US/UK pensions advice please

EJGNYC

HI,

Being a dual citizen (US/UK) living now in the UK, it is very difficult to open up a pension at 40. Nobody seems to be able to offer me advice as to how a pension would work for me going forward. As soon as I mention I am dual citizen, its a no from them!

I file taxes every year in both countries and have frozen pensions in the UK from pre 2010 and I have a current 401K in US just sitting there. I have been told I cannot add to either and would need to start another one up - but how when nobody will offer advice on which one.

Any advice would be great here as I am becoming a little worried about my retirement future

thanks

dunstonh

Being a dual citizen (US/UK) living now in the UK, it is very difficult to open up a pension at 40. Nobody seems to be able to offer me advice as to how a pension would work for me going forward. As soon as I mention I am dual citizen, its a no from them!

The problem is being a US citizen. You have the right to use US courts and PI insurers will often not offer coverage for giving advice to US citizens. There are firms that will do it but your options are more limited.

Plus, since FATCA, a lot of providers will not offer investment services to US citizens.

EdSwippet

EJGNYC wrote: »

Being a dual citizen (US/UK) living now in the UK, it is very difficult to open up a pension at 40. Nobody seems to be able to offer me advice as to how a pension would work for me going forward. As soon as I mention I am dual citizen, its a no from them!

Discussed recently in this thread (link). Unfortunately, no easy solution emerged.

You could try complaining vociferously to both your US congresscritter and your UK MP. In my experience though, the only outcome will be an initial sense of catharsis followed a week or two later by seething anger when you receive their replies, which will be obvious boilerplate that amount in essence to some variation of "drop dead."

bostonerimus

Your best bet is to use a UK workplace pension. If you have a US based ROTH and earned income on your 1040 you might be able to add to that and if you have a US account with Vanguard they will let you invest in a regular account and you can buy Vanguard ETFs to avoid HMRC reporting funds issues. If you have other US accounts check with them too. Failing those you can look at one of the specialist international companies like these guys.

http://iwm.eu.com

FYI I have no idea how good or bad they are, but the guy that runs the company is very knowledgeable.

EdSwippet

EJGNYC wrote: »

I file taxes every year in both countries and have frozen pensions in the UK from pre 2010 and I have a current 401K in US just sitting there. I have been told I cannot add to either and would need to start another one up - but how when nobody will offer advice on which one.

... and I just remembered that Interactive Brokers offer IRAs to "US citizens living anywhere in the world" (except Canada!). The IRA annual contribution limits are stingy by UK standards. And the US has (of course) a heap of silly and fiddly rules around IRAs that can trip you up. You might find that your contributions are not tax-deductible if you earn 'too much', or are severely limited if married to a non-US person and so more or less corralled into filing US tax as 'married filing separately', and so on. Still, if this is the only option then perhaps better than nothing.

If it is available to you, a Roth IRA might be something to look into. This is protected from UK tax under the US/UK tax treaty (asymmetrically, and annoyingly, UK ISAs are not protected from US tax under the treaty).

The US makes things as difficult as possible for people who choose to leave the plantation.

EJGNYC

Thanks all, I appreciate the help and the words of wisdom.
It is kind of what I was thinking would be the scenario, but will certainly try the website company.

My other main issue is that I am self employed (LTD company) so a workplace pension is not going to be an option.

regards
E

dunstonh

My other main issue is that I am self employed (LTD company) so a workplace pension is not going to be an option.

You are not self employed.

xylophone

I am self employed (LTD company)

Are you actually employed by your company?

xylophone

Can your UK resident limited company set up a pension for its employee?

Examples

https://www.aviva.co.uk/business/workplace-pensions/company-pension/?source=WORPENGG&entry=143888&cmp=ppc-wpp-gen-goo-WORPENGG&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIncPAv5G43gIVz73tCh1KBA57EAAYAiAAEgI-jPD_BwE

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=nest+set+up+pension+employer&oq=nest+set+up+pension+employer&aqs=chrome..69i57.11521j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

marlot

EJGNYC wrote: »

...My other main issue is that I am self employed (LTD company)...

You're normally one or the other.


I suspect you mean that you're an employee of your own Ltd company.

EdSwippet

EJGNYC wrote: »

... but will certainly try the website company.

Interactive Brokers also offer SIPPs to "all UK residents between the ages of 18 and 75".

It isn't clear, at least from the outside, whether UK resident US citizens are excluded, or not. And some of the information on this page is clearly out of date (the £235,000 limit on annual contributions, for example!). But probably worth asking them about this as well as IRAs, anyway.