Self-invested personal pension (Sipp) business continues to boom despite fears over increased regulatory scrutiny, the latest Money Management Sipp survey shows.
Total value of assets under management grew by 16.5 per cent compared to the previous survey, increasing to £103.2bn from £88.6bn, as detailed in the Sipps special report.
The survey, which assessed data submitted by 60 providers covering 88 plans, captures more than half of the estimated 110 active Sipp operators.
While survey participants change from year to year, analysis of those firms that responded to this survey and the previous survey shows an even more impressive 21 per cent growth.
The average Sipp value also improved, rising to £227,573 from £203,684. The survey shows there are now 928,465 Sipps in existence.
Some estimates put the totals even higher. Suffolk Life, which collates data from MM surveys and other industry sources, suggested there are more than one million active Sipps.
Its latest findings include:
• 270,000 simple/platform Sipps, with total assets of £23.5bn and an average plan size of £87,000;
• 581,000 mid-range Sipps, with total assets of £46.1bn and an average plan size of £79,000;
• 198,000 full-range/bespoke Sipps, with total assets of £52.7bn and average plan size of £266,000.
“The total market has grown consistently in recent years – around 29 per cent pa on average since A-Day, though the rate of growth is now slowing,” said Chris Jones, proposition and marketing director at Suffolk Life.
“The biggest growth has been in the simple and mid-range market – particularly the advance of platform pension accounts – recognising that most clients don’t require the all the functionality (or cost) of a full range Sipp,” he said.
