UK Pension Specialist Services
We offer expert UK pension transfer services to help you make the most of your retirement savings. Our team of experienced professionals can guide you through the complex process of transferring your UK pension to a new scheme.
Pension Valuation
We can assist clients in locating their UK pensions, obtaining current valuations, and implementing tax effective solutions to access them.
Initial consultations and valuations are free of charge and no obligation. You can consolidate all your UK pensions into one manageable pension plan.
It can be hard to trace your UK pensions with previous employers once you have left the UK and after decades of corporate restructuring, mergers, and acquisitions with the pension administrators. It’s easy to lose track of your Australian Super and very easy to trace. However, many of you may have lost UK Pensions. Unfortunately, it is not as easy to trace a lost UK pension. They are not centrally linked with your National Insurance number.
QROPS in Australia
HMRC in April 2015 and March 2017 made restrictions to better align the protections they provide to UK funded schemes. Today there are many more restrictions than before but for those with a Defined Benefit/Final Salary or Personal Pension it is still possible to transfer your UK pension to Australia.
All UK pension funds must be transferred to a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) which is approved by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
If you are not an Australian resident, then your UK Pension transfer may be subject to the Overseas Transfer Charge of 25%
SMSF ROPS
A Self-Managed Superannuation Fund (SMSF) with ROPS status granted by HMRC is also an option for over 55’s to transfer their UK pension funds to Australia.
We can help with the establishment of a ROPS compliant fund and ensure that the HMRC reporting requirements are adhered to correctly ensuring that no HMRC rules are breached.
UK State Pension Enhancement
Did you know that you can increase and maximise your current entitlement to a UK State pension by making additional voluntary National Insurance contributions, even if you are not a UK national? Due to recent legislation changes, if you have less than 10 complete UK Tax years of National Insurance contributions, then you will NOT be eligible to claim the UK State pension.
However, if you have lived in the UK for 3 or more years consecutively and have a minimum of 3 complete UK tax years of National Insurance contributions on your record then you will be eligible to pay Voluntary contributions from abroad.
Arrange a free no obligation consultation, at a time that is convenient for you.
What is a QROPS fund
QROPS stands for ‘Qualifying Recognised Penson Scheme’. A QROPS is an HMRC registered scheme which can accept transfer of a UK pension fund.
For an overseas scheme to qualify for ‘QROPS status’, it must meet certain strict criteria set by HMRC. If you transfer your pension to a plan that is not a registered QROPS, you will face a significant penalty so be sure to check that the pension scheme you are intending on transferring to is listed on the HMRC ROPS list.
A full list of registered QROPS schemes can be found here.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-the-recognised-overseas-pension-schemes-notification-list
If you set up a Self-Managed Super Fund, you can apply to HMRC for QROPS registration for your fund to accept a transfer of your UK Pension monies, but this is a complex and time-consuming process.
Alternatively, you can completely avoid the complex registration process and transfer your UK Pension to a ROPS Retail Superannuation that is registered with HMRC as a QROPS fund.
What happens if I die
If you were to pass whilst your benefits remain in the UK, the amount payable to a spouse or dependent would depend on the rules of the scheme. In general, a scheme would pay a spouse’s pension equivalent to 50% of your original annual pension. In addition, a refund of the contributions you made to the scheme would be payable if you passed away before retirement. Some more generous schemes allow the spouses pension to be payable to dependent children, but it would cease to be payable after they reach the age of 21.
If you are single with no acceptable dependants the scheme will have zero residual value for your estate.
What if I have a large balance in the UK
We can help you navigate the contributions caps permitted and assist with strategies to avoid excess contributions tax.