Yes you can, if you own a company then your company can own a pension plan. Make sure you understand that just like there’s a difference between company assets and your own assets (even if you own the company 100%), there is a difference between your company owning a pension plan, and you personally owning a pension plan. This means that if you have other shareholders, they are part-owners in the pension plan, if you sell the company you’re also selling the pension plan (unless you specifically and legally transfer the ownership of the pension plan before the company sale and include any relevant details in your SPA), and if you have any other company directors, they can also make instructions to the pension plan.
The company owning a pension plan will also affect the balance sheet of the company, so just make sure that you know what you’re doing when setting it up, and that you either have a trusted expert on your team who knows, or you have taken independent expert advice. We will of course help you, point out the various scenarios you need to be aware of, and show you the main questions you need to be asking of your trusted or independent expert. Without knowing the full details of your company we can’t give you complete advice on exactly what to do, but we have corporate finance and auditing experts on our team, as well as pension experts of course, so we can definitely be of significant value to you whilst you’re exploring your options and help you avoid silly mistakes.
The process for corporate-owned pension plans is slightly different than individual-owned pension plans, so please contact us to set this up manually rather than doing it via the online application process. As always, if you need help or are not 100% sure how to execute your plan, just ask us!