Adviser Charges from a pension
Irene
Member
Hi,
We're having a bit of a debate in the office, so was wondering if anyone has a definitive answer.
A client has 2 pension policies. We had agreed a fee and given him specific advice regarding Policy A. This is a legacy plan, therefore cannot facilitate adviser charging. Client has now asked if the fee can be deducted as an ad-hoc adviser fee from Policy B which is a SIPP. However, we are debating whether or not this would be classed as unauthorised payment under the SIPP?
Thanks
We're having a bit of a debate in the office, so was wondering if anyone has a definitive answer.
A client has 2 pension policies. We had agreed a fee and given him specific advice regarding Policy A. This is a legacy plan, therefore cannot facilitate adviser charging. Client has now asked if the fee can be deducted as an ad-hoc adviser fee from Policy B which is a SIPP. However, we are debating whether or not this would be classed as unauthorised payment under the SIPP?
Thanks
Comments
It's a grey area - you can argue both ways.
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/pensions-tax-manual/ptm143200
It depends on how you read "related to" . If all pension policies are included in the advice then I think you can stretch related and can take advice charge from any of the pensions. It's not a very strong argument but it works for me. In your circumstances I don't think you could argue the charge is related to advice on the scheme.
It sounds like you haven't given advice on Policy B.
Therefore, if you take a fee from Policy B to pay a charge in relation to advice on Policy A I'd say that's unauthorised.