Anyone, particularly retirees, who have moved back to the UK from Canada, did you have a legal and/or financial advisor to assist in your move? Did you do it all by yourself? The more I read, the more confused I get with tax considerations, difficulty opening an UK bank account etc.
Any personal experiences good or bad would be appreciated.

I'm a UK citizen and am currently retired in the UK, though when I moved back here (from the US, twice - once in 2000 and once in 2006), I was working. As far as my own moves to the UK were concerned, I didn't get any advice of a legal, financial or tax nature and everything went fine, though I had to do a fair bit of research on various aspects of the return - bringing a dog back, figuring out income tax and finding accommodation were probably the biggest headaches. If you are a UK citizen (it would help if you provided that information), there's nothing to stop you returning to the UK from a legal perspective.

Unless there is some specific Canada-related issue you are concerned with, you might be better off searching for threads on each of your specific concerns - for example, getting a UK bank account. There is a lot of information on that specific question already, for example, and you'd get information more quickly that way. Regarding tax, again a lot depends on your situation (for example, will you continue receiving income fro Canada after you return to the UK?) Without some of these specifics, any advice would be based on assumptions that could be incorrect.

You might get more helpful advice if you gave some idea of what aspect of returning to the UK is confusing you. I understand that tax may be confusing, but I don't understand why you think you need legal advice.

Maybe just respond with a bit more detail of your situation. I think you'll find you get more accurate advice that way.

Thank you for your advice. To clarify, my husband is British by birth and I applied for and received a Certificate of Right of Abode so we can legally live in the UK.
we are both retired and are receiving CPP & OAS plus a very small monthly pension. We also each have RIF’s which provide additional monthly income. We are in the process of getting our house ready to sell. Amazing what we have amassed over the years. We don’t think we will ship any of our furniture back as none of it is new or particularly valuable. No pets.
I have since read some comments about opening a UK bank account with HSBC. HSBC Canada were just purchased by Royal Bank of Canada but I don’t think that will make a difference.
Perhaps I am making things more difficult than they really are. I’ll do some more reading and research and come back with more specific questions.
Thank you

Have never read about someone taking on a legal/financial advisor to move back to the UK unless they have very complicated tax/business issues.
If you are receiving pension income from Canada, presume once you are resident in the UK, then you won't pay tax in Canada.
You will pay tax in the UK
https://www.gov.uk/tax-foreign-incom...%20or%20abroad.
Once resident in the UK then you will be eligible to open a bank account with any UK bank.

Thank you. I’m over complicating things I’m afraid. 🤷‍♀️

I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "I don't think that will make a difference". But since HSBC canada was sold, I would place a fair wager on opening an account with RBC being no help to you whatsoever with opening an account with a British bank in the UK.

That’s quite true, thanks. I will look into opening a UK account through the HSBC UK website.

We moved back to England from the USA after we retired but we already had a UK bank account so it was extremely easy. Our daughter moved to England in 2022 from the USA and she didn’t have a UK bank account but sorted things out very smoothly using a Wise Borderless account. She was able to easily open this while in the USA and with its UK bank account number and sort code was then easily able to transfer money and pay lawyer fees etc while house hunting before she moved. The Wise account comes with a debit card so that on arrival she had easy access to cash and to pay for things by card. Once here, she stayed with us for a few weeks while her house purchase etc completed, she opened a Chase UK account very easily, no proof of UK address etc, and has been very happy with Chase, which is a UK online bank only.

Hi Loni. My wife and I are in a similar situation although she is the UK citizen. I just opened an HSBC UK account last week. It was quite simple and all done online. I am able to transfer money in now. Go to the HSBC UK website and look for opening an account from outside UK. It takes you step by step through the process and then once all documents have been submitted you’ll get a phone call from HSBC to verify everything. You may also have to do a Zoom call so that they can see that you match your identification documents. It took a few days from start to finish.

Thank you. Very helpful.

GBart thank you. I’ve had a look at the HSBC UK website and will probably go that route. Good to hear from someone who has actually done it. 👍

We emigrated from NZ to the UK in August last year. We opened a Monzo account online really easily (no proof of address required) and had a debit card sent within a few days. Much easier than I expected 😀

We are in the process of getting HSBC bank accounts. You apply online, and send in some documents, and then you will get a confirmation email. Then you get a call a week or so later with some questions, and then finally a Zoom video call.
we just got a couple of personal accounts, but that kind of account only protects about £85k, because of money laundering concerns, etc. Once you’re there for a while, you can get a different account that fully protects all your money. We figured we can always switch accounts over once we get there.

Thank you Shelley and WCOTT. Appreciate you sharing your personal experiences.

Hi… I live in BC and I just opened a HSBC UK account online. They mailed my debit card to me here in Canada and I managed to transfer funds into the account this week. It was fairly simple.

We too are looking for some tax guidance. We will have a RRIF but we are thinking we will just withdraw all the money from it and take it back to the UK and invest it there. Don’t want to be watching the exchange rate constantly and having to maintain Canadian bank accounts.