PRSA and emplyoyer pension options

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shipship

Registered User
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Hi I currently have three pensions. My own PRSA, a company pension with an old employer, and a pension with a new employer.

I'm wondering if there's anything I can read up on about my options and the various positives and negatives for transferring.

Fees wise:
PRSA 1%
Old 1.25%
New 0.5%

So there would be an immediate fee advantage of moving everything into my new employer pension. But I'm concerned about the rules of cashing out of that.
I'd like to keep my options open in terms of accessing the pensions if I retire early.

Am I correct in thinking that I can't access my PRSA until 60'?
 
In a similar situation to the OP. I got a letter from my PRSA company that goes something like "you can access your PRSA from age 60, or 50 if you cease employment".
 
We just confirmed this specific point with a PRSA provider recently.

Whilst they were able to facilitate retirement from 50 it is clear that some providers take a different view.

Fortunately a provision of the PRSA regulations is that you are allowed to transfer a PRSA without penalty.

I looked at this question here

globalwealth.ie

Can I Access My Pension Early? - Everlake

Taking retirement benefits early is only suitable for a limited number of people and circumstances
globalwealth.ie globalwealth.ie
 
shipship said:
I'm not sure it's linked to anything? I set it up independently.
Click to expand...
Have you been paying into it at the same time as having an occupational pension with your employer, or was it when you weren't a member of a company pension scheme?
 
To draw down early (50+) from previous pensions pots - do you still need employer permission?
What if employer & related fund wound up and transferred to a PRSA?
 
There are two types of PRSA's. One is an employer PRSA and one is a personal PRSA.

The employer PRSA is the one provider under law by your employer. They do not have to contribute to it, just the facility to pay into it. Under that PRSA, you can access the value of the pension from age 50. If you had money in an occupational pension and transferred it to a PRSA, the source of the money is employer scheme money, so you can access it from age 50.

if you are self employed or in non pensionable employment and do not avail of the employer PRSA facility, you pay into a personal PRSA (btw, they aren't called employer or personal, you have to look at the source of the money). These pensions are accessed from age 60.

With the old employer benefits, the amc can be reduced by transferring to a buy out bond or to the new scheme. If he transfers it to the new scheme, it becomes part of the scheme and he can only access that money from age 50 if he leaves the pension scheme. He does not have to leave the employer, just the scheme. He would obviously forgo all future contributions, so it is better to transfer to a BOB. there is also the option to transfer to PRSA but a cert of completion has to be carried out (unless scheme is being wound up) which costs €1,230. Given that cost and the fact that PRSA's are expensive, you'd be mad to do that.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Thanks Steven for your answer above.
What if the PRSA has both funds from non-pensionable employment (approx 6m while I waited to join my employer scheme) AND a transfer in from an occupational scheme that was wound up (this is the bulk of the contributions, but happened after the PRSA was set up)? is it classed as an employer scheme (accessible from 50) or personal (accessible from 60)?

If classed as a personal scheme, would moving it into my current employer scheme change when I could access it?
 
If you pad into the PRSA that your employed made available to you, that is deemed an employer PRSA and access from age 50 is allowed.

What happens is that you are given a PRSA number with a number of different sub accounts, so the benefits are actually kept separate. So a personal PRSA will be in account 01/01 and and employer paid one will go into account 01/02. There are some slightly different rules applying to them, so they aren't mixed.

The marketing campaign of the PRSA being the one pension that you can bring everywhere is a fallacy. You can end up with loads of PRSA sub accounts which is just the same as having loads of different types of pensions. And they are much more expensive than the options available under personal pension and executive pensions.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
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