UK Pension Transfers
Are you missing out?
Many changes have been made in UK pension legislation during recent years. Before you emigrated, if you worked in pensioned employment in UK since 1970, and you have a UK occupational or personal pension, then now is the time to review your arrangement.
If you are a member of a UK occupational scheme it is entirely possible that, instead of the real investment growth of your pension funds, they are only being credited with the lesser of 5% per annum or the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Typically CPI could have averaged as little as 2% over the last few years. Your former employer can legally keep any additional increase. For example, well-managed pension funds have historically increased by 8% to 12% per annum. In other words, you can quite legally be shortchanged.
You can overcome the problem by transferring the value of your pension arrangement to a UK-approved overseas pension under your personal control where you can enjoy 100% of its growth. Furthermore, by meeting certain criteria, expatriating your pension will enable you to escape from the UK tax and pension rules, such as the restrictive “lifetime allowance”, so that any unused pension assets can be left to your heirs free of UK inheritance tax.