Confused by Pensions or OH
 

My OH just had a meeting with a FA and has been told just to leave our pensions here?
Im very confused by all this and wished I had gone with him but sorting other stuff!
With regards to Tax in the UK and Oz I dont think he knew what he was saying and just been given the hot ear by OH saying I should have gone!:curse:
What are other peoples views on this as I have a goverment pension as I work in a school and thought though I should transfer when I start work to a QROPS, we also will have our state pensions too which I thought we should move or notify at least :confused:
He has been told just to give a forwarding address to our pension schemes and draw on them when we retire to keep a bank account here and have them paid in.
Apart from we shouldn't have a UK bank account when we are PR in Australia I thought that there would be some challanges too.???

Re: Confused by Pensions or OH
 

Your State pension cannot be transferred. You just claim it when you are 65 (unless that age has now changed)

Your company pension can be moved over, but there are fees involved that may make it unattractive. The advisor may have deemed this to be the case, and it will depend a lot on your age, and the fund value.

I am not sure what you meant about "we shouldn't have a UK bank account when we are PR in Australia", but you are able to have a UK bank account whilst being PR in Australia, the bank will even send statements here.

I still even have my UK credit card, and I migrated in 1986.

Re: Confused by Pensions or OH
 

The whole pensiosn thing is so complicated that it migth be right to leave things in the UK or totally wrong. You can only move the UK pensions to certain approved funds. As previously stated there are costs/taxes involved and depending on the type of pension in the UK and your ages the benefits you lose in the transfer might mean you are better off leaving them in the UK. Plus the recent financial turmoil might mean that the pension value has dropped so much that it might make more economic sense to leave in the UK for now and transfer later even taking possible taxes and fees into consideration.

Very difficult area and not one I would suggest people could comment on in a meaningful way without knowing a lot of the details of your situation.

Sorry.

Re: Confused by Pensions or OH
 

Pensions are really hard but in general, if you are reasonably closeish to retirement and your pension is final salary index linked then it could well be a better option to leave it there than to bring it here where it would in all likelihood be an allocated pension at the whim of the markets.

Re: Confused by Pensions or OH
 

If you've got a government backed final salary scheme then you're probably better off leaving it in the UK. Having a scheme guaranteed by the hapless UK taxpayer is probably one of the best you can get. Grayling boasts about his all the time on here. I'm just glad I'm not the sucker funding them any more :D

Re: Confused by Pensions or OH
 

Before you do anything, I would make sure you want to stay in Australia.

If you have a PR Visa and move you pension over to Australia, it is stuck here, and cannot be sent back to the UK, if you decide to return.

Re: Confused by Pensions or OH
 

Whew
Thanks for every ones replies.
Its just nice to hear other peoples views as its hard sometimes to find people to talk to about their views and experiences. We have a long time till we draw our pensions and is nice to hear about people who have retired or close to and what their experiences are , also a lot of our friends dont even have pensions so cant talk to them about it!
It is very complicated as you all say and will look in to it a lot more.
Thanks again and feel a lot calmer......until I send the OH to sort something else out :rofl: bless him :blink: