Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 2017 | Pensions and Small Business – Ticking Time Bomb or Hidden Treasure? Michael Burne and Owain Saunders-Jones were looking to fund a further phase of their online legal platform by investing more of their own money back into the business and, importantly, keep control of Carbon Law. The Alternative Business Funding portal returned a match with pensionledfunding.com, a trading name of Clifton Asset Management9 . BUSINESS FUNDING The partners turned to their combined pension pots to finance further growth after Clifton set up two Small Self-Invested Schemes (SSIPs), which purchased £260,000 of five-year preference shares (£130,000 each) with a 15 per cent coupon. Carbon Law is now on a mission to be advisers of choice for fast-growing, enterprising businesses in the UK and beyond. Their lawyers are self-employed consultants but are called “Partners”. “By the end of the next financial year we aim to have 50 partners. By the end of March 2019 we would like to think we would be at 100,” Michael said. Carbon Law is also talking to Clifton Wealth about an employee benefits package, including auto-enrolment and other employee benefits. Michael concluded: “Rather than using other funding sources and generating returns for those providers, using your own pension to invest in yourself is a great idea. Business is all about understanding risk and taking well-informed risk decisions. Pension-led funding has enabled us to continue to back our business without the distraction of external investors.” CASE STUDY: Carbon Law Partners Michael Burne and Owain Saunders-Jones 9. Pension-led funding carries the same risks to the borrower as other commercial credit facilities