- February 12, 2015
- Posted by: Graeme Callaghan
- Categories: Investment, News, QROPS, Retirement
April Showers? Don’t Let Your Pension Get Rained On!
Research shows that Independent Financial Advisers (IFA) are seeing a large increase in the number of overseas residents seeking to transferring UK Pensions into a QROPS before the April 2015 deadline.
New rules coming into force this April will prevent those with pensions in unfunded public schemes, such as the military, police, NHS workers and teachers, from transferring their pension overseas. It means that anyone with savings in one of these schemes – known as defined benefit (DB) schemes – will find themselves at the mercy of exchange rates when it comes to how much they will receive from their pension.
Guidance published by the UK government suggests that after 6 April 2015, the authorities will ban the right of transferring UK Pensions into a QROPS. This is part of the new pensions regime being implemented by the Government.
Expat focussed IFAs are reporting a big increase in the volume of enquiries they are seeing with many expats rushing to complete transfers before the April deadline.
There are several benefits of transferring UK pensions into a QROPS scheme in Spain.
- Beneficiary options. Avoid 55% tax on death.
- Tax efficiency.
- Greater Investment choice.
- Options for the under 55’s.
- The potential to pay off your mortgage or credit card debts.
- Give your business a cash injection.
- Freedom of cash to do as you please.
With the transfer process usually taking several weeks to complete, we recommend clients who have public sector pension schemes not to delay in seeking specialist financial advice. Please contact us at QROPS@msn.com or call us on +34 698 243 745 for more information.
About GC QROPS
GC QROPS has been successfully assisting UK expats in Spain with transferring UK Pensions into a QROPS for 9 years since 2006. We are completely independent, and can advise on a wide variety of QROPS pension schemes – we are not tied to any single provider, which means that we will recommend the scheme which meets your exact requirements and needs.
