More than a quarter of financial advisers have been using Sipps as a business succession planning tool, Jeff Steedman has said.
Mr Steedman, head of Sipp and small self-administered schemes business development for provider Xafinity, said: “Every day we are approached by financial advisers asking about putting commercial properties into Sipps, so clearly there is an appetite out there for the product.”
Mr Steedman said that most advisers wanted to find out more about ‘in specie’ transfers and this seems to be driven by a growing dissatisfaction with their existing Sipp providers, although some advisers still lack complete confidence in recommending Sipps.
“Much of this is due to not having the comprehensive knowledge of some simpler pension products”, he added.
According to research in October by Xafinity, the majority of advisers would consider using a Sipp as a business succession planning tool.
More than 40 per cent of advisers would confidently recommend an in specie property contribution to a Sipp for a client if the situation arose, with 55 per cent saying they would need Sipp provider support.
Adviser view
Tony Catt, compliance officer at East Sussex-based Anthony Catt, said: “Buying a property through a Sipp is quite specialist, and not all Sipp providers are able to offer this function. Borrowing from a Sipp needs to be at commercial rates, but payments back into the fund are preferable to simply servicing debt.”
