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The Loop | January 2022

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January 2022

Your quarterly insight to the pensions world from the team at The Pension Solutions Group and PSG SIPP

Making property investment simple Why choosing the right legal partner matters

Inside this issue

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PSG SIPP Limited acquire Heritage SIPPs Business

LLP vs LTD What’s the difference?

Itchy Feet PSG HQ to relocate to Melksham

and much more...


Happy New Year! Find out about some exciting new developments happening here at PSG in this latest edition of the Loop.

In this issue Feature and Insight SIPPS: Hidden fees and costcutting

Feature and Insight The PSG Brand Feature and Insight Why choosing the right property legal team matters

Company News PSG SIPP Limited acquire Heritage

Feature and Insight Heritage: Where it all began

Feature and Insight Looking after your physical wellbeing

Industry Insight LLP vs LTD What’s the difference?

Feature and Insight PSG’s notoriously itchy feet!

Mythbusters Bright Spark & Mr Knowitall

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PSG SIPP Limited Registered in England and Wales no. 07030395 Registered Office: The Coach House, Box House, Bath Road, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8AA is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (register number 514654). | The Pension Solutions Group Limited Registered in England and Wales no. 06683561 Registered Office: The Coach House, Box House, Bath Road, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8AA. | The PSG Trust Company Limited Registered in England and Wales no. 06289058 The Coach House, Box House, Bath Road, Box, Corsham, Wiltshire, SN13 8AA.


Every edition of the Loop is special to us, but this one is perhaps a little extra special. It’s part retrospective and part looking to the future. We’ve dusted off some of our favourite articles from 2021, we welcome a fabulous new group to the PSG family following some recent big changes, and we look at another big change that’s just around the corner. Hope you like it.

It’s not possible to reflect on any aspect of the last year or so, or even to look forward without covid as part of the landscape. When will this end? Of course, on the one hand, most people realised a while back that it won’t, but it seems few countries, save perhaps for Australia, are yet ready to publicly announce a policy of living alongside covid as an alternative to yoyoing in and out of lockdowns and restrictions every time a new variant crops up. After all, it’s a virus, new variants is kind of what a virus does. The strange and, at times, impossible thing for us, has been maintaining a healthy and consistent company culture during a time when our offices have been all but empty, while we’ve continued to expand (and anyone trying to recruit right now knows

how tricky that is!), through the process of acquiring a substantial book of clients from another SIPP provider, and while becoming part of a larger, more global group which will in turn lead to positive growth and investment in our company. All this in tandem with the ongoing, restless nature of changing and tightening regulation. Whatever delights and challenges 2022 has in store for us here at PSG, we can’t always know. But we’ll yearn for a year that when we look back on it, we’ll feel like we caught up with ourselves. A period of consolidation would be nice. The space to plan things rather than feel like we’re always reacting. A bit more sleep maybe. Who are we kidding? Let’s just bring it on!

Duncan Parsons, Natalie Pike & Mike Baker The PSG Board of Directors

The strange and, at times, impossible thing for us, has been maintaining a healthy and consistent company culture during a time when our offices have been all but empty.

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Feature and Insight

SIPPS: Hidden fees and cost cutting By Marcus Forsey Marketing and Communications Manager Marcus@psgsipp.co.uk

After months of lockdowns and holidaying in the UK, you’ve just booked your dream holiday abroad. Now all that’s left to do is a little shopping around online to find the best deal on flights. Suddenly you stumble across a great deal; “£120 for a return flight with a no thrills airline?” you say. “Sign me up!” You get all the way through the process of booking it and then all of a sudden you get hit with a screen full of dreaded ‘£’ symbols and a whole bunch of extra charges; “PCR tests” “seat selection booking fee” “priority boarding charge”, “extra leg room”, “extra oxygen” etc. So begrudgingly, not wanting to begin the whole, excruciating process afresh, you pay what is now actually much more than the headline figure that hooked you in. Chances are, on the day you’re due to fly out you’ll rock up at the airport only to find that you’re liable for yet another charge; oversized baggage, use of trolley etc. Great!

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Don’t be fooled by the headline fees, dig deeper and understand what you or your client, will actually be paying at set up and annually.

Now some of these charges could be additional extras but at least some will be completely unavoidable. Nevertheless, we’ve all been there and we’ve all ended up asking ourselves the same question: wouldn’t it have been more client centric to have saved me a whole bunch of time by being completely upfront about all fees that will apply in the first place? Much like booking a flight, concert tickets or even dealing with a property letting agency, some SIPPs are, unfortunately, havens for hidden charges. We are all to blame for this though, it’s just part of the modern illusion of the cost of anything from a pint of milk to that flight to the Seychelles that we, at best, inadvertently buy into. Now that SIPPs are near ubiquitous and the proliferation of ‘Low Cost’ or ‘Free’ SIPPs continues apace, one would be forgiven for asking why anyone would look further than the cheapest deal out there. After all, a SIPP is a SIPP, right? Well, the headline cost is the wrong criteria to use. From energy suppliers to plumbers to SIPP Operators, it’s always the wrong criteria. If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. Firstly there’s the strong likelihood that your SIPP will end up costing more than it appears and the danger that this won’t become apparent until it’s a little too late, possibly not until the SIPP has been running for year. Alternatively, it might never become apparent. How many SIPP clients must there be who are blissfully ignorant of the interest their SIPP bank account earns being creamed off by their Provider?

Then there’s the often overlooked value for money aspect. What is it a client buys when they take out a SIPP? Most SIPP operators probably see themselves as selling SIPPs and want to maximise profit via a bland product that can be stacked high on shelves, like boring cheese in a budget supermarket. To use a skiing analogy, think of it as access to a handful of the green runs in what is actually a massive winter resort. That in itself might suit lots of clients, especially if the costs of that restricted access truly are very low indeed. But what if other people are off enjoying powder covered black runs but only paying slightly more, or in some cases, less? That’s hardly value for money. Don’t be fooled by the headline fees, dig deeper and understand what you or your client, will actually be paying at set up and annually. It’s likely to differ from the amount that first piqued your interest. But, also ask yourself what you get for those fees. In addition to the product, are you also buying the promise of customer service? Probably, but what sort of turnaround times does your provider work to? Get a look at their Service Level Agreement (do they even have one?). 10 day turnarounds are considered pretty good in this industry but these are frequently breached in our experience. These are just a few things a discerning investor should be buying and the questions they should be asking themselves

interesting products that give control to the member and allows them to access returns that are unlikely to be enjoyed by those swayed by the often misleading lure of the seemingly low cost basis. Bottom line; it’s not like clients are buying a packet of crisps. A SIPP is a tax efficient, long term savings vehicle and should be approached with due regard to the features it offers and the ethos of the Operator. Not all SIPPs are the same and the industry is already polarised. Clients need to ask themselves what they are buying, not what they are being sold. The good news is that there are providers out there who are completely upfront about their costs, with the technical knowledge and in-depth understanding of pension provision to shape a product around you or your client’s objectives without the hidden extras. That’s where we come in. We can offer a Master Trust SIPP or an Individual Trust SIPP. Both are looked after by a team of friendly, bright and professional pension experts who will respond, process, and request everything as quickly as is appropriate and possible, and will give priority to all the things you’d expect us to. All of this is offered with a commitment to integrity and offering a fair and transparent pricing structure that may not always be the cheapest headline cost out there but recognises the importance of quality of service over quantity.

Here at PSG, we know that some people are discerning. We know that service still matters and we certainly know that SIPPs can be

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Feature and Insight

By Mike Baker Communications Director Mike@tpsg.co.uk

The PSG

Brand

I’ve always found it curious that most industries have a distinct look. Why? The people who ‘consume’ the products and/or services of tech companies or of businesses in the creative industries, have got used to them looking bright, maybe a bit quirky, and very informal.

I try not to think about how many years have passed since our designer, Mike Cannings of BM Inc, asked me to give him an idea of who’s website and branding I liked. Several, mind numbing, hours of internet searching later gave me the answer. No ones. At least this started to make life much easier. The brief became simple – make us look not like them! After all, we weren’t like them. We still aren’t.

You won’t find many people in our brilliant team who think that pensions are fun, or sexy, or even really all that interesting. Not compared with We’ve come to expect it. Consumers of say, touring the world with a famous financial products on the other hand, band, or, well, almost anything for that will be bored of the sight of navy blue matter. But, that doesn’t mean you and images of smug, retired couples can’t adopt a mindset that nurtures walking their Border Terrier on a beach. a fun, rewarding and creative work culture. In other words, recognise I find all this curious mainly because that both your customers and your these ‘consumers’ are the same people. employees just might be crying out Things are changing, slowly, in the for a pensions provider that hasn’t financial sector, but why do we still come out of the same Acme Pensions have such a stuffy and dull image that Provider machine that seems to have so many practitioners seem proud to produced all the others. uphold? That question was the catalyst for why PSG took a counterculture approach to building a brand.

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We’ve never subscribed to the ubiquitous formula of generic stock photography + navy blue ÷ beige x

suits = trust-worthy financial experts. When we look at our clients we see clever business people, and smart individuals. We do not believe that these people judge the competency and expertise of those to whom they entrust their pension administration, on how ‘serious’ they appear to be. We have always trusted that people are more interested in integrity and in how they are treated and that this is how they measure whether someone is fit for purpose. It’s encouraging to see signs that the financial services industry is, here and there at least, waking up to this. The real test though is how deep your brand values run. Is all this just refreshing marketing in an industry ripe for a fresh look? No, PSG’s branding isn’t just a shop window. It truly is a reflection of the values and attitude of everyone that works here. We have a poster on one of our walls, lovingly created for us by Mike Cannings. It uses our familiar illustrative style and colour and the only text reads: we’re not slick suits, we’re smart thinking, we’re not smoke and mirrors, we’re open and approachable.


How our brand continues to evolve Since we first shared this article in the loop, exciting developments at TPSG/PSGS HQ have continued to happen. Elsewhere in this edition you will see news about our recent acquisition of the Heritage Pensions Limited SIPP business and as a result of the completion we now have a new team and office in Ampthill added to our SIPP arsenal. What’s more our PSG SIPP office is moving onto bigger (and brighter) things. We are in the middle of moving to our new premises in Melksham where our brand will be allowed to shine and take centre stage for our staff and visitors. Take a look at some of the exciting ways our brand has continued to evolve over the past year.

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Feature and Insight

Why choosing the right property legal team matters Purchasing property can throw up all sorts of challenges, so it’s important to think carefully about the right law firm to help guide you through this process.

Amanda Read Commercial Property Partner at Coffin Mew

At PSG we have worked with numerous lawyers, especially on commercial property, but few even come close to Coffin Mew when it comes to being client-focused and innovative, closely matching and sharing our own values.

Her work with pension provider clients ranges from running day-to-day transactional matters, through to helping create standard documentation, providing training for staff and offering in-house support and document reviews.

Large enough to have genuine specialists in all areas and allocate appropriate resource to the job in hand, Coffin Mew still retain the ability to move swiftly and work proactively with the client.

In addition, she has a broad caseload of general commercial property work covering sales, purchases, leases, secured lending and property management work.

Amanda Read – Coffin Mew In this article, Amanda Read, Partner in the Commercial Property Team and Head of the Pension Property Investment Team at Coffin Mew, talks us through what she does and what they can help buyers to look out for She has particular specialist knowledge of dealing with pension investment property transactions, having been a panel solicitor for some of the biggest and best-known pension providers in the country since 2004.

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At TPSG’s and Coffin Mews recent webinar on the subject of ‘How to use a pension to buy commercial property and why’, Amanda Read gave an overview of the legal process involved. You can watch it at https://tpsg.co.uk/ watch-our-commercial-propertywebinar/ Buyer’s Title review Reviewing the Buyers rights to access, services, covenants and any restrictions of use when purchasing a commercial property are just some of the points that form part of a thorough and comprehensive due diligence process that Coffin Mew follow.

Every step of the process requires checking for consents, any loans outstanding which may cause delays when dealing with 3rd parties, rights of access that are not verified or checked which may affect the value. Local searches, in particular those from the local authority are most important; including environmental searches and maps together with local searches that bring to our attention any common land, public highways and any planned works. Additionally, any listed buildings, conservation areas, statutory requirements and planning consents need to be checked, all the while verifying that the property is fit for its purpose, and again, how any of the factors can affect the value. “Caveat Emptor” – “Buyer Beware!” Is the property worth what is being paid for it? Can it be resold? Can we use the property as needed without significant and added costs? These are just a few questions that need to be considered and that may affect the value. The legal process and review also needs to make any professional trustees aware of any issues that might affect the property before purchase. The legal due diligence process is there to make sure that any issues if they arise, can be dealt with and any risks are minimised or resolved to protect that investment value.


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In tern a t ion al

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SIPP Saltus

SIPP

Company News

PSG SIPP Limited acquire Heritage SIPPs Business Established SIPP Operator PSG SIPP Limited have acquired all members of the Heritage SIPP, The Saltus SIPP, The International Expat SIPP and the Brooklands SIPP from Heritage Pensions Limited.

Business as usual Any queries relating to SIPPs previously operated by Heritage Pensions, should continue to be directed to the same team members, at the same contact details, albeit now addressed to PSG SIPP Limited, and using the existing email address info@heritagepensions.co.uk. Any questions about the acquisition itself can be directed to PSG SIPP Ltd directly at heritage@psgsipp.co.uk, or on 01249 280020.

All of the employees at the offices based in Ampthill Bedfordshire will continue to administer the products as before.

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Feature and Insight

Heritage: Where it all began

In 2007 a new Independent Trustee Company was established by Colin Worbey and Richard Petts and Heritage Pensions was launched. Only three months later, on the 21st January 2008, the FCA (then known as the FSA) granted permissions for the establishment, operating and winding up of Personal Pension Schemes (including SIPPS).

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From the outset the company philosophy was that, as an independent provider, it would be best placed to ‘serve the needs of Financial Advisers and Clients’. This was achieved by giving clients the freedom, flexibility and control over their investment choices by not having any ties to any fund managers or insurance company.

The remaining 9 members of staff work as part of the the Admin Servicing Team. They are a distinct group of people that bring many years of industry knowledge to the table and by adopting a ‘one team approach’ to all aspects of the business have managed to produce a collaborative working environment that promotes a thorough understanding of all aspects of Pension Administration.

From such modest beginnings Heritage flourished and managed in excess of 6,000 self-invested pensions with asset All members of the Admin Servicing values approaching £1 billion. Team manage several Administrative processes at any given time, but each After 14 successful years Heritage of them have a particular specialism Pensions was acquired by PSG SIPP that they oversee on a daily basis. Ltd on the 18th November 2021. The Having said that, as important as acquisition of the Heritage, Brooklands, work is, they all have different interests Saltus and International ExPat SIPP outside of the office which adds to included 12 members of staff, 3 of which the diversity of the group. being Senior Managers that have a long track record with Heritage, thus allowing for the retention of industry knowledge.


Meet the Team Dale Malciw – Team Leader

Ruth Day – Account Manager

Dale joined Heritage in 2016 and is currently the Team Leader for the Admin Team. He is a keen footballer and plays in the local Bedfordshire League. When not on the pitch he also enjoys socialising and holidays abroad.

Not coming from a Pensions background, Ruth, since joining us in May 2021, has been performing a vital role by updating SIPPro with all of our daily transactions as well as making sure that all of our incoming and outgoing postal requirements are met on a daily basis.

Suzy Tibbenham – Dealing Desk Suzy currently manages our Dealing Desk and there is nobody better suited to the role. Being super organised and having an encyclopaedic knowledge of acceptable funds and investments our clients’ money is always in safe hands. Outside of the office she is an accomplished folk and acoustic musician and is often found performing in local folk music clubs. Aimee Hodgson – Payroll

When not at work she is a keen gardener and when foreign travel is permitted, she is the first customer to book a cabin on a cruise ship to visit and experience new countries and cultures. Lynn Ganna – Administrator Lynn is very much the ‘eco conscience’ of the office and is keen to embrace a more environmentally friendly working environment. Being our filing clerk ‘extraordinaire’ she is always looking for ways and means of improving her filing processes to lessen the impact on the office’s carbon footprint and minimise the impact of our administrative processes.

Aimee joined Heritage in February 2019. Coming from another SIPP Provider she arrived equipped with enough Pension Administration Knowledge to hit the ground running. Finally, a few words about myself. She began by working within the Drawdown Team and subsequently moved onto managing our Payroll processes. Fiona Sweeney – Drawdown

Annabelle Hodgson – Newest member of staff Annabelle joined Heritage in October of this year just as PSG acquired the business in November. Fortunately, her previous employer (another local SIPP Provider), had recently undergone a similar process so was not fazed by the change of ownership being announced within the first couple of weeks of her arrival. Again, like other members of the team, she also brings a vast wealth of knowledge around SIPPS and the associated management systems that Heritage uses.

I have been with Heritage for just over five years and currently manage part of the Drawdown process; in particular, PCLS/UFPLS. During my down time I can often be found enjoying a West End Show or attending a rock concert or music festival (when Covid rules allow). I have also taken on the mantle of being the Social Events Secretary and since the acquisition it has been agreed that I can complete the certification course in January 2022 to obtain my MHRA Certificate (Mental Health First Aider) for the Ampthill Office.

Annabelle is also preparing for another key milestone in her life; her wedding in September 2022 and spends most of her leisure time organising and planning for this important event. THE LOOP | JANUARY 2022

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Photography by Suzy Tibbenham

Much like her colleague Dale, Aimee is also a football fan and supports Luton Town Football Club (The Hatters’). Not only does she attend matches but can also be found working the turnstiles during ‘home’ games.


Feature and Insight

By Pearl Belcher Finance Manager Pearl@psgsipp.co.uk

Looking after your mental

wellbeing We all have to deal with mental health, sometimes life can be overwhelming and we struggle to keep this in its best condition.

Look after your wellbeing every day and it will help give you a good foundation to help you work on the tougher days with more resilience. Some days are easier than others and sometimes we need to just talk things through with someone.

As you wouldn’t run your car on empty, you need to keep your wellbeing looked after before it gets low. Just like physical health, it’s something to work on every day, little by little.

We recently took part in some mental health first aid training with the team at MHFA England and now have a group of certified wellbeing staff all approachable and keen to help.

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One of the new things we have put in place, is our monthly newsletter, in which we hope to give ideas and thoughts on looking after wellbeing. Hopefully these ideas give people inspiration to do something new and seek help if they need it.

For me, I love to walk and I actively encourage my colleagues to take a lunch walk or after work walk, as it’s a great way to clear your head. Sometimes an internal monologue with yourself helps to look at a situation in We have also recently created a a different way. Breaking any big work wellbeing committee at PSG and we tasks down into pieces, or writing a to welcome all ideas and thoughts on do list of the most urgent items, helps how we can better position ourselves me to stay focused each day and also and the company to look after our staff helps my stress levels stay more even. and provide them with support and direction should they need it.


Going to the gym, or , at home workouts el really get the fe ing go s hin rp good endo

The Accounts team’s favourite things to do to take some time out for ourselves and reset

Cuddles with our pets, they always know when we need some affection, even if we don’t realise it at the time

, Reading a new book ys why do they alwa smell so good?

An adults colouring in book and pretty pens, I can sit and colour in for hour s and not think of a single other thing

se, the hou Cleaning tic. therapeu is really better Nothing parkly than a s chen clean kit

Random drives in the car, finding a little village you’ve never been to before, even better, a new garden centre

Day naps on a weekend, you can’t beat the m

Snacks, facemasks and playing on the y switch is a great wa a to unwind after stressful day

once or Walking a mile, reset twice a day, to d come my thoughts an back refreshed

If you are struggling at all, there is an abundance of help and information online, make sure to check out mind.org.uk for support or contact wellbeing@tpsg.co.uk.

THE LOOP | JANUARY 2022

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Industry Insight

LLP vs LTD

What’s the difference? By Mike Baker Communications Director Mike@tpsg.co.uk

Isn’t the internet a funny old thing. Like many businesses, TPSG invests in a resource that allows us to understand a little more about what folks are looking at on our website. It’s useful to know what’s helping us gain traction and what, frankly, we needn’t have bothered with at all.

It’s fascinating to see how something created a long time ago is one of our most read articles. 14

It’s also fascinating to see how something created a long time ago, for a one off, very targeted campaign designed to get Limited Liability Partnerships to consider the advantages of going down the Limited Company route, is one of our most read articles. Part nostalgia, part lazy content, but also just given its surprising popularity, we thought why not run it in the Loop. So here it is, and if you’re in an LLP but you want some of that SSAS based action enjoyed by the Ltd Co outfits, then read on.


LLP versus Ltd There are some key differences between LLP and Ltd and I’m prepared to say that in our opinion, Ltd is best. If you are in an LLP I’d hazard a guess that your collective tax exposure is greater than it would be under a 19% CT bill and personal tax liability derived from receipt of dividends instead of profit distribution from a partnership. This is of course before you factor in National Insurance which is also payable on profit distributions in addition to tax at your marginal rate of tax. Directors in many Limited Companies do not pay NIC because they keep their salaries below that threshold and pay themselves via dividends with a dividend tax allowance, and then tax on the rest at a marginal rate of tax. All those companies need to do then is monitor profitability to ensure dividends are set at an appropriate rate. As for how the change of status from LLP to Ltd impacts on your ability to access structures that actively assist your commercial endeavours, well that’s an easier picture to paint and is where our expertise lies. Depending on your view of things, there is little to prevent any partner within a LLP from becoming a member of a Small Self Administered Scheme (SSAS). However the crucial step that would need to be taken is one that most LLPs would sooner avoid. You’d

need to make at least one Partner an employee on PAYE, or have an employee on PAYE as the catalyst for membership of the SSAS, enabling other members to be inducted (the Partners). Or a company elsewhere to set up a SSAS for a director as a Member, so that the Partnership could then be adhered to the SSAS, enabling the Partners to join. The key issue here is that HMRC tax approve schemes one by one and scrutinise the sponsor (the LTD or the LLP) and are likely to look closer at the LLP. The fact is that only a tiny minority of LLPs probably sponsor SSASs and we have none within our portfolio which says something. With a Limited Company, the Client Agreement is a legal agreement between that company and the SSAS Administrator (TPSG). The Ltd Company sponsors the SSAS and invites people to join (usually the Directors but could be pretty much anyone). The company then has a pension scheme that is governed by HMRC and regulated by the Pensions Regulator (not the FCA) and can facilitate a whole raft of tax efficient investments and company friendly transactions. At a very basic level, you could elect to make your SSAS your qualifying scheme for auto-enrolment for at least the company directors/senior management and kill two birds with one stone, whilst running a lower cost separate scheme for staff members to keep the affairs of both parties

separate. You can establish it without paying a contribution if you wished, but then use your annual contribution allowance to mitigate your CT bill by paying some of the profit that would otherwise be declared, into the pension where those funds grow tax free in investments of your choosing. Contributions reduce profit hence the mitigation of corporation tax but must be balanced against profitability for the payment of dividends. Add to this the fact that the SSAS can borrow from the company (or from a bank of course) or lend to the company (always nicer than approaching a bank for credit). The SSAS can acquire property and benefit from paying down any borrowing from rental income that is not subject to tax and with no Capital Gains tax to boot. In most cases if you allow for the likelihood that, all told, as a Partner in an LLP, you are a 50p in the pound tax payer, if you have to repay a mortgage of £200,000, you’ll need to earn £400,000 to do it. A SSAS would need £200,000 because it is not taxed. The list of benefits a SSAS offers a Limited Company and its Directors is extensive, but it is only one facet of any decision you collectively make to move from being in a LLP. You will of course want to canvass opinion from pure tax experts in order to make a rounded decision but it’s certainly a good idea to factor in what you might actively do with Ltd status (as opposed to just occupying it passively) before making a fully informed decision.

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Feature and Insight

By Duncan Parsons CEO Duncan@tpsg.co.uk

PSG’s notoriously itchy feet! We have always had an unusually flexible approach to home working, long before the pandemic forced employers of all stripes down that road. As we’ve covered in a previous article, this progressive attitude of ours made life easy for us when home working en masse became an overnight nationwide thing. It’s also allowed us to prolong our stay in any office due to not needing the physical space that would otherwise be essential if everyone we employed were to come to the office every day. That said, we have continued to expand throughout the hokey kokey of the pandemic and despite this flexibility, we need more space. Again. In fact, writing this gives me a strong sense of deja vu. An office move is no small feat though, and finding a new PSG HQ was a hard task. After all, we leave behind us a stunning office,

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nestled in beautiful grounds. The type of environment we were very proud to offer and never thought we’d chose to give up. Box House was a keeper, or so we thought. As wedded as we were to our comfy rural idyl, moving is, or can be if you go about it in the right way, about more than just responding to that immediate catalyst for it. In our case, the need for more space. We decided to seize the opportunity and view this as a chance for a new look, a new, more urban setting, and a chance to find a better ratio of the flexible home working so many now enjoy, and the buzz of the office so many miss. As I type this from my home office in Devon, these are all hopes and aims, but as you read this, we hope to be ensconed in our dead hip new environs very soon, kicking off 2022 with a cocky swagger. It’s a bold step, and one not met with universal excitement. But it’s the right thing to do. We were never going to be able to stay at Box House and the office was, in all honesty, underused in certain respects.

While we’ll never replicate the pastoral elegance of our village environs, we are swapping that for access to everything a town offers, and a village lacks. We’re also trusting that our new landlord is able to realise their exciting vision for the building and the spaces immediately outside it. If they are, we’ll be early adopters of, and contributors to, a vibrant redevelopment that we’ll see taking place around us. So if you find yourself in Melksham later this year, pop in for a brew, we’d love to see you. Just look for a big red brick chimney.

An office move is no small feat, and finding a new PSG HQ was a hard task.


Mythbusters Busting Industry Myths and service can and can’t dos

Thanks for agreeing to a free pension review.

I’ll get set you up with a new scheme. You’ll need to agree to transfer out all your pension savings from your current SIPP.

I’ve looked at your SIPP and investments. Good news! I can guarantee you a better return on your pension savings for a low fee!

Great! What will I need to do?

I’m interested. Can I have some time to think this over first?

We’ll use these savings to invest in some high performing, low risk assets.

NEW

I’m afraid this is a time limited offer sir.

HUH!

You’ll need to transfer the funds from your current provider quickly to take advantage of my low fee and this excellent investment opportunity.

These are all warning signs of a pension scam. You should check the FCA website to make sure this adviser’s firm is registered with them and they’re not on any warning list.

STOP!

Thanks for the heads-up Bright Spark! Wait, where did he go?

THE LOOP | JANUARY 2022

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Offer! We are offering a significant reduction in our Harbour International SIPP fees WAS £399, NOW £249 setup, plus £450 annually From now until May 2022, all new SIPP applications you send us will be subject to these significantly lower charges. However, May feels like a long way away and maybe, just maybe we’ll see how things have gone before we go changing anything back. If you have any questions about any aspect of this offer, please contact our Business Development Manager, Abigail House on +44 7778 141422 or at Abigail@psgsipp.co.uk; who’ll be happy to help.


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