John Moret, principal at MoretoSipps, has predicted the Sipp industry will grow to £500bn by 2025, with a total of £200bn coming from defined benefit transfers.
Speaking at an event held today in London on the changing world of retirement options, he explained that at present there is over £1trn in defined benefit schemes, and the current Sipp market stands at £180bn.
As such, he claimed it was not unreasonable to predict that 20 per cent of those people in DB schemes would find themselves in some sort of individual arrangement such as a Sipp following pension freedoms, which allow individuals to draw down all of their retirement pot and invest as they choose.
He said: "That quickly converts to £200bn. You can come up with a convincing argument as to why the Sipp market could easily by pushing £0.5trn, three times the size it is today.
"The overall message is there is still huge optimism for this market, I just hope we can get the regulation sorted out."
Mr Moret added the other growth areas would be transfers from defined contribution schemes at £60bn, life company legacy products at £50bn and new clients at £10bn, totalling a potential growth of £500bn.
Sipps have seen a surge in popularity since the introduction of pension freedoms, with the number of transfers increasing by 115 per cent since April 2015, fintech provider Origo has revealed.
Options Transfers provides pension transfers for around 90 providers, including most of the big life companies, Sipp providers and master trusts. The figures represent the total volume of transfers through Options.
In July, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme revealed more than 90 per cent of the £84m it paid out in the 2015 to 2016 financial was Sipp-related - twice the amount of the previous year.
A spokesperson for the FSCS said this trend was likely to continue.
