Some minimum fund requirements 'still in place'
A substantial minority of self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) are not as open as the hype would have investors believe, it has been claimed this week.
The deregulation of pensions investment on A-day last year was supposed to introduce an open architecture, but new research claims that as many as one in eight Sipps on the market are not fully open - insofar as they retain a minimum investment into insured funds.
Investors with Axa, Legal and General, Friends Provident and Zurich, among others, are obliged to put a proportion of their money into a company insurance scheme, according to Fidelity FundsNetwork.
While some firms' requirements are as low as £1,000, Friends Provident's Sipp requires a minimum of £75,000 to be invested into insurance.
Many financial advisers are uncomfortable about this situation, the company reports. Nine in ten (91 per cent) told Fidelity FundsNetwork that the requirement offers no benefits for clients.
David Dalton-Brown, head of Fidelity FundsNetwork said: "Investors should be free to choose where they invest their Sipp and take advantage of the benefits that a truly open Sipp can offer."
Fidelity International was established more than 40 years ago, according to the firm's website.
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