Using my SSAS Pension to grow my property business

Featured in Your Property Investors News magazine in January 2019:

Following redundancy in 2016 Andy Tunstall had a choice to make. Either he could source another position in the corporate world or become a full-time property investor with his wife. Of course, he chose property!

“We had my redundancy payment and some savings but we really needed to raise further funds to progress our business to the next level” explained Andy.

It was a chance encounter with Mike Holt of TLPI at a property investors meeting that opened up a whole new world of opportunity for Andy and the rapid growth of his property company ensued. “We had pension funds that we weren’t aware we could use before the age of 55, until of course we had the conversation with Mike. Our financial advisors had never mentioned the possibility of using money from our pension schemes to invest in property”.

As a director of his own limited company Andy was eligible for a SSAS (Small Self – Administered Scheme) Pension, a type of pension that is very flexible and allows investment in your own business, whatever that may be. In Andy’s case it was property. “The process was very simple. I sat down with Mike, explained what we wanted to achieve, completed a short application form and the team at TLPI took it from there, keeping me up to date at every stage of the process”.

Andy had said that the main aim of him transferring his pension was to grow his business and also to have control over investment decisions. One of his concerns was the fact that his existing pensions were invested in equity markets which he viewed as volatile and low yielding, particularly in relation to the returns he felt he could make in both hands on and hands off property investments.

“I decided to loan my company money from the new SSAS pension fund which I used to acquire a serviced accommodation property. As I was essentially a cash buyer due to the SSAS loan I was able to negotiate a 25% discount on the property. The SSAS loan kick started our company and has worked very well indeed. I was limited to 50% of the fund value for this strategy and decided as I wanted the remaining funds to benefit from the returns offered by property investment, to allocate the remaining money to property bond investments”.

“I’ve got the best of both worlds” said Andy. “My business has had the cash injection it needed to get it off to a flying start combined with completely hands off property investments generating an attractive fixed return, both of which will grow my pension pot more than I could have hoped for if I hadn’t taken action” .

Mike Holt, Operations Director at TLPI confirmed “When I met Andy he was in the same position as many people we at TLPI help. He and his wife had the drive and the plans to make a success of their property business, but needed the cash boost to realise these aspirations. I was so glad that I was in a position to help them achieve their goals and provide them with the means to secure their financial futures”.

To find out if you could use a SSAS Pension to grow your business book your FREE consultation with our of the experienced SSAS Advisors at TLPI.

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