10 ways to get the most out of working with IPM

This article is intended for financial services professionals only. None of the information contained in this article should be received as advice. Pensions are a complicated area of financial planning and IPM suggests that financial advice from a suitably regulated financial adviser is sought before an individual takes any action in respect of their pension savings.

As a financial adviser supporting your clients with many aspects of their wealth, we are sure that you deal with many different providers to meet your clients’ needs.

The advisers we work with suggest that the introduction of Consumer Duty has brought into sharper focus the providers they have relationships with, drilling down to ensure that the services these firms offer are truly understood by financial planning firms. This understanding is required not just when the relationship starts, but on an ongoing basis.

At IPM, we are used to dealing with a wide variety of advisers and their client scenarios. Typically, the advisers we work with have a lower-cost, simpler SIPP solution for those clients with smaller pension pots. Once these pots reach a certain level, or there is a need for flexibility over and above what a simple SIPP product can offer, we are put forward as the recommended SIPP provider.

There are various reasons why we are often the first port of call for advisers. You can view our Target Market Statement and Fair Value Assessment here. You may have also missed that we recently launched the ability to establish SIPPs with IPM online, using Docusign.

We also recently looked at the scenarios where IPM could and could not be a good fit for your clients.

Many of our articles look at the features of the IPM SIPP, and how our flexibility can be of benefit to your clients.

This time, we’re looking at the 10 ways to get the most out of working with IPM, to make your lives as advisers and support staff working in financial advice businesses that little bit easier, as well as ensuring clients receive the best possible outcomes.

1. Talk with us!

In 2024, we celebrated our 25th anniversary of providing SIPP administration and trusteeship services at IPM. It’s a milestone we are really proud of.

The SIPP industry has changed beyond all recognition since we first started in 1999, but we have stuck to what we are best at: providing a bespoke SIPP administration service only, coupled with high-quality support for our advisers and their clients.

One of the most important aspects of our service is that you can pick up the phone and speak with us. No long hold times, and no pressing numbers for different options. By carefully managing our growth, calls are answered by an experienced member of our team, and you can speak to anyone in our office.

Of course, not everyone wants to pick up the phone these days. So, if you have a specific question you need answering and you don’t want a chat, please just drop us an email and we’ll be happy to help.

2. Carrying out research on SIPP providers? We can help with that

We are used to providing advisers with information on our business and SIPP to help them with their research on SIPP providers. However, as mentioned above, the introduction of Consumer Duty has increased the number of requests we have received.

We want to try and make advisers’ lives as easy as possible for this kind of work:

3. Get to know our team

The thing we are most proud of within our business is the team we have built. Most of our staff have been with IPM for more than 10 years, and some have even been here for more than 20 years!

This consistency in staff brings numerous benefits for our advisers and their clients:

  • It allows our introducers to build up relationships with individual members of the IPM team, aiding with the efficiency with which we complete tasks, as well as making day-to-day interactions that much easier.
  • Our team has a wealth of pensions experience, not just with IPM but with other pension companies prior to joining us. This experience can prove invaluable when dealing with the complex and ever-changing world of pensions.
  • With so many of our team being with IPM for a long period, they are familiar with our internal processes, systems, controls, and levels of risk.

You can see a full list of our team and their job roles here. All our staff can be contacted on our main office number of 01438 747 151, and their email addresses are available on the above link.

4. Setting up a new SIPP? Get in touch first

As a bespoke SIPP provider, we’re used to a whole host of variables regarding the SIPPs that are set up with us. For example:

  • Some have commercial property transactions, either a purchase or a transfer in-specie, both of which we can help with
  • In some cases, we are asked to consider transfers in-specie from other SIPP or SSAS providers
  • There may be a requirement to make investments with your chosen investment partner promptly once any monies have been received into the SIPP
  • Some clients have an immediate PCLS or income requirement
  • Your client may reside outside of the UK, an area where we can really add value.

Each of these scenarios would result in a different combination of forms that we may require your client to complete. This is why we suggest chatting through any proposed SIPP you are going to introduce to IPM so that we can:

  1. Ensure we can accommodate your client’s requirements
  2. Provide you with the correct forms to get you started.

Earlier this year, we were excited to announce that we are now able to establish SIPPs electronically with Docusign. If you would like to take up this option, please get in touch.

5. Know what investments we will say “no” to

Sometimes, saying “no” is the right thing to do.

We always aim to be as accommodating as possible for our advisers and their clients. But when it comes to investments, there are certain red lines we won’t cross. This may be for a variety of reasons, from HMRC restrictions to our experience in similar situations.

We will often say “no” if we feel that a particular investment will give rise to a tax charge or will be a problem to administer going forward. This can include private company shares, loans from the SIPP, and investments into properties such as Airbnbs, holiday lets, or student accommodation.

6. Even if something is a “no”, we’re still happy to chat this through with you

With the above said, we appreciate that sometimes a simple “no” is not enough to answer your client’s query. We often have advisers contacting us saying, “I know this is something we cannot do within a SIPP, but can you help with the reasons for this?”

Give us a call if you have a similar situation, and we’ll happily chat this through from an IPM and HMRC perspective.

7. Let’s work together to ensure benefits to clients are paid when expected

One of the most important aspects of our job is to ensure that clients receive any benefits requested from the IPM SIPP in line with their expectations.

When a PCLS payment is due, this is usually straightforward. As part of our benefit payment request process, if there is insufficient monies in the trustee bank account, we will request funds back from the investment house in the SIPP. If there could be a delay in liquidating investments to generate these monies, advisers should be able to communicate this with clients.

In respect of regular income, IPM will set up an expectation to have sufficient monies in the trustee bank account to pay this. However, things can go wrong and leave the account short; perhaps a rental payment is late, the investment company in the SIPP was unable to liquidate sufficient funds, or a term deposit account is yet to mature.

Our online access allows advisers to monitor the trustee bank account and ensure that there are sufficient monies to pay these. If you spot a problem, let us know so we can work to resolve this.

8. Want an illustration? Need to complete an IPM form for a client? Our adviser online access will help you with this

As well as being able to view your client’s trustee bank accounts, our online access facility provides advisers with a wide variety of tools to help service the needs of their clients:

  • You can produce illustrations, both growth and drawdown.
  • You can view the information we hold in respect of your clients, including contribution history, transfer history, and information in respect of any drawdown benefits a client is due to receive.
  • We have a secure messaging service, allowing us to send certain client-specific communications safely.
  • IPM’s paperwork (except for new SIPPs) can be generated for completion through electronic signature – there’s no need to contact IPM. You can select the form you want, pre-populate it with any information you wish, and send it straight to your client. Once they’ve done their bit, it comes straight back to IPM for processing. Simple!

We are committed to continually developing our online offering to complement our existing service. However, we are equally committed to maintaining our ethos of being a people’s business, where we are always contactable in the traditional ways and providing personable service.

9. Have you checked out the news section of our website?

Since 2019, we have been sending out monthly newsletters to our advisers. These cover a variety of topics, including technical information on SIPPs, case studies, and features of the IPM SIPP.

All this valuable content is hosted on the latest news section of our website. As you can imagine, with almost 100 articles now available, our news section is a rich source of information.

While we share this content as much as we can, we encourage our advisers to take advantage of what we have produced. The articles are broken down into categories so you can browse them at your convenience.

Or, if you are looking for something specific, use the search function on the right-hand side of the screen. You might want to try something like “SIPP and SSAS”, “cash in a SIPP”, or, if you’re brave enough, “IHT”!

10. Has something gone wrong? Please, pick up the phone

We’ve all been there. We always strive to do our best for our advisers and clients. But sometimes, despite everyone’s best efforts or intentions, things don’t quite go to plan or expectation.

We appreciate that when things go wrong, it can be frustrating. These things can be minor, but are important to your client to ensure. Other times, the issue can be more serious. Regardless, we want to work with you to put things right.

If you think something is not up to standard, please pick up the phone. The sooner we can start working together on an issue, the quicker we can get the matter resolved for your client.

Get in touch

If you want to have a chat about the potential of SIPPs for your clients, or any other aspects of pension planning, please contact us. Email info@ipm-pensions.co.uk or call 01438 747151.

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Get in touch

Whether it’s a question about a specific client or SIPPs in general, we are here to help. Call us on 01438 747 151, email info@ipm-pensions.co.uk or complete the form below: