Transferring a UK pension to an Irish QROPS - what was your experience?

jeremyr62 said:
Anyway the company I have it with now is called ISIPP based in Sale, Greater Manchester. I just have it invested for now.
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How recently did you do this?

I have a bank account for the uk and this sounds appealing compare to transferring to Ireland , other posts above suggest you can’t do this unless resident in the uk though.
 
Cameo said:
I have a bank account for the uk and this sounds appealing compare to transferring to Ireland , other posts above suggest you can’t do this unless resident in the uk though.
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You can't transfer pensions to a regular SIPP anymore as a non-resident (like the ones offered by AJ Bells and the other usual suspects). But you can transfer to an International SIPP, which were created precisely for that purpose. Examples are MyExpat, Invinitive and iSIPP.

Only issue is: they tend to have much higher fees than regular SIPPs (although still lower or at least in the same ballpark as your typical Irish pension fund) and they tend to be somewhat unknown quantities. I tried to find information about them but there's not much out there. Which isn't necessarily an issue but make sure that you verify, at the very least, that they're properly registered with the appropriate regulator / financial authority (in whatever way it works in UK).
 
Cameo said:
How recently did you do this?
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It was this summer. The fund was with Utmost in the UK but all they could offer was take it all in cash which I didn't want to do. I didn't feel I had too many options so I was pretty happy to find ISIPP.
 
jeremyr62 said:
t was this summer. The fund was with Utmost in the UK but all they could offer was take it all in cash which I didn't want to do. I didn't feel I had too many options so I was pretty happy to find ISIPP.
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Thanks for the info.

Did you need an advisor too or did you just to directly with the company?

And did you take tax free cash too initially?
 
Cameo said:
Did you need an advisor too or did you just to directly with the company?

And did you take tax free cash too initially?
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No advisor but I did use ChatGPT to help. It suggested ISIPP.
I then went straight to ISIPP by email. They were a bit slow to respond but they always did eventually.
Coincidentally, my mother lives in Sale so in theory I could call in to their office, but in the event I never needed to.
I didn't take any cash. They gave me investment options, but they did seem limited to putting it with an outfit called James Brearley Investment Management who claim to have been around a long time. I suspect the fees will be steep as mentioned above, but still better than taking it all in cash. I haven't retired yet so I'm happy to keep it invested.
 
PandPs did you decide to proceed with one of the advisers that responded?
What charging structure did you go for?
 
I have a UK pension fund with ReAssure. I asked them about my options to draw it down, being resident in Ireland. They said Flexi-Access Drawdown (FAD) was not available for that pension and I needed to look on the open market for some provider. I assume that this means finding a QROPS provider and perhaps an adviser who's familiar with the process. I already have 2 advisers but I think neither is familiar with it. Has about £45k in it and is a result of SERPS outsourcing back in the 80s.
 
Just wondering if anyone has gone down QROPS route.
I have about £120k in an old UK scheme. I’m decades left the Uk and won’t be going back.

I would like to access it and use it to fund early retirement. I have AVCs and a DB scheme here I can’t access until I am 65 so I’d envisage needing it all. I would have little or no other income.
A financial advisor said I’d have to shift it to a QROPS and then draw on it,

Thoughts learned folks?
 
I'm in the process of transferring my UK personal pension to Ireland via QROPS. It's not what I wanted to do (because IMHO the pension regime here in Ireland stinks) but had no choice as I wasn't able to access my pension pot as a UK non-resident. Is there anything in particular you wanted to know about the process, Annieindublin?
 
Lotus Flower said:
I wasn't able to access my pension pot as a UK non-resident
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Do you mind me asking are there particular reasons for this? I have a modest sized UK pension and briefly considered moving it back, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle/cost. It hadn't even crossed my mind that i might not be able to access it as a non-resident......
 
neo123 said:
Do you mind me asking are there particular reasons for this? I have a modest sized UK pension and briefly considered moving it back, but decided it wasn't worth the hassle/cost. It hadn't even crossed my mind that i might not be able to access it as a non-resident.....
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Yes, it came as an unwelcome surprise to me too. In my case, my existing pension plan would have needed to be transferred into a new flexible drawdown plan so that, as the name suggests, I could flexibly draw it down. But my provider (Standard Life) cannot open new plans for non-UK residents. You might be fortunate and have a plan that facilitates drawdown without having to move it to a new drawdown plan or be with a provider that can open new plans for non-UK residents. All they (SL) could offer me was the option of taking it all at once or moving it elsewhere, hence QROPS...
 
Annieindublin said:
did you use a financial advisor? And if so how much did they charge? Is it something you could do yourself and how long does it take?
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I am using a financial adviser. I spoke to lots of them and did consider doing it myself but decided to leave something as important as this to someone with experience. Having said that, and having seen the paperwork involved (most of which I completed myself anyway), I think you could do it yourself - that is if your provider(s) don't insist on only dealing with an FA.
I was lucky enough to find an FA very local to me who was actually in the process of doing a QROPS transfer for another client from and to the same providers as me. The FA's one-off fee will be equal to the AMC of the fund(s) I'm moving to. No ongoing fees.
I don't yet know how long this is going to take - I've been advised anything between 2 and 6 months.
Hope this helps.
 
We have 2 different providers and one has said we need to use a FA, the other has to get back to us. But I think it’s too complex and too important.

I think I’d rather hand it over.

Can’t wait for the paperwork…
 
We’ve been quoted fees of 1.5% (on approx 150k) to transfer Uk pension funds to Qrops here.

I have no idea if that is good or bad
 
Why don't you juat transfer to a uk ISIPP? You can draw down money and get it paid to any bank account you want, draw down 25% tax free.

Maybe i am missing something but i cant see why anyone would transfer to an irish qrops, costly to do and costly fees here.
 
After a bit more digging and considering our current plans it looks like an isipp is our best bet.

Now to choose one… not sure there are that many differences between them.
 
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