Liberty Sipp has merged its two self-invested personal pensions into a single product in an effort to make fees reflect the complexity of underlying assets.
Liberty Sipp previously offered two separate products, the Liberty Sipp and Liberty Icon Sipp.
Under the new plan these will be merged into a single product, the Liberty Option Sipp.
The two pre-existing Sipps were broadly similar, except the Liberty Icon Sipp was restricted to the James Brearley Icon platform.
Clients in the new Sipp will only pay for what they use. For example if a client wants to transfer in a property, they will pay a property fee. If they want to take an income they pay a drawdown fee.
Matthew Rankine, technical sales and marketing manager at Liberty Sipp, told FTAdviser: “Why should a client pay higher fees if they are investing in simpler assets? Can we not just have a set fee for setting up the Sipp?”
The new Liberty Option Sipp will charge a flat annual fee of £150 and pay 1 per cent interest on its cash account from which it will take no commission.
The fee covers contributions, administration, access to an online valuation tool, annual reporting and one free standard investment such as a regulated discretionary fund manager account.
During a transfer to the Liberty Option Sipp, the IFA and his or her client can stay up-to-date on progress via an online portal. All transfer notes and valuations can be seen in one place.
While it claims to remain a whole-of-market Sipp, Liberty Sipp has partnered with platforms, investment firms and DFMs including Charles Stanley, Brewin Dolphin, Raymond James and Brooks MacDonald.
John Fox, managing director of Liberty Sipp (pictured), said: “We believe Sipps’ popularity will continue to rise in the years ahead and, as they become more mass-market, it’s vital to keep it simple. We have also invested heavily in the technology platform, as today’s Sipp, for both the IFA and client, needs to be real-time and always-on.”
