transferring a pension abroad - how easy?

bridiej · 15 August 2005 at 9:59AM

We're hopefully emigrating to Australia shortly and want to take our personal pension schemes with us. We've both stopped paying into them from this month.

Does anyone know what we need to ask the companies for? And whether it is straightforward to do this transfer ourselves?

Thanks

EdInvestor · 16 August 2005 at 9:26AM

I think you'll have to wait until you get there, bridie.

THe basics of a transfer are simple : you just tell the current provider to move the money to an approved similar scheme in Australia.

However you won't know what's on offer till you get there, so you can;t yet tell the UK company where to send the money.

The thing to go for in Australia are the "industry funds" - these are very large pension funds run jointly on a not-for-profit basis by company managements and trade unions in each business sector.They have good performance and very low charges

Rather like the universities superannuation scheme here.

Beware of financial planners (IFAs) suggesting something different with high charges.

You'll probably be able to find out more about these funds when you get jobs, so best to wait until then.

bridiej · 17 August 2005 at 12:25PM

Thanks everso much!

I'll be self employed but will be sorting myself with an accoutant ASAP so I'm sure will be able to find out best funds.

transferring a pension abroad - how easy?

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