Danaanatrix

What would happen to our child trust fund, our life insurances and pensions if we moved to Australia?

Will we have to keep the trust fund in the UK as the Government gave us £250 for it?
Our life insurance gives us quite good cover. I am not sure if I want to lose it, would we be able to move it to Oz?

Same with my pension, it is a company based one, will I be able to move to Australia and combine them with one I would like to start out there? Same goes for my wife's one, she is a teacher and has a goverment based pensions, can she also move the funds from that out to Oz???

Help!!!

dcampbell

Hi there

The best thing you can do is speak to a financial advisor in Australia, and also one over here, pensions as far as I am aware do not operate in the same way in Oz, but I think there is a way it can transfer existin pension funds.

I wouldnt think life assurance could be transfered but again you would need to check with you individual company it will depend who you are with.

I know that my uncle has been living in Sydney for 40 years, and he was able to claim his uk state pension!!!!!! That was 8 years ago he did this, so I am not sure about now, but I guess it was because he had paid his national insurance when he lived here, so he was entitled to something.

Sorry couldnt be of more help

Denise x

Funky Monkey

Hi.

I spoke to the man who deals with my life cover and he said that it is usually fine when moving to Australia but you will need to check with them and confirm it.
Not sure about company pension but I spoke to the contributions agency a couple of weeks ago and as long as you pay or keep paying your NI then you can claim your state pension in Australia.
Also they have changed the way the pension works in the U.K and you now need only 30 years of contributions to qualify for the full pension meaning you can "miss" years for whatever reason. If you have paid 15 years then you get 50% of the full pension and so on.

JAJ

You probably have to leave it where it is.

You probably can't move it, but I see no reason why the policy would be invalidated just by you moving to Australia. So maybe just keep paying the premiums out of a U.K. bank account?

Government and employer final salary pensions may not be transferable and even if they are, you lose the final salary guarantee. So it may be better to leave them where they are.

steveandtina

Our FA told us we can keep our life insurance if we keep a UK bank account for it to come from.

As for the child trust I don't know but will watch this tread to find out. If we keep it going will they get another £250 when they reach 7 even if they are in OZ?

Lots of good questions thanks for asking them

Tina X

RobertC

We checked about the child trust fund and it will just stay as it is and continue to grow until they reach 18. You can still put additional funds into it but the UK government will not add any more £250 free donations once you have achieved a permanent visa for Australia.

I'm not sure that there is an early cash-in option for these trust funds anyway as they actually belong to your children, worst case is that you just forget it till they're 18 and leave it to grow so that they get a nice extra present of a few thousand pounds.

steveandtina

Cheers for that

Tina x

JAJ

They will stop as soon as you are no longer living in the U.K. - not the same as holding a permanent visa for Australia.