Peter Crawley

There seems to be a lot going on in the overseas pension advice sector. Last week the UK Chancellor introduced a 25% tax charge for many expats that want to transfer a pension.

Now, another firm with UAE offices has had its permission for final salary pension transfers suspended by the FCA pending a review.

Holborn Assets ordered to immediately cease pension transfers


Whichever firm you deal with, be cautious and take more than one opinion before doing anything with your pension back in the UK.

IKnowNothing

I always thought Holborn was one of the good guys, now if it was the sham company deveer (sic), then I could understand.

Peter Crawley

I have been told that the UK FCA is now looking closely at the collusion between non-UK firms and UK firms where these pension trasnfers are arranged. My suspicions are, unless someone from the firm would like to comment on here and correct me, that the issue is not so much to do with the UK office's advice but with the advice given afterwards.

I am sure this firm has not been singled out and there will be more of these reviews.

Brains1983

Very kind of you to join us to give us this information Peter. Which financial services firm might you be representing?

Peter Crawley

I had some similar comment made when I raised concerns about a New Zealand QROPS a few years back. That scheme was later removed by HMRC as it was a liberation scheme and hundreds of expats are facing large losses.

I am actually in the UK and not here to represent any firm, which is why I advise caution. In the past I worked with UK pension consultancies that ran final salary schemes.

scrubbedexpat141

Budget change confusion?

IKnowNothing

Happy birthday Scamp.

scrubbedexpat141

Cheers. I'm feeling old.

scrubbedexpat094

FCA UK have no information at this stage. OH has just spoken to them!

The OneEyedMan

Isn't this 25% charge going to kill the QROPS market?

Peter Crawley

I suspect that the reasoning behind this was to "kill" that part of the market where the individual retires in a different country to where the QROPS is based,though EU rules stopped this for the EU ( For Now ). They had turned out to be pretty contentious products in the end, I used to get cold-called about them a lot a few years ago. I resisted the temptation to move to one.