Sipp market to continue to grow despite court clashes

He also set out four instances when a Sipp operator should intervene, including when the Sipp provider had received information which cast doubt on the integrity of those who were promoting the proposed investment, or as to whether underlying assets actually existed, and the Sipp provider learnt of problems, such as a possible insolvency, which affected the proposed investment.

Berkeley Burke has been granted permission to appeal the ruling and Mr McPhillips said the industry was holding its breath for the final judgement of the case, and the clarity it would bring. 

He said: "We will see more providers coming up with charges targeted at due diligence and complex investments; it's nothing new but it's gaining more prominence and the reason for that is there’s a lot of due diligence to undertake for any non-standard investments."

Increased consolidation

Additionally, he expects there will be an increase in consolidation of Sipp and Ssas providers, which has not occurred at the rapid rate originally expected.

When the FCA published its statement in August 2014 confirming the new capital adequacy rules that Sipp providers must meet from September 2016, it was expected to become a catalyst to finally kick-start the consolidation process.

Under the new rules calculation was based on the assets under administration over the past four quarter-ends, rather than at a set point in time and a fixed minimum capital requirement was set to £20,000.

Mr McPhillips said: "There have been a few big changes and consolidation in the last five years, but not at the pace we'd expected, off the back of capital adequacy requirements.

"People expected that to be a catalyst for change but it simply hasn't happened at the pace we were expecting."

He added: "Some Sipp providers are finding it more difficult to consolidate because of toxic assets.

"So what capital adequacy hasn't done is force the pace of consolidation that people expected, and of course, we are still waiting for clarity.

"But, as the capital adequacy requirements really start to bite, more and more providers will be forced to look to consolidation."