moving my pension abroad

Hi I worked for 6 years and was paying a big pension through a company in Ireland. I then moved abroad to another job and i wanted to take the pension with me or to move it to the country that i now reside.

The company has informed me that i cant go near the money until i reach 65. I have contacted a lawyer here and he says that is breaking European law. I don't know what to do i don't want to just leave the pension sitting there.


Any help would be great as i have not a clue about these pensions.

What kind of pension was it ? Defined contribution, defined benefit, personal pension ?

It is certainly true that you probably can not touch it till you retire but you may be able to transfer it to another pension scheme - although whether this is in your best interest or not is a difficult question to answer without a lot more details.

Transfering to another country is possible, at least theoretically, but in practice I'd say it would probably a long and difficult route to undertake - notwithstanding European law

One problem might be you received tax relief on your contributions. The price of this tax relief is that your money will be locked away until retirement age.

However, other countries allow you to access your retirement fund early, therefore the revenue commissioners will not allow you to transfer your fund value unless the fund you are transferring to is similar to an Irish pension fund.

There should be brokers in the country you moved to who specialise in transferring large amounts into foreign pension plans. They would be most familiar with what can and cannot be done.

If you have to leave your money in Ireland you might consider a buy-out bond instead of leaving your money in the company pension scheme.

Hi Leedsman

if its a defined contribution scheme you can apply to the trustees to transfer the funds into a "similar" financial vehicle within the EU. The trustees must determine if they are satisfied that the new vehicle offers you a similar level of benefits as your current scheme. The new scheme should also have similar retirement age and protection from withdrawl of funds prior to your normal pension age. I'm a trustee for a multinational software company and this questions comes up regularly. We've researched it on the revenue's pensions handbook and and this is the best answer we could come up with. The issue now is for you to find a new vehicle in your new country that is similar enough to what you have now that the trustees can make a determination. If you are in the UK this might be straight forward. Anywhere else in the EU and you'll be hard pressed to find financial companies offering pension products close enough to ours. But there are a few coming online now

in addition leedsman, ask to speak to the Trustees of the pension scheme and not the idiots in the company HR department. Its a decision for them not the company you worked for. Your pension trust is a seperate legal entity. Find out who your trustees are and contact them. If still unhappy ask them for their dispute resolution procedure (they are suppose to have one per pension board guidelines) and file a grievance they must respond to you within specified timelines

Hi Leedsman,

As per TheFatMan, Occupational Pension Scheme benefits can be transferred overseas provided the following conditions are met:
· The transfer must be to the overseas equivalent of an Occupational Pension Scheme and the benefits provided are within the meaning of relevant benefits under section 770 (1) of the Taxes Consolidation act, 1997.
· The transfer can only take place if the rules of the overseas Scheme permit such a transfer – letter from Trustees required
· We also require confirmation that the Scheme has been approved by the relevant overseas Regulatory Authority – confirmation of Revenue Approval Number.
· Also that the trustees of the overseas Scheme are willing to accept the transfer.

This thread raises some interesting questions in relation to the 0.6% pension fund tax.

Thanks to dipole at www.thepropertypin.com for the reference.