Pensions - Articles - Pension professionals warned to stay away from HMRC’s RPSM

 Ian Neale, Director at Aries Insight, commented: “The RPSM has not been updated since the summer and fails to inform users of important changes made to the taxation legislation in 2014, as well as information on freedom and choice or flexi-access drawdown. Despite HMRC having introduced a new Pensions Tax Manual (PTM), it seems some pension professionals and scheme members are continuing to use the RPSM as a source of information - which is quite astonishing considering how out of date this is.

 “My advice to pension professionals would be to avoid this as it isn’t going to be updated – in fact it’s soon going to be removed from the old HMRC website to the National Archives. Pension professionals need resources that can deliver instantly-updated information to allow them to focus on clients’ needs, instead of using precious man hours searching and analysing in depth information about important legislation, which could ultimately be out of date.”

 Neale added: “Resources should monitor every development in new and proposed legislation as well as give guidance, because it is essential that the industry anticipates what’s coming up in order to save clients’ time and money in meeting these fundamental requirements.”