Pensions

The government will consult on amending pension scheme rules to free up disused space in commercial properties for residential use, budget documents have revealed.

Changes are coming to SIPP illustrations in the name of greater disclosure and aiding consumer decision-making. Andy Leggett examines some of the issues

Some agents selling Harlequin properties before March 2009 misled investors into thinking that their investment money would be held securely in ring-fenced accounts.

TailorMade Independent, a distributor of Harlequin Property investments, has had its permissions changed to restrict its ability to carry on new pensions business.

Nottingham-based advisory firm Investment Sense has launched a web service that enables advisers and consumers to rate their Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) purchases.

TailorMade, a UK distributor of investments in Harlequin Property, has said it stopped taking new money into the overseas property scheme in January following a Financial Services Authority (FSA) alert about Harlequin.

There could be 1.5 million self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) by 2018 despite FSA regulation potentially contracting the number of providers in the market, according to John Moret.

A law firm has warned that some property investments made with Harlequin Group via a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) may have breached lending rules.

Aviva has scrapped plans to add a group ISA and group SIPP to its employee benefits platform, Work:Life.

As many as one in three new self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) with Dentons is investing direct into UK commercial property, the highest rate the provider has seen.