Retirement Planning for UK Nationals

From April 2006, the rules and regulations for registered UK Pensions were completely overhauled and significantly simplified. Prior to this, the system was confusing and extremely complicated with the majority of people having no real idea about what they would be entitled to in retirement or even how and when they could access cash.

Thankfully there is now a uniformed set of rules for all UK based pensions but there are still many legacy issues that can affect your entitlement to benefits from a UK registered scheme. One of the attractions of a UK pension is that if you are resident for tax purposes in the UK then you receive tax relief on contributions which you make, provided this is no more than 100% of your UK relevant earnings and even if you are not earning any employment income, you can still make a gross contribution of up to 3,600 Pounds and receive tax relief at 20%.

There are restrictions on how and when you access income from all UK registered schemes and for expatriates who are non resident for tax purposes there is no real benefit in contributing to a UK based scheme because there is no tax relief and restrictions on how and when you can access any cash.

Advantages of QROPS (Qualifying Recognized Overseas Pension Schemes)

If you are planning to retire outside of the United Kingdom and you have build up entitlements through any registered UK pension schemes then it may be worth looking at a QROPS. Some of the potential advantages are:-

• You can transfer all or part of your UK entitlements less any state benefits and you can receive your income gross. This still may be taxable in your country of residence.
• You can control the investment content and have more control over how and when you take income.
• You will not be required to pay inheritance tax on any unused part of the fund when passing assets or cash on to children, grandchildren or other beneficiaries. This can be a saving of up to 35%.
• You will never be required to purchase an annuity. Currently rates are at an all time low.

You may find it helpful to take a close look at our section for UK Nationals where you will find a series of useful articles as well as some online analysis forms which you can complete but please also contact us today to find out if a QROPS would be suitable for you and your family. For more information on QROPS and how to draw UK pension benefits overseas please click here (link to article 28-drawing uk pension benefits overseas)

Offshore Retirement Plans

The most commonly used method for expatriates to build up a suitable retirement fund is via the use of Insurance based Unit Linked Retirement Plans. Contributions can be made by regular contributions, lump sums or both.

There is usually a high degree of flexibility and tax efficiency with these plans and after an initial contribution period, you can normally access cash if you need it or stop or reduce contributions.

Some of the most common features are:-

• Online access to valuations 24 hours every day.
• Facility to stop or reduce contributions.
• Access to a wide range of risk rated investment funds including cash deposit, bonds, managed investment funds and specialised funds such as gold, energy, China, India etc.
• Portability. You can continue to contribute if you move to a new country or even back to the United Kingdom.
• Facility to access cash should you need it.
• Regular income facility which can be useful for retirement income or paying for private education fees.

To find out more, please contact us today. You may find it helpful to complete our online retirement analysis or our online retirement plan quote which you can click to directly from the bottom of this page.

UK Pension Consolidation

For many UK Nationals, particularly those who have lived and worked in several different countries, it is commonplace to have several different UK pensions and little or no control over how these are invested or likely to perform in the future.

We have helped many clients to take control of their UK Pension Funds and in many instances we can consolidate several stranded or frozen funds into one single fund which can be invested and monitored as part of our regular review with our clients putting control firmly back where it belongs.

If you have at least one UK pension fund and you would like to assess your options then please contact us today. We will only recommend transferring out of your current funds if it is clearly in your best interests and we will obtain all of the relevant information from your current pension providers before recommending any action.

Put us to the test and contact us today

You may find it helpful to complete our online Retirement Analysis which you can go to by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page. This is designed to provide some important feedback for you on the basic steps that you may wish to take so that you can begin to implement your Retirement Plan without any cost or obligation.

We look forward to being of service so please feel free to let us help you by either clicking on the link to our Online Retirement Analysis below or if you would like to see how much you would need to save as a lump sum, a regular contribution or both to meet your target then click below for our Online Retirement Plan Quote.

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