bsjgeneral

I have been trying to get my ( and my wife's ) pension transferred from 'Abbey Life' in the UK to a recognised pension scheme here in Florida where we have lived for around fifteen years. The problem is in finding such a scheme here that is registered with HMRC. I have been in touch with the Elections dept of the HMRC and although they have a list of suitable scheme holders here, they are not able to help me with any information as they are not allowed to show favouritism to any specific U.S. based company!!!
Could anyone shed any light on available scheme holders ( registered with HMRC ) here in the U.S.?

We're sure that we are just one British family of hundreds if not thousands that are experiencing this very frustrating problem. Any help would be so greatfully received.

Many thanks.
Barry and Sandra.

Bob

welcome to the site

Not sure if it'll help you or not, but there's been a few pension question type threads in the past, and if you do a search, you might find them and some answers, well it's a start till anyone else chimes in

bsjgeneral

Thanks Bob. Appreciate the input. Cheers ... Barry.
Anyone out there have the name of a HMRC registered company in the US?

fatbrit

We've never had a good answer to this one. There's one w*nker who occasionally spams the board with "PM me and I'll see ya right" but apart from that the knowledge cupboard in this area is a fat and round zero.

Manc

http://britishexpats.com/articles/re...ension-centre/

try these guys.

budtonite

The approved schemes are called QROPS - Qualified Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme. A list of companies who have regtistered AND agreed to have their names published can now be found at:

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

Unfortunately, the IRS also comes into play and right now I have no idea whether THEY allow such transfers to happen

Right now I'm looking to move my company pension from the UK into an approved scheme over here and have the advantage of being a financial advisor with a large multinational institution who are trying to help me.

That said, until today, none of my senior management on this side of the pond had even heard of the term QROPS!!

I will glady post back to the board when I find out more.

fatbrit

Excellent info. Thanks!

jen_andreson

Thank you--that is very good information. Would indeed appreciate any further details you happen across.

budtonite

I have now gotten this whole thing pushed up to the head of our legal department in home office so I'm very hopeful that more info will be forthcoming very soon.

DEE_UK

MiLs pension comes directly into her BoA account. They had an attorney in England help with this.

Elvira

Why not keep your pension where it is now? UK stoke market is growing stronger than the US, and this looks like it is likely to continue in the foreseeable future, so you may be better off.

Also, are you absolutely sure you may not one day decide to retire to the UK? I hear this is not unusual...

Jerseygirl

My hubby left his in the UK.

budtonite

Personally, I don't think that there is a "one size fits all" solution to how you want to handle this, it really does depend on your situation and plans - all of which change over time.

One thing that is for sure though is that the closer you are to retirement, then the lower the level of risk that you want to expose your pension fund to and the more so when you are actually retired and fully dependant on your fund as income. High returns and high risk always go hand in hand - imagine the impact of losing 20% of your fund just before you retire due to a sharp decline in the stock market. If your money is in the UK and you retire here, then exchange rate fluctuations also come into play.

I do plan to try to get my pension fund transferred over here and placed into an IRA. Typically all of this type of fund are free of surrender charges after a maximum of 10 years. This means that if your plans did change and you decided to return to the UK you could take your money with you without losing an arm and a leg.

bsjgeneral

Thanks for your input. However, ( cutting a very long story short ) we found out that there is actually a U.S. embargo preventing transfers of such pension funds from the UK in an effort to prevent money laundering practises. At that point we gave up on the whole darn thing. Thanks anyway.

Kestrelbms

A QROP is a specific pension fund. UK pension invaiably cannot be rolled into a 401(k). The Inland Revenue(HMRC) allow pension transfers to certain jurisdictions if they meet certain HMRC criteria. The US meets the criteria with the exception that they only allow transfers from overseas from pension plans that they have approved and comply with US regulations. No general UK pension plan complies - in fact they are seen as very generous by the IRS so the UK Inland Revenue(HMRC) always advise a UK pension cannot be transferred to the US. Some people try, but it is a big headache, a lot of effort - and no result. It is better to transfer to a UK SIPP (Self Invested Pension Plan).