AMPS held its annual conference on 23 May with a range of expert guest speakers.

Michael Johnson from the Centre for Policy Studies demonstrated how he believes we can create a simple retirement saving option for everyone, taking away the complexities that are currently causing a lot of confusion for consumers. He firmly believes that “tax relief is complete nonsense” and that “pensions are finished”.

He talked through his proposed next steps for the LISA, including the introduction of the WISA to counter auto-enrolment opt-out risk.

Roger Berry, managing director of Concept Group, a qualified accountant with 35 years of fiduciary and accountancy experience, discussed what the latest changes to QROPS will mean.
He looked at how Brexit could have a huge impact on them. He believes:
· QROPS are dying out
· The £60-65 million in tax revenue the government thought they would get from them won’t happen
· As the QROPS door is closing the overseas SIPPs door is opening but these are not subject to UK regulations

Mr Berry has chaired the Guernsey Association of Pension Providers QROPS sub-Committee and the Code of Practice QROPS Group.

Lucy Forgie from the Association of British Insurers gave an update on the project they are currently undertaking to improve pension and investment transfers and re-registrations.

The highlights of her talk were:

· Consumer appetite for transfers is only going to grow
· The incentive to improve the transfer process varies between receiving and receding schemes
· They are wary of the risk of inadvertently facilitating scams if an imposed response time does not allow for a full due diligence process

In relation to this, Fergus McDiarmid from Morton Fraser Lawyers spoke about Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) in Scotland. He highlighted:

· The tax barriers on transferring a property domiciled in Scotland between providers
· It could discourage those with Scottish property in their scheme to transfer to a provider who may be better suited to them

John Battersby from RateSetter spoke about peer-to-peer lending and how we need to be more open minded when considering it as an investment option. He talked on some of the risks that are currently deterring people, such as connected party risk and being categorised as a non-standard asset but these are issues that they are looking to change. This could be one to watch as if they do break down some of the barriers it could be a very attractive investment asset.

The last speaker was Diego Zuluaga from the Institute of Economic Affairs. He discussed the next steps for financial services in the light of the Brexit negotiations and how we should remain positive.