Barnett Waddingham's compliance officer Zoe Smith has joined the committee for the Association of Member-directed Pension Schemes (AMPS).
Ms Smith joins AMPS in place of outgoing chairman and Barnett Waddingham partner Andrew Roberts, who has stepped down from the committee after six years as a member, including the last two of which he was chairman. Andrew Roberts is a regular blogger for Sipps Professional.
Mr Roberts, who recommended that the committee seek candidates from a compliance-orientated background, said: "When I joined the committee, the key areas of concern were understanding the impact of pension simplification and the practical application of running schemes under a legal rather than discretionary framework. That focus has now shifted and most of the committee time is taken up with regulatory aspects.
"It is therefore crucial that the committee could count among its members someone from a regulatory background, and the constitution demanded that this expertise came from a firm that actually provided a pension product. I am delighted and not at all surprised given past performance that our firm was able to support Zoe's appointment to the committee."
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Ms Smith, who has been with Barnett Waddingham since 2007 said: "I have previously sat on the AMPS sub-committee helping the committee understand regulatory matters, and I am looking forward to using my knowledge to assist AMPS more directly."
Barnett Waddingham has three ex-chairman of AMPS and its predecessor APT amongst its partners.
Barnett Waddingham LLP has been in the self-invested pension market since its inception in 1989 when it provided SSASs and launched its SIPP in 1999. It now administers over 2,200 SIPPs representing almost £1bn of assets under administration including 800 properties. It is aimed at high net worth clients of financial advisers. There are currently 60 partners and over 550 staff, based in seven locations around the UK (Amersham, Bromsgrove, Cheltenham, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and London) and it continues to expand and recruit.