Sipp Including a commercial property - Advisor or Not?

Jonesy1977

Hi There, 
Quick question for you pension experts.
I have a SIPP with a commercial property (my business premises) the SIPP is already set up and operating.  The property value is some 90% of the SIPP value at this point but further payments in are being made so this is a (hopefully) decreasing percentage.   We have an advisor (IFA) who charged 1% of the total value for ongoing advice including a meeting annually.  We found out from Policy Services (the advice intermediary) that we could be paying 0.5% for ongoing advice with no annual meeting (not needed anyway).  My question is, is there any need for us to keep paying the IFA at all or should we terminate?  the SIPP is with Sanlam and it pays into one growth fund.  Would we be able to change funds in the future without an advisor? is there any legal reason why we may need an advisor linked to this?  
Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

dunstonh

We have an advisor (IFA) who charged 1% of the total value for ongoing advice including a meeting annually.  We found out from Policy Services (the advice intermediary) that we could be paying 0.5% for ongoing advice with no annual meeting (not needed anyway). 

The rules for pensions set up after January 2013 is that the adviser must provide a service in return for the ongoing fee.     It is not uncommon for adviser firms to have different fee levels for different service levels.  However, advisers cannot just charge a retainer fee and do nothing.  There has to be something in return for it.

Ongoing servicing is required to optional.  So, no, you do not need to keep paying a fee.

Would we be able to change funds in the future without an advisor?

Some providers are intermediary only.  Where that ist he case, you may need an adviser to transact.  However, if you intend to DIY then use a provider that caters for the DIY market instead.

Linton

Have you considered separate SIPPs for your fund investment and property?  SIPPs able to hold property are pretty niche and I guess expensive. I have no dea what facilities Sanlam have for managing funds but normal fund/share sipp platforms are designed to make investing easy and there is a lot of competition which will keep prices down.

There is no legal reason to have an advisor  when buying and selling funds and shares in a SIPP.  Most people on this forum run their fund SIPPs on a standard platform without an advisor.  Some platforms are only accessible by advisors, but that is the platform's company's business model.  Whether Sanlam have any such restriction I have no idea,

Jonesy1977

Thanks @dunstonh .  I feel slightly aggrieved that we are charged a percentage of the property value ongoing as this wipes alot of any gains on the equities element particularly as there are a lot of fees for the ongoing property within the SIPP.  We are also charged 0.99% on the active fund with Sanlam so we seem to be paying a high price (although the tax benefit is very good)  I do not know if Sanlam require an intermediary to be involved but I will call them now to find out!  Many Thanks

Jonesy1977

Linton said:

Have you considered separate SIPPs for your fund investment and property?  SIPPs able to hold property are pretty niche and I guess expensive. I have no dea what facilities Sanlam have for managing funds but normal fund/share sipp platforms are designed to make investing easy and there is a lot of competition which will keep prices down.

There is no legal reason to have an advisor  when buying and selling funds and shares in a SIPP.  Most people on this forum run their fund SIPPs on a standard platform without an advisor.  Some platforms are only accessible by advisors, but that is the platform's company's business model.  Whether Sanlam have any such restriction I have no idea,

Thanks @Linton I would prefer this, and to be honest the IFA is useless, for example Sanlam have just stopped the fund we are invested in and the IFA knew nothing of this until I called her about it.