I've got two personal pensions in England and as far as I can tell there's no technical reason I can't move them to Canada and put them in an RRSP here.

However financial institutions are not used to doing it and so far I have found that Sunlife where I have an RRSP will not try. BMO is interested but they charge $350 and would not move both of them, claiming that one was different than the other (they were both exactly the same type).

Has anyone been through this process and found an institution that will help?

Which province do you live in?

I know that BMO bank has helped friends in Calgary to move both state and private pensions over.

I can recommend someone near Calgary.

I'm in BC

Then have a chat with Mark Walker http://sterlingadvisory.com/

Yes, highly recommend. He was great in getting our mix of pensions over here.

J

Thanks I'll check it out

Hi Penguin,

Interesting comments regarding the financial institutions you have mentioned although not surprising.

I have come across this many times with clients that have spoken with banks etc before using myself to help transfer their pension funds.

Although they are QROPS qualified to deal with the transfer, in the majority of cases the advisor within the branch will not have sufficient knowledge of UK pensions or the rules involved with transferring a pension via QROPS.

I had one client that spoke with their bank, who said they would "give it a go" and transfer the pension although they were unsure of the process and didnt even know what the abbreviation 'QROPS' stood for !!!! pretty basic knowledge if you are going to transfer a persons pension halfway across the world !!

I would suggest speaking to a specialist with a knowledge of both UK pensions and QROPS transfers, whether that be an advisor within the banks that has this knowledge or a company that specializes in UK pension transfers, before going through the process of transferring your pension funds to Canada.