SIPP provider Liberty SIPP has grown the value of its assets under management by 81 per cent in a year. The Manchester-based company now has over GBP0.5billion under management, and administers more than 5000 SIPPs – a 39 per cent increase on the same time last year.
It opened a total of 1424 new SIPPs in the 12 months to July, and the second quarter of 2015 was the firm’s best yet – with 402 new customers joining.
The provider offers just one product; the low-cost, highly transparent Liberty Option SIPP. Introduced in 2013, it charges an annual management fee of just GBP150 plus VAT. The fee has remained frozen since launch, and Liberty has pledged that it will not rise before April 2017.
While the Liberty Option SIPP is available direct to clients, much of the surge in new business has come through adviser recommendation. Liberty SIPP now works with more than 300 financial adviser firms – a 50 per cent increase in a year.
The success has coincided with an increase in wealthier clients joining Liberty SIPP. The average size of pension pot administered by the company has doubled to GBP200,000 in the same period.
Matthew Rankine (pictured), Head of Sales and Marketing at Liberty SIPP, says: “The Liberty Option SIPP was born out of conversations with advisers. We listened to what they wanted, and then created the product to suit – a low-cost SIPP with simple, transparent fees and which retains no interest on its linked cash account.
“We’ve also invested heavily in new technology and streamlined our IT processes to enable us to handle much greater numbers of clients, while keeping the personal touch that has always been a Liberty hallmark.
“But our brand has evolved. Liberty SIPP began life eight years ago as a bespoke SIPP provider with higher fees; but we’ve now pared back our offering to just one easy-to-understand but highly flexible product.
“The Liberty Option SIPP’s annual management fee is one of the lowest of any full SIPP, and we’ve committed to freeze that fee for at least three years.
“Annual fees are the primary source of our revenue for Liberty SIPP, and as we seek to drive further growth by attracting new clients, we will continue to recruit talented people who share our vision of greater transparency and simplicity in the pensions market.”
