Well, it’s getting to that time in my life, and I'm sure this has been asked umpteen times before.

Does anyone have recommendations for firms that understand both UK and US tax laws and can advise me on the best strategy for transferring my UK pensions to the US? I’m in Leesburg, VA, so someone local would be ideal.

-Nigel

Are you talking about drawing your pensions and having your monthly income paid into your US bank account, or transferring your entire pension fund/ pot to the US within the tax-protection envelope?

The former is easy, the latter may not be possible, but if it is possible, it will have significant fees and in any case is unnecessary and (IMO) would be ill-advised.

That will depend upon the discussion I have with the advisor and the pros and cons that we cover.

Hmm. :/

There are advisors and "advisors", you might get impartial advice, or you might get "help" on the basis that "it is in your best interests to be under the protection of Uncle Sam's investment regulations".

To be clear. I am not you advisor, and not giving you personal advice (not least because I don't know your personal situation), but I will say that the UK's protections for pensions are second to none, so moving your pension from underneath the UK protective umbrella will [1] likely lead to fewer protections (it is just about impossible for anyone to get their hands on your pension fund in the UK, that is not the case in the US), and will [2] likely lead to additional charges, either to effect a transfer, or on an incremental basis, or both.

I would also point out that "diversification" is an important, if not essential part of any good investment strategy, and having part of your retirement savings in a different country, in a different currency has some real value in an uncertain world.

That makes sense and I would absolutely prefer to get a monthly payment if possible, available and reasonable. But at least one of my pension companies is saying that they won’t do that to the U.S.

Ah yes, I have that problem too. Although I am still a number of years from retirement, my provisional plan is to cash out that fund first, and use it to fund my living expenses, and defer claim SS/ state pension and other private pensions (and benefit from the increase or growth) until the cashed-out funds are used up.

We had this with AJ Bell who would not do a direct transfer to anything other than a British Bank (funny how HMRC has no problem depositing into a US bank).
In the end we used WISE to do the transfer .......

I'm going to be facing the same problem when Jim passes away as the surviving spouse I am eligible for a portion of his military pension which won't be paid into an American account.

As Jim is declining rapidly, he will be putting my name on his existing Canadian bank account so that the funds can continue to be paid into that account. Then it will be my responsibility to transfer those monies to my US account. Since he is losing 25 cents on a dollar at the present time and it will be the same for me, I need to decide how and when to transfer. PITA but that is the way of it.

In what sense is he "losing 25c on a dollar"?

Do you mean [1] he is getting USD0.25 less for every CAD1 than he used to, or [2] he's only getting USD0.75 for every CAD1, or something else?

ETA. Currently CAD1 will get you US0.723, so it looks like you probably mean [2] above, although [1] may also be true simultaneously. The problem is that is no reason for CAD1 to equal USD1, any more than there is for GBP1 to equal USD1. To date the all time low for GBP was GBP1 = USD1.06, but for the past 9 years GBP has mostly traded in the range USD1.15 to USD1.35. Prior to that 1985-2015 GBP mostly traded in the range USD1.45-USD1.90, but was as high as USD2.42 around 1982 IIRC.

But what about the Japanese? JPY currently trades around USD1 = JPY155, which proves, if any is needed, that there is no intrinsic "rightness" about parity between CAD and USD.

In short, an exchange rate means nothing, other than it is the ratio at which you can swap one currency for another.

Just get your pension paid into your US account, they will do that and get the best available exchange rate at the time of payment, it's what we did when we lived in Spain, paid direct into our Spanish Account, it's certainly the simplest way

You can't transfer to the US, as there are no US pensions that have QROPS Status.

Your options are basically to leave them where they are, or transfer them to a UK SIPP designed for a non-UK Resident, colloquially known as an "International SIPP." You will need a financial advisor for that, as all SIPPS compliant for a US resident require them. Just make sure they are fee based, and actually add value for any ongoing service provided.

Whilst many UK pensions are fine to leave where they are, even for US residents, many are not. Reasons include: some will restrict US resident options, won't pay out to non-UK bank account, no survivors pensions (leaving lump sum, which is fully taxable in the US) as only option, won't pay out in foreign currency, and some will even ask you to transfer out right away, especially is US Resident.

If you have any pensions with safeguarded benefits, like final salary/defined benefit pensions, that is another level of complexity and cost, especially as 99% of people are advised not to transfer, which then narrows down your options even further.

Hope that helps!

Duncan Raeside of Headway Wealth sorted me out. We consolidated 3 pensions into one SIPP with AJ Bell.

https://usa.headwaywealth.com/uk-pen...SAAEgLJ-PD_BwE

When it comes to moving cash from sterling to $ I use Wise. Their exchange rate is always way better than the banks. For instance right now the $ spot rate is $1.3324 to the Pound. Wise is $1.3324. The banks will be around $1.30.

That advice was all but certainly provided unlawfully. You can not give SEC-authorized advice to transfer to AJ Bell, and their SIPP is not compliant for a US Resident. It is only a matter of time before you are asked to leave, and your advice will not be covered by their PI Insurer, as insurers don't cover advice that criminally (willful violation of US overseas adviser law is criminal, not just civil) violates overseas local advice laws.

Eh? Nobody is giving advice, just stating facts. What has the SEC got to do with UK pensions from UK pension providers being consolidated into another UK pension provider in the UK?

Headway's entire business model is based around helping ex pat Brits who live in the US handle their UK pensions. And their financial advisors are regulated both in the US and UK. AJ Bell is a highly respected FTSE 250 company who manage assets of 9 billion pounds.

Your advice was given unlawfully.

Financial advice is regulated by the SEC for US Residents, regardless of where the assets being advised on are located.

UK FCA regulated advisers are not allowed to give advice to US residents except incidentally, for which there are exemptions.

AJ Bell are also in breach of US Broker Dealer laws by providing dealing to a US Resident without any SEC authorisation or oversight.

The SEC just shut down Interactive Investor and My Expat SIPP for non compliance, and Investcentre will meet the same fate eventually.

Headway Wealth use their one US adviser (they do not have their own US company) to market in the US, and then place all advice on UK pensions through their US business, which is illegal, not to mention defrauding their US principal.

Only one of them is US regulated, the chap you mentioned, who worked for the infamous ****** group for many years. All their other advisers, including the two founders, also historically connected to dodgy firms in the middle east, are not US regulated.