Business in small self-administered schemes (SSAS) has increased sharply according to Xafinity, which has said that it has written the equivalent of a normal year's worth of business in this field in only six months.

It said its SSAS business had revived in particular due to changes that allowed complex assets to pass directly family members tax-free after the owner's death.
This was in line, it said, with its earlier survey in which 78% of financial advisers concerned with retirement planning had predicted that the death benefit changes would increase the use of SSAS.
Xafinity's director of self-invested pensions Andy Bowsher said: "We have seen a significant increase in SSAS business.
"Over recent years the growing popularity of the self-invested personal pension has drawn attention from SSAS but, more recently, and as a direct result of the surge in interest in pensions following the reforms, SSAS appears to be undergoing a renaissance.