This year’s figures are not directly comparable with those from last year because of the change in the number of participating providers. But a scaling back in the size of the market can be discerned. Last year’s total of 20,751 plans – factoring in 3,000 that were erroneously excluded from Rowanmoor’s total – has dropped to 16, 677 this year.
Absent providers account for around 1,500 of this figure, but this still points to a drop of 2,500 year-on-year. The industry could be said to be back to where it was two years ago – the February 2015 Money Management survey recorded 16,362 SSASs.
Rowanmoor’s head of pension technical services, Robert Graves, attributes his firm’s boost in numbers in 2015 to a several factors, including “a surge in SSAS’s for loan-back purposes” due to banks being less open to making loans to companies in 2015, and the establishment of HMRC’s ‘fit and proper’ persons test, which resulted in Rowanmoor reaching out to IFAs and accountancy firms in order to attract schemes in need of a professional administrator.
The subsequent reduction is due to lower interest in esoteric investments, Mr Graves adds, as well as “life companies and larger pension schemes successfully [campaigning] against SSASs’ via warnings over scams.
This could change if new safeguards come into force. But Barnett Waddingham partner Andrew Roberts urges a sensible approach to reform.
Mr Roberts says: “The most fundamental concern is that there will be ill-considered changes to the rules governing SSAS’s as a whole, made without full engagement with the industry. It need not be this way. It is vital that any SSAS framework works for business entrepreneurs and the government alike: use of SSAS by business entrepreneurs adds capital to the economy and therefore fuels growth.”
One growth trend that is discernable this year is the rise of smaller firms such as Day Cooper Day and Whitehall Group. Both have continued to record healthy year-on-year growth rates in both funds under management and the number of SSASs created. Day Cooper Day assets have risen from £204m to £413m, thanks to a near doubling in SSAS numbers from 337 to 604. Assets under management at Whitehall rose less dramatically, from £317m to £401m, but total SSASs have risen from 652 to 874.
The types of scheme available from each provider range from full SSAS to hybrid products, 90/10 and deferred SSASs, are outlined in Table 3 (online). As seen in past editions of the survey, all providers offer a full SSAS. Yorsass, the only company to offer a 90/10 SSAS in 2016, did not return a survey this year.
What does the future hold?
