Leading industry players gathered to discuss problems surrounding manual in specie re-registration of Sipps.
With delays being detrimental to consumers, they were shown how an electronic system can help them ditch laborious months of paperwork.
AJ Bell, Aviva, Barnett Waddingham, Fidelity, Liberty Sipp, James Hay, Prudential and Zurich were among the firms represented. The ABI was also present.
They were brought together by Origo, a not-for-profit body, jointly created by financial institutions. The businesses agreed on the next steps towards modernising the system for reregistration.
Michael Roe, Origo’s development manager, said manual reregistration takes two to three months or even worse – with some stories of up to six months due to complications with paperwork.
He said the changes were about making it more straight forward and predictable for consumers and advisers.
Richard Clark, head of marketing, said: “The time and hassle to get it done is enormous - six months in some cases – with paperwork flying around the industry. Clearly, even though its only 10-15% the administrative burden to do it is huge. So we’ve said lets get on and do it electronically
“The perception was that reregistration was hard and we think we managed to get through to the group that it doesn’t need to be.
“There was a quick win message to get across - that it is easier than it’s perceived and it was explaining that this isn’t going to be a major system reengineering process.
“There are 80 different manual processes potentially and this is about taking away the faff around the edges, making it a slick and easy process.”
He said it was a simple, intuitive solution for platforms and providers who want an efficient way to effect asset in-specie transfers.
He believes a good basis for moving ahead with Origo’s plans has been established. The plan is to get the group of firms ready to go live together at the same time.
Mr Clark said: “There’s the will to take it forward and there was a huge willingness to work together to make it better for the customer. It was lovely to see that level of engagement.”
Origo has over 80 brands signed to its Options service and there are 47 companies that have a Sipp service as part of their offering.
While 32 are currently able to carry out in-specie pension transfers through Options tomorrow - the others simply require a change to their contract with Origo which can be done at no cost, the organisation explained.
Mr Clark added while there would “inevitably be bumps in the road” but he was confident there was a will to solve them.
The full list of organisations that attended the meeting was:
ABI
AJ Bell
Aviva
B&CE / People’s Pension
Barnett Waddingham
Diligenta
EBS / Charles Stanley
Fidelity
Hartley SAS
James Hay
Hornbuckle Group
IFDS
Liberty SIPP
LV=
Old Mutual Wealth
Novia Financial
Nucleus Financial
Partnership
Phoenix Group
Prudential
Retirement Advantage
Rowanmoor
Standard Life
Talbot Muir
Westerby
Zurich