MMATTHEWS

We are needing advice on our what to do with our UK private Pension.

I have read some thread on here about avoiding using Chase Buchanan.

Any suggestions on who to use?

glendem4

Personally, I am keeping my SIPP in the UK and investing in low cost global tracker funds/etfs to mitigate currency risk. The QROPs options in Canada are limited and expensive.

Atlantic Xpat

It's a conundrum....Financial advisors, qualified and reliable enough to entrust with moving your pension seem few and far between. Expat pension advisory companies touting for business and making unsolicitated contacts are legion and IMHO should be avoided. (Would you want to trust someone with your pension who is a cold caller and you know nothing about?)

Most of the pension conundrum in my mind is whether to move a final salary pension from its provider - getting bought out for a multiple of the annual pension amount - and investing it yourself somewhere vs. leaving it in place and taking the income once you reach retirement age. The former has the benefit of the full amount being available to your estate in the event of your death but the mechanics of how you do it are still unclear to me. Invest it in a self directed plan in the UK as a non-UK resident is evidently possible but not easy. Invest it in some offshore scheme from one of these dodgy pension advisors? Not so much! Te other option ... the official option as it were ... is to move it to a QROPS - Qualified Overseas Pension Scheme, As is posted in another thread, there are only three of these in Canada at the moment. For me the obvious choice would be IA Clarington (as I already have a RRSP with them) but you cant do that until you reach 50. These QROPS schemes are "locked in" schemes which I understand are not so good, but candidly I haven't yet understood why!

If you leave in place and take the income monthly (or whatever period suits) then you are of course subject to the whims of the exchange rate - and really need to retain a UK bank account. The transfer from UK bank account to Canadian is straightforward enough using a service such as Wise.

Pulaski

Leave it where it is, or at very least in the UK, as there are few, if any, countries that do more to protect your pension savings from your creditors (e.g. if you go bankrupt), excessive fees, or your own impulses to tap your pension fund for an "essential" expense.

Mordko

Like glendem said, you don’t need to use anyone.

DURHAM

I,m still a long way from pension age , but me and the wife had our own sm business for about 10 yrs before moving to Canada - will myself and my wife still be entitled to a UK pension. If yes is there any action i need to take now, like keeping our British passports renewed even though we have Canadian passports for travel.

dbd33

You may want to keep your NI contributions going so as to increase your eventually pension.

christmasoompa

As above, your passport makes no difference - UK pensions are based on your contributions, so you can continue to make voluntary contributions if you want to receive a full UK state pension.

SaskRuss

Voluntary Class 2 contributions are a great idea to consider, will help to top up your entitlement at low cost

DURHAM

Thank you for your replies.- we moved here in 2006 but had sold our business in 2005. So we only paid contributions upto 2005. Whats the procedure to start making voulntary contributions and can they be backdated to 2005.
We honestly don,t know anything about the contributions or pension system.

SaskRuss

Brief conversation with the one who must be obeyed, she went to the UK government pensions website and printed off the forms for Class 2 contributions and sent them to the UK. Took a while but I'm guessing the Covid situation didn't help.

Pulaski

You need to contact the International Pension Centre at the Department of Work and Pensions in Newcastle. They will answer all your questions, they are very helpful.

Note, the default for voluntary contributions is Class 3, currently at around £730/year, which is a pretty good deal, but you need to request approval to be allowed to make Class 2 contributions, currently at around £155/year, and you will be sent the form to apply for Class 2 .... unless you can do that on-line these days? ETA per SaskRuss above, apparently you can download and print them from the DWP web site these days,

SaskRuss

Download, print and send, my wife just sorted hers out

SixZeroSix1

Regarding paying for missing NI contributions...
my thoughts are that the ~ £7-800 per year you are required to pay would be better off invested in a Canadian RSP if you are thinking of retiring in Canada.
Don't forget that the UK state pension won't be index linked once you start drawing it and that ~ £160 PW you draw at 67 won't buy much when you are still drawing the same amount at 80...
Also, as pointed out above, at least an RSP allows you draw it whenever you want (plus it has its own tax benefits)
Of course, if you're already maxing your RSP and still have ~£700 a year to put into your retirement, it might be worth it

Pulaski

Class 2 contributions are only £155-ish/yr.

The "draw it whenever you want" isn't necessarily a plus when the purpose of pension investment is saving for retirement (see my earlier post about tapping pension savings for an "essential" expense).

But you're right, if you have the money to do both, then doing both is the optimal strategy.