We currently administer SSAS arrangements for thousands of members and are here to stay in the SSAS market.  This section of our website gives a very basic overview of a SSAS and is mainly aimed at clients and their financial advisers who currently have a SSAS with us.  If you are considering establishing a SSAS or already have a SSAS that you would like to talk to us about administering, please contact Jeff Steedman on 01786 434253. 

A Small Self Administered Scheme (SSAS) is a company pension scheme that allows for money to be invested in a wide range of assets on the members’ behalf.  It allows scheme members to save for retirement in a tax-efficient way, by providing a tax-free cash sum and income benefit options.

A SSAS is a pension arrangement. This means it gets all the favourable tax treatment of a pension arrangement. However, it also means that the benefits that members can receive are based on pension rules. This includes rules about the earliest age you can take benefits and limits on what those benefits can be, including the amount that can be taken as tax-free cash.

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The Hazell Carr SSAS is open to employees from age 18.  Joining the SSAS is at the sponsoring employer’s discretion.  In addition, you do need to be living in the UK and must be a trustee of the scheme.

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The employer can make single and regular payments on the members’ behalf.  Alternatively, funds can be transferred from other pension schemes into the SSAS.  Also, it is possible for members to pay single and regular payments to the SSAS.

The employer (and/or member) can contribute as much or as little as decided. However, small contributions to the Hazell Carr SSAS are not usually appropriate. Your adviser will tell you whether a particular level of contribution is worthwhile.

The employer can get tax relief on the SSAS contributions it pays on the members’ behalf.  Also, the members can obtain tax relief on any personal contribution that they pay. HMRC and HMT put a limit on the contributions that can get tax relief, called tha annual allowance. Tax relief depends on individual circumstances and may change in the future.

There is no limit on employer contributions paid on a member’s behalf. However, if the total of the employer’s contributions and the member’s personal contributions is more than the annual allowance, income tax is payable on the difference.  The annual allowance is different for different tax years.

For further details, please contact a member of the SSAS Team.

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The scheme trustees can invest in a very wide range of assets through the Hazell Carr SSAS. Contributions are paid into your SSAS's interest-paying bank account. The scheme trustees can then choose which assets to invest in from the wide range listed below.

• Bank and building society accounts. 
• Insured plans and trustee investment plans. 
• Unit trusts and OEICs (Open Ended Investments Companies). 
• Quoted shares. 
• Unquoted shares,
• Commercial property and land, with or without a mortgage. 
• Loans.

For further details, please see our SSAS Literature Library or contact a member of the SSAS Team.

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Hazell Carr will fulfill the HMRC roles of either Scheme Administrator or Scheme Practitioner.  The sponsoring employer of the scheme will choose which. 

For full details of our services, please see SSAS Services from Hazell Carr. In addition, please also refer to HMRC’s Administrator Guide.

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We cannot provide advice on the SSAS or the investments that are held under it. 

The trustees need to take advice from their financial adviser.

If you’re not sure about where to obtain advice, we suggest you contact IFA Promotion Ltd, which is an industry body responsible for promoting independent financial advice in the UK. IFA Promotion Ltd will be able to give you details of a Financial Adviser in your area and whether they have specialist pensions qualifications. Their contact details are:  

         Internet: www.unbiased.co.uk

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You can take benefits from your SSAS any time after age 55, or age 50 if you retire before 6 April 2010. You can use the assets in your Hazell Carr SSAS to provide some or all of the following benefits. 

• Tax-free cash - You can take a tax-free cash lump sum of up to 25% of your fund.
• Annuity - You can buy an annuity from an insurance company. 
• Income withdrawal- You can use SSAS assets to provide you with a regular income.

Depending on your SSAS investments, the timing of some of these options may be limited. For example, if your SSAS has invested in commercial property, it may take some time for the property to be sold.

For further details, you can contact a member of the SSAS Team.

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The charges we make for setting up and running a Hazell Carr SSAS vary depending on our appointed role, the number of members and how complicated the investments are within it. We have designed the Hazell Carr SSAS to be extremely competitive.  Full details of these are available upon request from the SSAS Team.

Depending on the assets you invest in, you may have to pay charges to the people managing those assets.

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Benefits built up in a scheme which is, or was, contracted-out of the State Second Pension or, its predecessor, the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme cannot be transferred into the Hazell Carr SSAS.

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