sparkler

I am planning to move over to the US to marry a US citizen and I want to find out about retirement for British citizens in the US. I am in my 30s and have been paying my NI/tax contributions in England/Europe. Can these contributions be transferred to US? Would a British citizen taking out a pension plan in the US also have a government pension when they retire?
Thanks.sparkler.

Patrick

Two part question, two part answer.

Any NI contributions or pensions you payed into in the UK cannot be moved to the USA, they are governed by completly different laws and never the twain shall meet. You can however claim on any private pension you haved paid into when it matures.

You can carry on paying NI contributions for your pension and draw that at retiring age as well.

The USA is not a nanny state, it has no responsibility to look after its citizens and as such there is no "state" pension (a government pension over here is something that is paid to those who worked for the government).

For your pension over here you have to save up yourself, although some companies pay contributions much the same as they do in the UK. There are many and various ways to save for your pension but the best known is the 401k, you can go onto any american bank website and they will have full explanations on how it works. Basically it is tax free saving plan until you retire then you pay income tax on it. You can also dip into it a couple of times if times are tight (as it is seen as savings plan and not pension scheme).

Good Luck and God Bless

Patrick

BritSteve99

If you have a personal pension in the UK, there seems to be no way to transfer it into a US pension. You have to wait until you retire until you can get access to it and transfer it.

I believe that there is some reciprocal pension arrangement between the UK and US, but it hasn't been ratified.

If someone knows any different, please let me know. I would like to transfer my personal pension to a US pension, but can't seem to do it.

SueIP

I want to be able to transfer my private pension too - would be interested to hear any reponses...

sparkler

Thanks a lot for your replies - looks like I'll be taking out a new private pension plan when I get there. Will look up that K104 pension plan on the web. I would like to know if anyone has any further information about pension plans. With regard to my normal NI/tax contributions back in the UK, will I ever be able to claim those back in any way?
Thanks, sparkler.

ScarlettHill

That's 401K you want.

Regards
-=-
Scarlett

sparkler

Thank you. sparkler.

dave f

i have tried to move my personal pension with abbey life to the US with no luck , a pension advisor here has told me that the UK company has to be able to transfere the fund value from sterling into dollars before any pension provider will consider taking over your policy

scotsman60

I found this thread while looking for info on trasnferring my personal pension fomr the UK to the US.

Since the pound buys a lot if dollars right now it seems like a good time to transfer.

Does anyone know of a way to transfer UK personal pensions to US IRA's or other pensions/retirment savings schemes?

It seems like the reciprocal laws are in place but I can't find anyone who can do this. MY UK pension providers seem to be able to do this - but I can't find anyone in the US to take the money!!!!!



Thanx,



Doug

dunroving

There are some finance companies on the Britshexpats.com Homepage that supposedly deal with US/UK pensions. Try this one, for example: http://www.britpensions.com/

When I tried this (transferring a 401k from US to the UK, and then transferring a professional pension from UK to US), I was told the same thing both times - can't do it (b/c retirement tax laws are different in the UK and US).

Manc

Also look into a Roth IRA if your company doesn't offer the 401K.