Yes we did,they moved all mine over successfully and have kept us up to date.Hubby has had two of his moved over but the third was a final salary one and he would lose a third of its value(20 years hes had that)so it was best to leave it for the time being.However the board has had to make up the huge deficet,(spelling?)and we are hoping to have that over soon.Prism also put is in touch with a good company over here to invest our collective pensions.One word of caution it takes a huge amount of time to transfer over so its best to get the ball rolling as soon as possible.
Hope this helps
Donna

I think you should be aware of the context in which you might want to consider moving your UK pension arrangements to Australia at an early stage - and that would usually be prior to departing the UK.

I'm happy to hear arguments to the contrary, but I'd usually recommend picking up the implementation of a pension transfer once you have moved to Australia, not least because you need an Australian superannuation fund into which your UK fund can be transferred, which in turn requires financial advice locally (ie in Australia).

Best regards.

Danny we went for a meeting with one of the directors of prism xpat last week. I would see if you can get an appointment during december as from january they are charging £100 per initial meeting. We took pension statements with us and he said mine isnt worth moving over and he also explained about the differences in the uk vs oz pensions. We have the paperwork ready to sign up, it will cost an initial fee of approx £500 and then they take a 3% slice of the overall pension amount they move over. Just some fees to bear in mind.

Donna,

My view is that those that might have an interest tend to say it takes a lot of time to arrange a transfer of a UK pension fund to Australia. I have heard only this week of very large fees being quoted for arranging the transfer of a UK pension fund to Australia.

I moved mine, and it took about 2 hours of paperwork and phone calls to the scheme administrators. It took about 8 weeks between first contact with the pension scheme administrators and the funds being received in my Australian super fund.

I also obtained QROPS approval for my self managed super fund in Australia, which again was relatively straightforward.

Best regards.

Stuff that for a game of soldiers. I did my pension transfer myself and it cost me nothing.

We haven't done ours ourself yet but I must agree - the fees charged for a UK pension transfer arranged from the UK are mind boggling. We went for the initial meeting with Prism who came across as very professional and helpful, but we simply couldn't justify the chunk they wanted to take from our pension funds.

I got in touch with the administration team from one of our UK final salary schemes before we left the UK (pre-migration and pre-QROPS) and they were really helpful. There didn't seem to be a great deal to it. I also got in touch with Virgin Superannuation and a couple of other Oz superannuation funds (post migration and post QROPS) and they will do the transfer including all the paperwork for free. The big issue that existed with paying wodges in tax if the transfer didn't occur within a certain time frame no longer exists, so the heat is off -though of course we are still liable for tax on the increase in the pension fund whilst its in the uk.

I think that the transfer process has become a lot clearer now that we live in Oz. In the UK I felt the whole thing was quite daunting and made to sound very complex but that's because I had little time to do any research and had so much else on my plate. I suppose the main danger is knowing whether its worth transferring your pension in the first place. Myself and hubbie have between us 5 different types of pension funds and we can only see advantages to transferring them. I still need to do a bit more research but ultimately I'll be waiting for the right Oz superannuation fund to become QROPS registered and getting them to do the transfers. Or if I get bored I might even do them myself

Thanks for that Alan,i will look into doing it ourselves for the last and biggest, transfer over.Whilst in the UK it seemed like a daunting task as there were so many other things to do and it was easier,but costly,for someone else to do it for us.We have advisors over here that will point us in the right direction to reinvest,Ellewood,Barry,Mc Pherson,in Brisbane ,have you heard of them.
Thanks again
Donna

Are they who Prism xpat put you in touch with?? They did mention that when we get to the other side they would put is in touch with financial advisors over there too for re-investment.

or have you dont this independant of PXpat??

Yes they did put us in touch and we have been happy with them as they have invested well for us so far.
On a plus side for Prism they did manage to track down a Navy pension that the OH had and thought he had cashed in years ago,only eleven english grand but better in our pockets.PM me if you want any more details.
donna

Here's the official list

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pensionschemes/qrops-list.htm

brilliant link - cheers daniel

When you say you did the transfer yourself are you just referring to the transfer of the UK funds or did you actually set up the SMSF and apply for QROPS yourself as well?

Also presumably you plan to administer the fund yourself also.
Is this something that any competent person can do?


I’m currently looking at this company: www.superplus.net.au
Anyone heard of them or used them?

Thanks.

Of whom are you asking the question ...?

Best regards.

Sorry Alan...I supose I'm asking you,

thanks

I had a solicitor set up the SMSF, and I have a financial planner giving input to the investment decisions, and preparing the formal investment strategy (required for audit purposes and for the ATO - remember there are compliance issues attaching to SMSFs).

I personally applied for (and obtained) QROPS approval for the Fund.

Best regards.