Moving Abroad - Money Help (Ireland)

Camping

Hi all.

I am moving to Ireland (Republic) to retire and live with family. I'm lucky enough that I am in a position where I won't be buying a property and I won't be working. My question is about the best way to arrange/manage my finances - has anyone spoken to a really good financial adviser or gotten advice from somewhere that was really useful?

I have savings (ISA and savings account) and will have money from the sale of my property. I will need this money to live on, but not all at once, so it could be transferred in one go or annually etc. I will be due to start receiving my state pension in a few years too. I have spoken to a financial advisor but they weren't really much help beyond being able to tell me that there are different taxes and restrictions in Ireland. I'm still left with a lot of questions, for example:

• Am I better to leave some savings in UK accounts? Can I do this?
• What's the most cost effective way to transfer money?
• Am I better to gift inheritance to my children now?
• Do I need to do anything about my state pension? 

There must be a lot of people who have done what I am doing or similar but I'm finding it difficult to get information on the best way forward. I don't mind paying for someone to advise me, I'm just struggling to find someone who seems to know the answers.

When moving abroad has anyone spoken to a really good financial adviser or gotten advice from somewhere that was really useful? 

Thanks in advance.

user1977

We mainly have knowledge about UK things here. I'm sure some will be able to help, but you're probably better looking for Irish-based advice.

Camping

Hi @user1977,

I know this is a UK forum but ideally I want to get advice from someone/somewhere who has knowledge of both the UK and Ireland, so thought I'd check here to see if someone has experience of a company/service that helped them.

mjdh1957

I moved to Ireland several years ago. The nearest equivalent forum to this is www.askaboutmoney.com which I've found really interesting to read.

Any ISAs you have will be taxable in Ireland once you are tax resident here. I liquidated almost everything in the UK and transferred it over to the Republic, leaving only a pension fund that it seemed to me to be not worth moving to an Irish provider. I use Wise to transfer things over (I have UK pension income so transfer that every month).

I didn't use a financial adviser as I was aware of enough things to make it easy for me to do myself. For basic guidance I have used www.citizensinformation.ie

I will also say that at every stage I found the Irish state organisations very easy to deal with and there were no major issued for me when I moved.

mjdh1957

• Am I better to leave some savings in UK accounts? Can I do this?

I didn't because once I made the decision to move it made sense to transfer everything over. Some UK banks apparently are not keen on having overseas customers. I have retained a UK current account with the Halifax as I get my pension income paid into that. They seem OK with my Irish address.

• What's the most cost effective way to transfer money?

I use Wise www.wise.com

• Am I better to gift inheritance to my children now?

Almost certainly not. 

• Do I need to do anything about my state pension? 

Your state pension can be paid into an overseas bank apparently, and in Euro. Mine is coming later this year so I presume they will contact me when the time comes to make the arrangements.