Pensions are minefield of technical terms and many people can get tripped up by assuming a normal interpretation of a term.
The biggest one in SSAS refers to "the Administrator" - this is not the person who does the administration - that would be far to easy, it has a very special significance. For the HMRC the title Administrator is the person or business that is authorised to deal with the scheme and is the only person or business that has authority to change the scheme records etc although the Administrator can delegate this to a 3rd party such as a practioner.
So why do we recommend a business owner should never appoint a 3rd party as the Scheme administrator and only appoint a practioner?
To explain lets look at a real example.
An Independent Financial Adviser referred us to client with an existing SSAS linked to his plumbing business which was with one of the large firms of SSAS providers. The client was very unhappy with the provider their fees were high and their service poor, he had made several complaints and now wanted to leave them as soon as possible.
The problem....yes that firm (like many other larger SSAS providers) had set itself up as Administrator - the client had no idea of the implication, it sounded perfectly fine they were going to do the scheme administration.
They were removed as Trustees of the scheme as that could be done by the clients company but when it came to changing the HMRC details and appointing us as new practioners to complete the scheme returns etc they flatly refused unless all their disputed fees were paid if full.
The client went to HMRC but to no avail - he might be the only member, he might be the Managing Director of the sponsoring employer, every penny on the schemes assets in his opinion was his but to HMRC he had no rights at all.
For many business owners having a SSAS is about control but many end up giving away all that control for no reason. All the work for a scheme and returns can be outsourced without giving up the title of Administrator. If you have an Independent Trustee as well as a practionner then you are in the best place with cover for those situations like a death claim where an independent trustee can deal with distribution of benefits.
The biggest one in SSAS refers to "the Administrator" - this is not the person who does the administration - that would be far to easy, it has a very special significance. For the HMRC the title Administrator is the person or business that is authorised to deal with the scheme and is the only person or business that has authority to change the scheme records etc although the Administrator can delegate this to a 3rd party such as a practioner.
So why do we recommend a business owner should never appoint a 3rd party as the Scheme administrator and only appoint a practioner?
To explain lets look at a real example.
An Independent Financial Adviser referred us to client with an existing SSAS linked to his plumbing business which was with one of the large firms of SSAS providers. The client was very unhappy with the provider their fees were high and their service poor, he had made several complaints and now wanted to leave them as soon as possible.
The problem....yes that firm (like many other larger SSAS providers) had set itself up as Administrator - the client had no idea of the implication, it sounded perfectly fine they were going to do the scheme administration.
They were removed as Trustees of the scheme as that could be done by the clients company but when it came to changing the HMRC details and appointing us as new practioners to complete the scheme returns etc they flatly refused unless all their disputed fees were paid if full.
The client went to HMRC but to no avail - he might be the only member, he might be the Managing Director of the sponsoring employer, every penny on the schemes assets in his opinion was his but to HMRC he had no rights at all.
For many business owners having a SSAS is about control but many end up giving away all that control for no reason. All the work for a scheme and returns can be outsourced without giving up the title of Administrator. If you have an Independent Trustee as well as a practionner then you are in the best place with cover for those situations like a death claim where an independent trustee can deal with distribution of benefits.