South African Investment

Donald229

I invested my pension through my bank 10 years ago while living in South Africa. I now reside back here in UK but can't get my hands on my SA money because one third can be paid out (Into a SA bank account) and two thirds has to go towards a retirement annuity.
a) My SA bank account was closed as I hadn't used it for so long, so there is nowhere to pay the money into.
b) I cannot arrange a pension plan in SA as I no longer live there. Why would I need a pension in another country anyway?

I have no idea what my tax reference number is and I am not, by SA law, allowed to have a power of attorney.

Can ANYONE offer advice. My bank here, Lloyds, have no idea what to do and my SA bank say I can only open another account if I live there. I really need to get hold of that money.... it's supposed to pay for my wedding. :eek:

flossy_splodge

Donald229 wrote: »

I invested my pension through my bank 10 years ago while living in South Africa. I now reside back here in UK but can't get my hands on my SA money because one third can be paid out (Into a SA bank account) and two thirds has to go towards a retirement annuity.
a) My SA bank account was closed as I hadn't used it for so long, so there is nowhere to pay the money into.
b) I cannot arrange a pension plan in SA as I no longer live there. Why would I need a pension in another country anyway?

I have no idea what my tax reference number is and I am not, by SA law, allowed to have a power of attorney.

Can ANYONE offer advice. My bank here, Lloyds, have no idea what to do and my SA bank say I can only open another account if I live there. I really need to get hold of that money.... it's supposed to pay for my wedding. :eek:

No ideas to offer but wishing you the best of luck.:o

crawfordscott

Is there not an "online bank" in South Africa like first direct? Were you would not need to go in to a branch to open it? And do you have family/Friends out there you can use as the home address?

I may be talking rubbish here

Jennifer_Jane

Don't know if I can really help you very much, but I have been through this myself (although I hadn't closed my bank account and am a taxpayer). My situation was that I was living here when my retirement annuities matured and had a lot of trouble to get the pension paid to me in England. But the income is now being paid annually to me. PM me if you prefer to be more private.

Which was the bank you were with?

I am confused about your investing your pension through the Bank. Could you explain this a little more? Are you now of pensionable age and wanting to take your pension, or rather move the pension money back to UK pension scheme? How old are you?

A personal pension/retirement annuity, especially in South Africa where the state pension is tiny, is how most pensioners manage to live. For a number of reasons it is protected money, and continues to be so, hence the difficulty in getting it out.

sandsy

Which bank is your pension with in SA? (Nedbank, Absa, Standard etc?) Is it a preservation pension fund that you've got or some sort of retirement annuity policy? What was the retirement age on the original contract? You won't be able to touch the money until the retirement age.

You need to ask a bank to open a non-resident bank account for you in SA. The lump sum can be paid into the bank account as can the annuity payments once they start. Did you formally emigrate from SA? Are you subject to exchange controls? The maximum amounts that can be taken out of SA were increased in the last budget so it's probable that you'd be able to transfer funds in SA back out to the UK now once they're in a bank account there.

Jennifer_Jane

Sandsy - further to your PM and my reply:

If I remember, I was in Cape Town so made an appt via my Branch (FNB) to go to the Cape Town non-res bit of the bank (FNB), and got a form from them (IIRC to prove I was non-res) which I then took to the Tax Office to request a tax directive. I think I took the policy documents with me - it was some years ago unfortunately and I don't think I have the documents any more.

I had to be all square with the Tax people before they would let me have the tax directive, and my info was on line and hunky dory (although they did quibble some things). Then back to the Customer Services bit of the Bank with the tax directive. Now I e-mail FNB Non Res in Jhb when the money comes into my account to ask them to send it over to my UK Bank.

So, you still have the pension income coming in as if you were in South Africa, you still need to keep your SA bank going, but as a Non-Res; and a Tax relationship with SARS (although I purposely receive an income below the SA tax threshold), and I tell them how much to send over to my UK bank, and leave enough money for bank charges (which are far less as VAT is credited back).

Previously to that, I was just getting the money coming into my bank account and going over and getting it sent back under the scheme you were talking about (R1.5m emigration allowance, I think, it's what you were talking about). Now I no longer need to go over, it's all done by e-mail. So yes, your bank account can be dealt with online.

Nevertheless, it's a pension so you still have to make the annuity choice or the Living Annuity choice. I am planning to convert to the annuity option once markets are booming again.... LOL.

I would think the OP needs to contact the Non-Res dept of his old bank with the hope that they can resurrect his account and put him into Non-Res status.

Hope this helps. There may indeed be a cleverer way to get Pension money from South Africa to the UK. I certainly found everything difficult and frustrating, and was given terrible information by the Bank, and would be inclined to contact the Non-Res bank people first.