Setting Up My Own SSAS Pension Scheme

rtX_2

I would like to set up and administer as a trustee my own SSAS pension scheme. I do not believe that I need to have a professional involved as a trustee. I have searched both these forums and wider but can't find anything like a "How to" to do this. Is anyone aware of a good resource in this respect? I'm aware of what an SSAS is and so do not need that type of resource.

Further information/rationale: I only have a relatively small pension pot and I want to administer it myself from my company and take responsibility myself for the success or otherwise of my investments. I'm likely to buy a commercial property and want to handle the collection of rent and do the VAT etc. myself. All the advice I can find suggests a fairly hefty administration cost if a separate administrator becomes involved which I want to avoid as I don't need someone else to sit between me and the running of my pension.

Many thanks.

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4266821

Discussed in the above. See post 5.

rtX_2

Thank you. I had looked at the post you suggest prior to posting my own request for help. The OP on that thread was asking for help doing exactly what I want to do. The replies, though mostly good-natured were not directly helpful - they did not address the original question which was does anyone have a pro-forma set of scheme rules etc. (I paraphrase).

I'm hoping to find a "How to" set up my own SSAS now that a professional administrator is not a requirement. The responses the OP on the other thread received were largely about not doing it rather than how to do it.

Many thanks again.

Aegis

My honest advice as someone who acts as the investment adviser to a self-managed SSAS is "just don't". Unless you have experience as a pension trustee, it's just not worth the hassle, the form filling, the constant checking of the pension rules, etc, without a really really good reason. If the sole reason is to save a few hundred pounds a year by not using a SIPP to buy the commercial property instead, then in all likelihood you don't have a large enough pension to even think about doing this - someone with a large enough pension wouldn't baulk at that cost.

If you're determined, then this is a good resource to start from, and you'll need to allocate a great deal of your time to reading up on this manual to ensure you don't accidentally put a foot wrong and cause yourself a major problem:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/rpsmmanual/RPSM00300000.htm

rtX_2

Thank you for the advice. Would you know where can I get an SSAS administrator to run a scheme for a few hundred pounds a year? All the ones I have seen amount to a few thousand by the time you've taken into account the fees to 'oversee' the purchase, do the VAT returns,and all the other bolt on bits and pieces etc.

I'm not adverse to paying someone to keep the scheme within the rules, but I don't want to be forced to do things like use a particular valuer, pay someone else to do the VAT returns and apply for VAT registration - all things I have within my scope of expertise.

Many thanks again.