Celia Medley

Hi Mike,

I did a google search yesterday and saw your message about transferring pensions to here in Canada from the U.K.
I have a private pension with Zurich and when I talked to them they said it was no trouble to transfer it to over here, but when we went to the bank the other day RBC they said no, they were not able to help me.
Any advice on where I could go would be great.

Many Thanks,
Celia

Airseir

check the list on this site:

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

Celia Medley

Hi Airseir,

Thanks very much for the information....

Airseir

No Worries. My first pension transfer has just landed - working on the other three frozen ones at the moment.

Nesbit Burns with the BMO have been very helpful with the process.

Celia Medley

That's great, thanks again. Hope I can get this all sorted.... I'm sure I will eventualy!

505443

I've just spotted this thread while searching QROPS info for transfering UK pension to Canada. I noticed that NSpaul mentioned that he had found a Canada RSP that did nit require lock-in. Does anyone have an example from the QROPS list that is not a locked in pension scheme. The majority from the list I can identify are, but some seem unknown so if anyone has experienced the pension transfer and managed to do it to a scheme not locked-in, I would greatly appreciate knowing, cheers, Stuart

Celia Medley

Hi Stuart,

I have a bank account with RBC and when I went to see them they no longer do overseas pension transfers. I was advised by them to see CIBC but when we contacted someone there they didn't seem interested. I then went to BMO
and they have been very helpful. I'm waiting to receive my personal pension plan cheque from the U.K. and will then go in to discuss where the money is best placed. I was told by the guy at BMO it does not have to be in a locked in RSP here.

I will let you know once I have gone in to sort this out in a couple of weeks what happens and what is available if that would help you?

Celia.

505443

Sounds great Celia, it will be interesting to know how you succeed as I expected that as part of the QROPs requirements for pensions transfer you would already have been required to set up the RSP account prior to transfer in order that the UK can recognize that your receiving fund complies with the QROPS list/requirements - that way the funds are sent over intact with no penalties. Thats where most of the lock-in schemes come in as my interpretation is that the UK is only recognizing Canadian schemes that mirror the restictions of UK schemes, hence everything I see is a lock-in scheme, but I get the impression from an old thread that there are schemes out there that comply with the QROPS list but arent lock-in. Please keep me posted of your progress, and good luck with it

mjwalker007

Hi 505443

I moved with my family to B.C last March and back home I was an Independant Financial Advisor. I am also now a Qualified Financial Advisor in B.C.

I am able to transfer my clients U.K pension schemes (occupational only, not personal pension schemes) to a non-locked in RRSP. The only restriction is that it cannot be touched for the first 5 years of you leaving the U.K. Therefore if you moved to Canada 4 years ago you would be able to access the RRSP after 1 further year.

This has major advantages for Ex Pats as although you are not advised to access the RRSP money as there is witholding tax, you are still able to access it, something you could not do if it stayed in the occupational scheme in the U.K

Also another major advantage for moving it to the Canada and the RRSP is that on death the full amount of the fund will transfer to your spouse (or other beneficiary) whereas if it stayed in the u.k scheme, your beneficiary may not receive the full amount of the fund !!

Finally its your money , you should have control over what you do with it, something you will have no control over if it stops in the U.K Occupational Scheme !

If you need any help, please feel free to contact me.

HelNAl

Hi MJWalker007,
OH works for NHS and we are moving over to Ontario in July/Aug.He has 16 yrs of NHS pension contributions, is this transferable and is it best to talk to an advisor here in Uk or someone familiar with things over there.Any help would be welcome.
Helen

505443

Thanks for the thread MJWalker007, I thought I'd come across that 5 year restriction in some other thread before, but that is fine, at least it enables me to get my own hands on my investment here in Canada, something I've always grumbled about with UK Pension schemes. I've lived here for 3 years so it would sound like I only have a couple to go. I tried to get my pension across before, but it was while the pension changes were being planned and happening so UK wasnt interested, but at least now its very possible and I've already contacted them and they are happy to transfer. Can you highlight what financial institution has the non-lockin fund, or should I email you directly for that information?

Paul Wildy

When I last posted this I think I was still in the process of doing the transfer. Anyway it is now complete and in an RRSP and it isnt "locked-in" - I could withdraw it whenever I wanted if I wanted to.

I used BMO Nesbit Burns to do the transfer. It didnt cost anything to do the transfer although they obviously get a small commission on the fund it got invested into. If anyone is interested in how to do it or want a contact at BMO Nesbit Burns feel free to PM me.

Beware that if you do get your pension transferred into a non locked-in RRSP and then decide to take it all our one day withdrwals from an RRSP are taxable as though they are income within that tax year in Canada.

mjwalker007

Hi HelNAL

If your hubby has been paying into an NHS scheme it should be a occupational scheme so therefore he should be able to transfer it. My wife worked in the NHS and we have transferred her scheme.

With regards to sorting it out, I would advise you get as much up do date information on the pension scheme (contact the pension dept for the NHS if possible) as this will help speed up the transfer when you get over her. This is not a nessecity but as mentioned will help speed things up.

Then I would to start the transfer in Canada as you have to arrange what RRSP (registered retirement savings plan) you would like the funds to be transferred to, if you saw an advisor in the U.K they would not have access to the RRSP funds so would not be able to facilitate the transfer.

If you need any further help or advice please contact me

505443

Thanks NSpaul, BMO it is then. I saw Celia was using them also in her thread above, so good to know we have a solid answer to which financial institution can help with the non locked-in RSP, thats definately the way I am going, and as you say, if you do withdraw funds you do get taxed, but thats a given, no problem there. Did you find this BMO RSP was subject to the 5 year constraint that was discussed previously, even though its non-locked in. I'm trying to interpret if this 5 year lock-in period is a condition that the Canadian institutions are having to apply in order to comply with UK QROPS. My sense is the majority just lock-in to comply with QROPS, but for those that dont lock-in, they at least must have the 5 year limit to comply with QROPS? Thanks, Stuart

Paul Wildy

The 5 year rule is imposed by the UK tax authorities. So technically if I withdrew funds within 5 years and the UK inland revenue found out then they could come after me to repay the tax exemption I got originally. I think when a Canadian institution applies for QROPS status one of the condition is that they must report on you to the inland revenue if you do it.

But I'm really not sure how that could work in practice. You see in Canada there are only two types of funds - "locked in" which you arent allowed to touch EVER and then reguluar RRSPs which you can do whatever you want with. There isnt a fund that exists in Canada that locks-in for 5 years and then allows access and I can't imagine any of the big institutions like BMO would go to the bother of setting one up just for a handful of Brits who are still operating under UK inland revenue tax rules. Canadians dont have a need for such a fund/scheme. So my guess is that Canadian institutions dont really have the mechanisms in place to lock your funds in for 5 years - BMO Nesbit Burns told me that I could withdraw it whenever I wanted.

In fact, this is probably the reason why you found it so hard to find a scheme that wasnt locked-in. The institutions in Canada know they dont have the mechanisms in place to lock your money away for just 5 years (you could probably challenge them under Canadian law if they tried to impose that rule anyway) so instead they are only prepared to take your business if you allow them to lock it away forever by putting it into a locked-in RRSP (which there is provision for in Canadian Law). That way they know there's no danger of you breaking the rules and them ending up liable somehow.

By the way you should approach BMO Nesbit Burns (not the main BMO bank or BMO Harris etc - there are a few different companies within the group). Depending on your region I might be able to give you a contact name (please PM me for that).