In the last four years, the number of small self-administered pension schemes has increased from a few dozen to a figure that, if it has not already done so, must shortly pass the 10,000 mark and few major Life Offices, Consulting Actuaries or Pensions Consultants are now without such a weapon in their armoury.

Considerable practical experience in the administration of these arrangements has been gained, often somewhat traumatically, over this period by actuaries and other practitioners and, with many schemes having recently had, or just coming up to, their first triennial actuarial report, it seemed a sensible time to consolidate this experience and to highlight some of the more contentious areas for discussion.

Certain statements in the paper are based on my understanding of current Inland Revenue practice which is not necessarily consistent either with time or between different examiners.

Finally, although the subject matter of the paper applies equally to fully self-administered schemes and to Life Office 'hybrid' schemes, I wish to apologize for any unintentional bias towards the latter that may have crept in. Better the devil you know, I suppose!