Damned if you save for a pension and damned if they don’t

The trouble with pensions is savers seemed damned if they put money in for their retirement, and damned if they don’t bother.

About 66% of private sector employees do not put money in to a company pension, according to the latest research for 2009 from the Office of National Statistics.

This contrasts with 80% of workers in the public sector.

This is no real surprise as another big company hits the headlines with pension problems. This time, it’s the turn of doctor and dentist reception favourite Reader’s Digest. The company has entered administration with a £125 million pension deficit - and about 1,000 pensioners are worrying about whether the company will continue funding their payments.

The basic thread running through pension news is that anyone saving in to a company pension cannot ever have 100% certainty that the pension will pay out in full.

No matter how good the defined benefits, how reliable the employer may seem or how much money is laid away, there’s no guarantee that the investor will see their hard earned cash during their retirement.

If the investor retires to the UK, they are really at the mercy of the employer and their integrity about funding the scheme.

Expats have options. They can leave their pension arrangements as they are and take the calculated risk that the pension will continue to pay or they can transfer the fund in to an offshore pension called a QROPS.

Without delving too deep in to the jargon, a QROPS pension is an arrangement for an offshore provider to look after retirement investments under special rules laid down by HM Revenue and Customs.

The benefit of a QROPS is the investor rather than a company or employer controls any retirement fund. In many cases, a company scheme may pay better benefits than a QROPS - but that’s only if the company paying them is still around and willing and able to make the payments when they are due.

QROPS Adviser has a reputation as the leading QROPS experts with a proven record of successful QROPS pension transfers.

The firm will benchmark current pension performance and future benefits for comparison against a QROPS and give independent, reliable and unbiased recommendations on whether to transfer.