Taking charge

As faith in traditional pension schemes wanes, more and more people are turning to ‘real' Sipps to take charge of their pensions

In 1989 when the then Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced Sipps, primarily aimed at the wealthy investor, he could not have imagined how, 20 years later, more and more people would be moving away from insurance company pension schemes and turning to Sipps. Despite far higher regulation to protect the customer compared with 20 years ago, pensions investors have fared far worse than most. With the pensions mis-selling scandal, the Equitable Life debacle and now the credit crunch, it is no wonder faith and trust in traditional advisers and investment company fund managers is at rock bott...