I can't seem to find the answer to my question on the net. I have relocated to Switzerland and would like to bring my UK pension savings to Switzerland since I have no plan on returning to the UK and certainly not retiring there when the time comes. My understanding is that if my employer's pension scheme was a QROPS this would not be a problem, however despite being a large corporate entity I just found out that our pension scheme is not one of the approved schemes by the Inland Revenue (so is not a QROPS)
Does this mean that I can't bring in my pension to Switzerland? Or can I sign up to a QROPS independent of my employer?
There are Effers who have posted on this subject and have had some experience.
The only advice I can offer is read some of the posts in the Financial forum, and if you get a PM from one of the friendly cold calling companies, check them out on PissedConsumer.
If the plan is not on the HMRC list of approved QROPS, do not make the transfer!!! It will be classified as an unauthorised payment and therefore subject to a tax penalty of 55% of the transfer value. You can however transfer your UK pension fund to a Qrops elsewhere.
No problem at all moving your pension to a QROPS but please please get some great advice because it will give you the freeedom to choose investments within its structure. As this is your pension you need to choose very carefully.
Does anyone have any real life idea of the commision on a QROPS transfer?
I know there is usually an exit fee/processing fee from the current provider, commision to whomever sells you/organises the transfer, and no doubt fees to the new provider, but how much is all of this on say a £100k pension pot?
How long does it take to recover your pension pot back to it's pre-transfered level?
Also, unless you plan to take all your money out after 5 years, why would anyone have their pension offshored from a relatively well regulated place like to the UK (where the FSA has at least got some milk teeth) to somewhere like the Channel Islands where it's the financial companies running the show for their own benefits?
I looked into it briefly - with one of the firms we cannot talk about on here - and the admin fees were around £500 a year - so even they suggested it would need to be a pension pot of £25k+ to make it worthwhile.
So, with a pension pot of £100k, I'd definitely consider it, but going with a reputable independent QROPS provider. This is probably not going to be your employer, at a guess.
The only reason I can see for bringing the pension to CH if you wish to take the pension as 100% cash lump sum.
On Uk pensions you have a very wide range of possible investments, so you don't need to hold any UK assets, however I would think very carefully transfering a UK pension at todays exchange rates. 3 years ago the CHF value would have been roughly twice that of today.
If it's a guaranteed pension leave it alone whatever anybody says. (I know the BA scheme is hopelessly insolvent!) The running costs of a large company scheme wil be very low indeed.
If anybody can tell me of a QUOPS scheme where I can invest exactly how I want directly in equaties (NOT UNIT TRUSTS) please let me know.
I like the bits "investment may be managed by a third party" who may or may not be any good any you don't have control over what they do with your money anyway
"agree to be a member of the Pension Plan for a minimum of 10 years" (thereby ensuring they earn their fees of £12,500 regardless of how much your pot is worth when entering or leaving, then you need to add on the initial 12% paid to the people who make the introdction (the beers in this case named on the form))
" Having been advised that an independent pension review is recommended prior to the transfer, and having considered all my options I hereby waive my need to obtain an independent pension review relating to said transfer.
12% introduction fee on a pension transfer? Someone is taking the piss, normally would be WAY less than that and would be taken from the buy/sell spread.
And people looking to cash in the pensions 100% will pay anything upto the 12%, as it is actually illegal to cash them in 100% and the countries that are doing them now will have the QROPS taken away from them and the companies will be closed down eventually, Like happened in Singapore and all the people who cashed them in are being chased by the HRMC for the 55% tax on it.
In Spain now there are 250 advisory firms and only 9 are actually regulated.
Well thank you, looks like that answers all my questions. I'll stay put. I assume if my employer's scheme was a QROPS none of these hidden and not-so-hidden fees would apply?
is it possible to transfer an UK Private Pension to AVS/AHV? The problem is that I don't work at the therefore I have no a private scheme in Switzerland (I pay only AVS/AHV) and I must transfer the funds somwhere. Anyone had a similar problem? Thanks!
Another important thing to note is many of these companies are incestuous, ie, they share the same directors etc, despite seemingly being totally seperate entities.
This is certainly the case for the two companies discussed above.