Hurlabrick

Probably even more wothwhile! Employers are VERY keen to rid themselves of the long term reserving liability of final salary pensions! If the value is greater than £30k, you will need UK financial advice before they will transfer out of DB

Tangram

So glad I did mine 10 years ago

mjwalker007

Hi Atlantic Xpat

Hurlabrick has pretty much covered everything above

Atlantic Xpat

Thanks to you and Hurlabrick. Makes sense. I'll worry about it in 3 years then.

holdenpat

Hi all
Is it worth transferring a UK SIPP to Canada via a QROPS or better to keep in UK? Sounds like a very onerous process...

Hurlabrick

Entirely your decision! If you use an adviser over here (eg Sterling Financial), they are experienced in this and do all of the work. If you DONT transfer, you are taking on the currency fluctuation risk. If you are going to make Canada your permanent home, then I certainly would.

holdenpat

Many thanks for reply. I'd consider transferring if there is a pension in Canada similar to a SIPP in UK where you can drawdown from 55 and choose all your own investments. All my stuff is dollar denominated so currency fluctations aren't a huge issue.

Mordko

I would leave my investments within the British SIPP and start a separate RRSP in Canada. In fact, that is exactly what I did.

Right now there are just 3 options to transfer from SIPP to Canadian RRSPs: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-th...on-list#canada

While the concept of RRSP is very similar to SIPP and you can withdraw at 55, not one of the 3 options available in Canada look attractive. Based on a quick review, these three companies offer high charges and a very restricted list of funds. These ongoing charges will be on top of the costs to transfer your money to Canada. In addition they impose constraints that go beyond a normal RRSP wrapper. For example you may need to file a return in the UK if you withdraw from these accounts within 10 years of the transfer.

Agree that currency risk isn’t an issue, as long as your are invested in equities rather than treasuries. When you start drawing down from your SIPP, you will incur some currency exchange costs, but they will be very small compared to going through ROPS.

Keep monitoring the situation; rules for ROPS change quite regularly.

In Canada, in addition to RRSPs, you can use TFSAs for your “retirement” investment. The latter is similar to ISA. https://www.finiki.org/wiki/TFSAs_versus_RRSPs

Most banks have discount brokerages which offer much better value than the 3 companies selected for ROPS. There also independent discount brokers like Questrade and Qtrade https://www.moneysense.ca/save/inves...ers-in-canada/

glendem4

Agree with previous comments. To pay 2.5% fees for funds in Canada is crazy. Not that I have any choice as I moved our UK SIPP pensions into income drawdown and withdrew 25% tax free cash before emigrating. We transfer money over whenever exchange rate is better than $1.75 to the pound via transferwise.com

holdenpat

Very sage advice Mordko and glendem-- gratefully received, thank you. I'll keep my pension in the UK for now. I did have one niggling worry about handing over the pension to my missus if anything happened to me.... I understand that the UK makes it more difficult than Canada?

Mordko

While I have no personal experience of “anything happening”, there is no obvious reason why it would be more difficult to inherit a SIPP. Make sure you have a beneficiary. Taxation will be based on Canadian rules.

https://www.onlinemoneyadvisor.co.uk...ps/sipp-death/

billgreg

well Im finaly going the drawdown route on my old prudential retirement policy it has its bonuses I think, this transfer stuff is so confusing plus who do you trust these days fees are probably even more confusing, so Im cashing out doing what hurlabrick mentioned drawdown monthly or every quarter, getting the tax treaty forms form hmrc for cra to sign and return to avoid the double taxation part seems the simplest way , have the funds paid into my self directed tradeing account and invest in the stocks that I want to invest in, Im 74 now so hopefully theres no problems on the horizon but in reality there always are

Hurlabrick

Honestly, even once they do have ROPS approved RRIFs available tao transfer my UK income dradown into, I will probably stick with my UK Nucleus IDD and carry on taking mothly withdrawals. It is working well and the charges are much lower than Canadian equivalents. Now I am set up with an NT tax code and declare and pay tax in Canada - happy days!

Mordko

“and the charges are much lower than Canadian equivalents.”

Don’t they apply platform charges of 0.35% on the first 500k? If so, it seems quite high. What are you comparing against? I am finding that UK SIPP charges with X-O are higher than Canadian discount brokerage charges (which don’t have platform fees if you have enough $s in the account). And X-O appears to be cheaper than Nucleus, although it might work out differently for withdrawals.

Hurlabrick

I don't have the exact figures to hand, but you need to consider the combined total of all charges. I have found fund management charges (taken implicitly in Canada by adjusted unit prices - vs explicitly in the UK by unit cancellation) much lower on UK funds (varies of course depending on fund type - active vs passive etc).