Anybody heard of Minerva Trust

tony.673

I have been trawling the net looking for loopholes in the private pensions market and hoping to get at my pension fund to finace my Spanish property refurb prior to my retirement in 2 years. In the course of my search I have come across Minerva Trust who claim to be able to transfer my pension out of UK and thus release funds.

This all sounds like the old adage 'If it's sounds too good to true, it probably is'. Has anybody heard of this organisation or had dealings with them. ie, should I stay clear?

Tony

Aegis

tony.673 wrote: »

I have been trawling the net looking for loopholes in the private pensions market and hoping to get at my pension fund to finace my Spanish property refurb prior to my retirement in 2 years. In the course of my search I have come across Minerva Trust who claim to be able to transfer my pension out of UK and thus release funds.

This all sounds like the old adage 'If it's sounds too good to true, it probably is'. Has anybody heard of this organisation or had dealings with them. ie, should I stay clear?

Tony

Short version: if someone's offering to unlock your pension before legitimate retirement age, it's almost guaranteed to be a scam of some sort.

dunstonh

I have been trawling the net looking for loopholes in the private pensions market and hoping to get at my pension fund to finace my Spanish property refurb prior to my retirement in 2 years.

Anyone using the word loophole really means that they are looking to commit fraud or tax evasion.

There are plenty of companies on the net, most of whom are overseas, non regulated companies, who will tell you all sorts of rubbish to get you to transfer your pension into their scheme (or usually a referred company). By the time you end up with your lump sum, they have taken a large percentage themselves, you end up invested in their pension which has massive charges and erodes the value quickly and then about 2-3 years later HMRC come after you for a 55% tax bill on the full pension value for taking an unauthorised payment.

tony.673

Thanks guys.
It looks like my suspicions were probably correct. I will steer clear and wait a couple of years.

Tony

Iancfp

This is probably the only working way to break open UK pensions

Yes its expensive
Yes HMRC dont like it
but it works and has 2 QCs opinions to confirm it works

The actual guy who invented the legal process only works with 1 firm of trustees so a couple of other companies have got hold of the documents and tried to copy - one of them is a total disaster and will end up with all their clients in hot water with HMRC.

Some packagers of the solution also add high fees so you need to take care

So if you not afraid of annoying HMRC and want to break your funds out of UK pension rules if you take the correct advice it is possible

Certainly avoid all the loan based pension busting that is currently all over the net and about to get a major crackdown from regulators.

Note I am Chartered Finacial Planner and award winning Independent Financial Adviser but I can only give advice to clients who have given me their financial details. Any comments given in open forum and my own thoughts and are designed merely to assist and do not constitute advice