPs (though they are a type of PP). Includes commercial property (buildings), individual shares and gilts, cash, investment trusts and exchange traded funds. Although PPs now offer external unit trust type funds from outside companies, rather than just their own funds, there's no comparion really.SIPPs are trust-based products, and can't at this point take protected rights (very irritating!) SIPPs allow seamless transition into income drawdown when vesting the pension, no need to crystallise fund and transfer. Much of the mainstream new money coming into SIPPs seems to be into drawdown, which has its own rules and regulations.

SSASs are an occupational pension version of a SIPP. As the rules are now much the same, I understand that most people are now using SIPPs instead of SSASs.