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Boosting An Expat Pension With A QROPS

February 23, 2010

QROPS pensions not only provide rich pickings for the wealthy, but also improve the fortunes of investors with smaller pension funds.

A QROPs, is a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme, which is a pension designed for to make managing and accessing a pension easier for expats and international workers with UK pension rights.

The choice of schemes is huge - with almost 1,500 QROPS schemes across 40 countries on the HM Revenue and Customs list.

Because QROPS pensions do not have to be opened in the same place where the investor lives, a number of financial centres with British ties are popular like the Isle of Man, Guernsey and New Zealand. New schemes are set to open in Malta and Gibraltar.

QROPS pension transfers give pension benefits to investors from day one, including:

  • Flexible investment options in major currencies, commodities, funds and markets that are unavailable to a UK pension investor. QROPS can also be self-managed like a SIPP or SaSS.
  • Pension benefits paid gross in a currency of choice, that lets the investor live in a low income tax country with pension payments hedged against currency exchange rate fluctuation.
  • No need to buy an annuity or alternatively secured pension (ASP) that lets the investor pass their pension savings on to family and loved ones instead of handing their wealth to an annuity firm on their death

Just like a pension transfer in the UK, switching funds from an onshore pension to a QROPS may not suit everyone.

This is not a problem with a QROPS scheme but simply a financial decision because the transfer value calculated by the transferring pension provider and the costs involved in the switch may mean the fund will perform no better than where it is now.

Any adviser will also need to check that any pension transfer does not reduce or eliminate any enhanced retirement benefits.

QROPS Adviser handles hundreds of QROPS transfers every month and has a first class international reputation as a financial firm with a track record of completing successful switches from UK pensions to QROPS.

With a network of professional consultants, QROPS Adviser can put together the right QROPS package to suit individual financial circumstances.

To find out more about how a QROPS pension can boost your pension contact QROPS Adviser