FROZEN PENSIONS ANYWHERE?

Most people change jobs at least once within their lifetime. Jobs for life are few and far between nowadays, so very few people work for 40 years with the same company, in the same pension scheme, so that they retire on two-third of their final salary.

Not all companies have pension schemes, so if your employer doesn’t have one, then you need to make private retirement provision – in other words, you’ll have to look after yourself in retirement.

If you ever worked for a company in the UK -- or any other country that had a company pension scheme -- or if you used to pay into a personal pension scheme in the UK, then you have already made some retirement plans and you need to make sure that they are doing the best that they can for your future prosperity.

All of these “frozen” pensions (still invested, but rarely reviewed) can now be consolidated into one plan and transferred into a special tax efficient product that allows you to access up to 30% of the capital once you have been out of the UK for more than five years and are over 50 years of age.

Once transferred, the funds are then not subject to UK income tax, there is no requirement to buy an annuity and the fund does not die when you die. You can pass the full benefits of the fund to your surviving spouse, partner and children or grandchildren -- not 50% pension to your spouse on your death, but the same income that you were getting. Also, the income can still carry on being paid to your children and their children.

There is no UK Inheritance Tax to pay on the fund either.
Personal pensions, occupational pensions, final salary pensions, money purchase pensions, Civil Service and Armed Forces pensions, Section 32 and 226 pensions, protected rights pensions -- all of these can normally be transferred to a QROPS and thus take advantage of tax efficiency and more flexible investment choices.

If you have pensions frozen in the UK or any other country, to find out how you could personally benefit from such a plan, call Pauline Bowden now on 95 289 0383.

The Spectrum IFA Group.
Baskerville Advisers S.L.
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