How safe is your Sipp?

How big of a risk does the collapse of an investment firm pose to your pension? Natalie Stanton investigates.

All of us want to be certain that our retirement savings are safe. Unfortunately, sometimes investment firms collapse as happened last month, when European Pensions Management Limited (EPML), a relatively small but well-regarded provider of self-invested personal pensions (Sipps) went into administration (see below). So how big a risk could something like this pose to your pension?

Pension provider failures are rare and they should hopefully become rarer: the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial services regulator, is tightening the rules for Sipp providers, requiring them to hold more capital to provide an extra layer of security for savers.

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Natalie joined MoneyWeek in March 2015. Prior to that she worked as a reporter for The Lawyer, and a researcher/writer for legal careers publication the Chambers Student Guide. 

She has an undergraduate degree in Politics with Media from the University of East Anglia, and a Master’s degree in International Conflict Studies from King’s College, London.