QROPS Fees

[YorkshireTyke]

Hello All

 

I've recently received an updated Transfer Value of my company pension which has increased around 15% in 10 months and is over 18 times my pension. I do have a final salary scheme which is adequate for me but with this TV figure being high and 8 years before I reach 65 and my company pension scheme is massively underfunded so I am looking at QROPS options. I have 3 companies scheduled to see me in the coming week. After receiving info from one and a telephone conversation the fees will be around 4,000 GBP per year and after 10 years around 10% of my 'pot'. This seems excessive to me, any investors out there who can advise me ?

 

I don't dabble in the stock market, for the last 10 years I have put my cash into offshore fixed term bonds which have paid me a good return in the past but new ones are down to around 1% now so I have no experience of paying fees.

[Rimmer]

Moved to Home Country Forum 

[rak sa_ngop]

Another option (especially for a smaller UK pension) maybe to transfer to a SIPP and then do a yearly drawdown using your UK tax relief threshold.

 

But there a downsides to this as well.

 

I see that you have meetings set up already, but if you want to discuss with a UK-based financial advice company that has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore and deals with high-worth individuals (as well as low-worth ones like me) and are pension experts, PM me for details.

 

 

[Oxx]

The fees are extortionate.

 

An IFA should be able to set up a QROPS and arrange the transfer in of 3 pensions for around GBP 2,500.  Note that because you're transferring a final salary scheme any genuine IFA will be extremely reluctant and should initially say "no".  You'll then need to ask to be deemed an "insistent client".

 

The cost of running a QROPS should be around GBP 1,000/year - that's fixed, with no extra percentage of assets charged.

 

If you want the IFA to manage your investments (which is really not a good idea) you should pay around 0.5% of assets under management/year.

 

All the above figures are based upon my personal experience.

[Oxx]

Are you contemplating the financial adviser investing for you? This really isn't a good idea for a couple of reasons:

 

(1) UK financial advisers typically work with standard asset allocation models which they apply across client groups according to client objectives and risk appetite.  They don't have models suitable for expats intending to retire abroad.  Asset allocation should be tilted towards the domestic economy and currency/currencies of the region where the expat will retire.  A couple of years ago I worked to sort out the investments of a British expat living in Thailand who'd placed her money and trust with a large, well known (and expensive) UK IFA.  The asset allocation simply didn't take into account in any way her residence, and was invested primarily in the UK, with some exposure to the US and Canada - utterly generic and only appropriate for UK residents in my opinion.

 

(2) Assuming you're in Thailand, the people visiting you are NOT IFAs (which is a UK-specific term).  They are simply calling themselves financial advisers, and they may or may not be licensed in Thailand.  However, even licensed ones can be extremely dodgy and/or criminal.  There are plenty of examples of such financial advisers making terrible investments on behalf of their clients, some of which have been discussed in these forums.

 

(3) Even if you are getting someone else to make the investment decisions for you, you need to have a good understanding of the investments to make sure that you understand the risks and that the investments are appropriate to your personal situation.  In my opinion, once you have that level of knowledge you can make the investment decisions yourself and safe the advisory fees.

 

(4) Even if you don't want to build up a lot of investment knowledge, you could still make the investment decisions yourself.  If I were looking for a low charge, one stop solution I'd probably put all the money in Vanguard LifeStrategy 60, or the slightly higher risk LifeStrategy 80.

 

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F00000MLUO

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F00000MLUQ

 

This doesn't tilt your investments towards Thailand.  To do that you could, for example, add a SET50 ETF.  You could also add more diversification by buying a Thailand property fund (e.g. TMBPIPF).

 

 

 

[YorkshireTyke]

Thanks Oxx.

 

In the past I have been happy to wait for my final salary pension, however, my company pension scheme is one of the most underfunded in the UK, underfunded by approx 30% of the company share value according to the Telegraph late last year. I am 56 so I have 9 years to go before I can claim a full pension so a lot could happen to the pension fund in that time plus it would mean I have the pension 'pot' to invest for 9 years to grow it even further plus it won't die when I do. However I don't want to give away 40k GBP in fees over 10 years !

 

I also have a lump sum to invest and this advisor suggested 4 places to invest it and one was Vanguard Life Strategies 60/40 although only 10% of it. Also Fund Smith 10% (I actually like this one), GAM Star Balanced 10% and the balance in Morgan Stanley Quarterly Income Notes which I don't like because of the risk in the final quarter.

[Oxx]

Just a few observations:

 

(1) Is the adviser really recommending 70% in "Morgan Stanley Quarterly Income Notes"?  That seems ridiculously undiversified to me.

 

(2) What are "Morgan Stanley Quarterly Income Notes"? I can't find any reference to them anywhere, including Morgan Stanley's own website.  My guess is that they're a structured product, in which case AVOID! Such products are designed to enrich the issuer and leave the purchaser with risks he will not understand.

 

(3) Morgan Stanley, US company.  Has the adviser checked on the US withholding tax situation? No point in paying 15%-30% tax on income.

 

(4) I presume by Fundsmith you mean the UK equity fund, not the newer international investment trust.  Terry Smith is clearly a very competent stock picker.  However, the fund's enormous popularity may well cause problems of scale.  In other words, he'll only be able to buy large- and megacap stocks.  Personally I wouldn't invest in it.  Incidentally, there's also a Luxembourg feeder fund which may give you a tax advantage.

 

(5) GAM Star Balanced? One has to ask "why?"  Morningstar rates it 1 -star.  Last year it underperformed its benchmark by over 18%.  It's returned a meagre 3.9% annualised over 3 years.  The fund's ongoing charge is an eye-watering 3.2%/year*.  All figures from http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/funds/snapshot/snapshot.aspx?id=F00000P07W

 

(6) The GAM fund is in the Mixed Investment 40-85% shares sector, as is Vanguard Lifestrategy 60.  See attachment for comparison of performance.  I'll leave it up to you to guess which one's which.

 

(7) The MSQINs are presumably to provide income.  As a UK expat living in Thailand there is no capital gains tax, either UK or Thai.  You can just as conveniently sell a portion of your investments regularly to create any needed income.  No need to go for income-generating investments.  (And, generally speaking, the demand for income over recent years thanks to US and others' economic mismanagement has pushed up the price of income generating assets to silly prices.)

 

* Certain wrap accounts can reduce this amount.  Transact has this fund at 1.28% - still unacceptably high in my opinion.

[partington]

I agree with above. A 3.2% management charge is obscene and will destroy your returns. This means just to equal a simple 40% bond/60% share combination of two low charge tracker funds (for example a Vanguard bond and share tracker at around 0.1% each) this managed fund has to do 3.2% better than the stock/ bond market. 

 

However statistics show that 80-90% of any managed funds in any year actually fail to  even equal, never mind beat, simple trackers. If taken over a period of five years or so the few managed funds that do better than the stock market in one year show no correlation with ones that beat it in the following year, ie it's luck.  (See all those experiments where famous pundits' stock picks are compared to tossing a coin to pick stocks, and inevitably do worse).

 

The only statistically significant correlation between return on investment and any fund variable over any length of time is with fund charges. Low fund charges (index trackers) produce higher yields than all but a few managed funds year on year.

Edited February 12, 2017 by partington

[al007]

Yorkshire Tyke

 

Please be very careful, yes very careful, there are many financial advisers who will rip you off, and even more who are incompetent, who I would not trust the housekeeping budget to.

 

I am but a very simple retired chartered accountant, who has a QROPS, and there will be changes this coming April to how this works

 

Your scenario sounds perfect for the unscrupulous scammer fear fear and more fear re the unfunded element of your pension scheme, but it may in reality not be so bad, does your existing scheme pay cost of living increases, what about widows benefits, and the transfer value depending on who might calculate it and the base assumptions could vary by 100%

 

Do not go from the frying pan to the fire

 

I only help people I choose to; and  neither earn nor want anything for my advice, my suggestion is PM me and I will give you my tel number and you can call me

 

I was also a trustee of several large pension funds many years ago

 

What ever you do be very careful, and until you are very sure DO NOTHING

[al007]

I started a new thread a few hours ago about rip off merchants, you may find it interesting to read it, click on the Boiler Room Scammers below, and it will take you to my original post

 

 

BE CAREFUL

 

 

 

 

[evadgib]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/qrops-online-service-closing-in-april-2017

[Loiner]

Sorry I can't offer advice what to do with your pension and savings, but I can advise you what NOT to do: 

Do not under any circumstances take advice from an overseas based IFA. Do not invest anything while you are in Thailand under the advice of one of the locally based financial conmen.
These are not the boiler room gangs, but the financial parasites advertising QROPS services for expats or schmoozing around expat networking events. Don't believe the glossy brochures and claims of being regulated in Hong Kong, Australia or wherever.  They are all unlicenced and unregulated here and acting illegally because the SEC won't licence them. (See the SEC warning list) These commission grabbing shysters are only interested in getting your money into their fee paying funds. As noted by posters above, the fees in the funds are often excessive and only benefit the salesmen and fund managers, while draining your investment.

Just look around the various Thailand or International forums and news sources about LM Investment Management Ltd. That fund was pushed by many IFAs, who did very well out of it. Not so for the expat investors - they all lost their pensions and life savings. The losses do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong, UK, Thailand or Australia and nobody really cares. There are plenty of these scams around.

Since the change in pension rules last year there are many more sharks circling the QROPS pots of the unsuspecting, especially if they can smell the possibility of an offshore deal. Even so, the only advice I could give would be for any investment to be done IN the UK and under the regulation of the FCA, where you may have the security of a regulatory and legal system behind you if it all goes wrong. Still have to do your own due diligence first though and be very careful.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Loiner

[YorkshireTyke]

Oxx, you obviously have knowledge of the stock market and where to look and how to analyse stocks/funds/investments which a lot of us mere mortals don't have. Do you work in the industry or just take an interest for your own benefit ? The info on the GAM Star Balanced fund is an eye opener. When the 'FA' comes back to me I will ask him why he recommended that one. And no, he won't be getting any of my hard earned !

[Oxx]

5 hours ago, Loiner said:

Even so, the only advice I could give would be for any investment to be done IN the UK and under the regulation of the FCA, where you may have the security of a regulatory and legal system behind you if it all goes wrong.

 

I think this may be poorly worded.  The financial advice would best be provided from the UK, but any actual investment would be done elsewhere (and the money would never touch the hands of the IFA).

 

What that mean for me in practice was the I took financial advice from an IFA in London.  The IFA arranged for a Guernsey QROPS provider to open a UK-based wrap account for my investments in its name.  I then sent the money to the QROPS provider's bank account in Guernsey, and they then transferred it to the wrap account.

 

I suspect things these days are a bit more complex.

 

A few points:

 

(1) In those days it was acceptable that I was physically in the UK to sign the documentation at the IFA's office.  It may prove very difficult to find an IFA willing to provide the same service for non-residents.  (The IFA subsequently dropped me as a client after 20 years and thousands in fees because I was non-resident.)

 

(2) HMRC unrecognised all Guernsey QROPS a few years ago.  You'd probably need to go with somewhere like Malta these days, which doesn't have as good a financial regulatory environment.

 

(3) If you want to manage your own QROPS investments on-line including shares/ETFs, AFAIK there's only one UK wrap account that will let you do so, and that's Transact.  Transact's fees suddenly shoot up if your IFA drops you as a client.  You may find the IFA wants to charge you 0.5% of pension value each year for the privilege of doing very little just to keep his/her name associated with the wrap account.

 

(4) If I were looking for a financial adviser who I could meet with in Bangkok I'd seriously consider http://www.thefrygroup.co.uk/about-the-fry-group/  That's not a recommendation, and I haven't fully checked them out, but they appear to be the closest to a UK IFA available here.

[Oxx]

10 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

Oxx, you obviously have knowledge of the stock market and where to look and how to analyse stocks/funds/investments which a lot of us mere mortals don't have. Do you work in the industry or just take an interest for your own benefit ? The info on the GAM Star Balanced fund is an eye opener. When the 'FA' comes back to me I will ask him why he recommended that one. And no, he won't be getting any of my hard earned !

 

I for many years was Executive Director of an investment bank, so I learned a little bit about investments.  However, most of my knowledge has come from managing my own investments and those of a few family and friends.  I have a bookshelf lined with books on portfolio management, asset allocation and international taxation.  The last category I find a highly effective substitute for sleeping pills before bed.

 

To be honest, being very interested in the subject can be a bad thing.  I strongly have to resist the temptation to tinker with my investments too frequently.  And I've learned the hard way that something that looks like an interesting, new investment can turn into a disaster.  Based upon those experiences I now don't invest in hedge funds or commodities and, having learned to avoid investments I don't 100% understand, I won't invest in managed futures or structured products.  Far better in my opinion to stick to simple equities and bonds, with some physical property fund for diversification (but being fully aware of the risk of being unable to sell, or the fund closing down and having to wait years to get your money back, as has happened to me with Aviva Investors Asia Pacific Property fund).

[al007]

There is some good advice running here

 

The most important thing is DO NOTHING, sign nothing until you are certain

 

I have my QROPS based in Gibraltar, and loose 2.5% tax on pension payments, if Malta your pension could be taxed at between 20/30%, as there is no double taxation agreement on Malta/Thailand

 

My annual management fee is £800.00

 

I self manage with Interactive Brokers and stay with recognised UK and USA equities, and ETF funds, I currently Hold BAC, JPM, GS ,BX, Hack, and Skyy, I generally deal in amounts of no less than £20,000, and my commissions on this sum is often less than US$5.00, I pick and choose my investments, I place the orders, I can not however withdraw the funds my provider does that

 

I have averaged just under 18% growth annually for the last five years, and paid no manager to loose money for me

 

I pay no management fees, and very much doubt if anyone has a lower cost QROPS

 

Remember also you will be able to access funds from age 55

 

I am 72 and am trying to unlock funds to pay medical costs

 

I am also in Direct contact with HMRC, QROPS division due to my predicament, and the autumn last year proposals for QROPS flexible drawn will be before UK parliament before the end of March this year

 

I am in contact with Gibraltar government and they are also in the process of updating legislation so that from April 6 2017 flexible draw down will be available

 

All scheme Trust Deeds will also need amendment

 

It could be beneficial to wait a little, you should see and read the QROPS trust deed before making a final decision

 

Living in Thailand it may well be you can not legally get advice from a UK IFA

 

It is also very important to seek an administrator and trustee that listens to its clients, mine is difficult to say the least

 

I am currently also dealing with two law firms in Gibraltar who are instrumental in making the changes to the Gibraltar regulations, I also have contacts and names in the Gibraltar tax office

 

I am but a simple retired Chartered Accountant but believe I have better QROPS knowledge than 99%of IFAs

 

I am not making a pitch for your business, I do not want it, but am very happy to talk and share my experiences, and want nothing in return, be careful what is the catch, none, it just gives me pleasure to help and keep people away from the rogues and crooks out there

 

 

 

[al007]

QROPS investments

 

Some thoughts for the less financially astute

 

Warren Buffet says when he dies his widow is to invest her money in a low cost tracker fund, and leave it alone, this is one of the brighter investors of our time

 

My wife has been told 50% of what she gets goes to IWY  Etf, and the other 50% to IYW Etf, if you followed my suggestion you would probably out perform 90/95% of what any IFA would recommend

 

I would be interested on informed comments here, this could be the way forward for YorkshireTyke

[partington]

My informed(?) comment: this is too undiversified to represent a safe strategy.

 

IWY is only US companies ( and a subsection of only very large US companies at that): a better choice would be  80% in a total developed world stock market tracker like VWRL - that way if the US economy goes downhill, (for example if it ever happened that they elected a nutcase president) you still have 40-60% of the world that doesn't (or at least, because all economies are affected by the US economy, they may not plummet quite as much).

 

IYW is tech only: it is very, very unwise to stick half your money into a single sector. Look what happened to people who did this in the dotcom boom- 90% was lost at one go and most never came back.  Better put say 10% into an emerging market total tracker, and 10% into a property REIT fund, (which is not completely correlated with world stock market values therefore adds an additional slight increase in diversification)

 

Most people also  recommend a proportion of safe stable investments like a government bond fund in the currency of your country of residence, purely to limit the volatility of your portfolio in case of a world stock market crash (happens every five years or so inevitably).  The nearer you are to wanting to use your money the greater should be the proportion in "safe" bond funds.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2017 by partington

[Oxx]

2 hours ago, al007 said:

My wife has been told 50% of what she gets goes to IWY  Etf, and the other 50% to IYW Etf

 

If your wife isn't an American citizen or resident, why would you want to invest for her in instruments subject to US withholding tax on income?

 

As for IWY, its top 5 company holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet (Google as was).  All of them are, in my opinion, aren't worth the share price.  Apple and Microsoft are very dependent upon continually creating new products to sustain profitability.  Amazon has $43,816,000 ,000 in debt and other liabilities, so is largely worthless.  And Facebook and Google can readily be replaced by a better alternatives.  Ask yourself, where are MySpace, Friendster, Friends Reunited, Excite, Alta Vista, Lycos, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves and the rest of them now? IYW is even worse, with just short of 50% of its assets being in 4 of the 5 previously mentioned companies (no Amazon).

[SaintLouisBlues]

13 minutes ago, Oxx said:

Amazon has $43,816,000 ,000 in debt and other liabilities, so is largely worthless.

I've heard that comment every year since I can't remember when. Yet in the past 10 years the share price has gone from 50 to 850 or thereabouts

[Oxx]

19 minutes ago, SaintLouisBlues said:

I've heard that comment every year since I can't remember when. Yet in the past 10 years the share price has gone from 50 to 850 or thereabouts

All that demonstrates is that there are a lot of investors (including ETFs and index funds) with a herd instinct.  This creates a lot of momentum for share prices.  It may take time, but I believe Amazon will almost certainly collapse, and probably ultimately fail.

 

What would happen, for example, should Taobao enter the US market? 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2017 by Oxx

[al007]

53 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

If your wife isn't an American citizen or resident, why would you want to invest for her in instruments subject to US withholding tax on income?

 

As for IWY, its top 5 company holdings are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet (Google as was).  

We all have different views, other wise that one stock would be so overbought

 

I rather like and admire Warren Buffet, I think his company do not pay dividends, I value his opinions very highly, which are very close to mine

 

 

OH OH OH if I had been so shrewd as to own Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet, for the last ten years OH I would have made so much money

 

 

 

I tend to ignore dividend yield and just add cash and value of holdings to see how well I have done

 

What we have is held offshore in trusts, and if a little withholding tax is paid/suffered so be it, and if my return is so low as for it to matter then I am doing a lousy investment job

 

Unlike Americans as a non resident UK citizen I do not pay tax on world wide income, and if held outside the UK no liability to UK Tax

 

I also use stop losses to protect, just in case

 

I have averaged nearly 18% year on year for over the last 5 years, so I can weather a couple of bad years and yes I am sure they will happen but so far so good, if I had been in bonds oh so bad by comparison

 

I hold one bank BOFI and am up 45% on the year and am still holding, it is harder to know when to sell than buy, I went heavy on big banks 6 weeks ago, and am up 6/7% in that time, I doubt they will go bust

 

I held Shell and BP until a few weeks ago and cashed out on both with gains of over 35% in a year, I felt the sector was stagnating

 

I do not trust emerging markets to risky for me

 

America is unlikely to go bust and if it does my stop losses will have cut in and there will be even greater buying opportunities

 

I stay 100% invested but can cash at any moment when markets open, on The IB Interactive Brokers platform can even press one button and sell all, or a chosen %, and I have done it a couple of times, if I want I can also margin trade and pay below 1% on what I borrow !!

 

I monitor portfolios 2/3 times most days, and if I have a pee in the night often check

 

If portfolio was say 500,000 dealing costs to cash out maybe below 100US, dealing costs also irrelevant

 

I still believe the US markets are some of the strongest, if I had been in my home markets the UK, I would have taken big exchange losses of over 15%

 

If a strategy give you constantly good returns do not knock it run with it

 

It would be interesting to see if for the last ten years you had been sloely invested in my two suggested ETFs how you would have done, and I can bet pretty certainly pretty well, it is easy to pull the chart up but I will leave that to others

 

I do not like guilts and bonds, with interest rates low, when rates increase the capital value will be severely eroded, the down side is far greater than the upside

 

Personal money management is simple and needs to be kept simple complicating it is dangerous and risky, generally I only hold 8 to ten stocks

 

 

[Oxx]

1 minute ago, al007 said:

Unlike Americans as a non resident UK citizen I do not pay tax on world wide income, and if held outside the UK no liability to UK Tax

 

You clearly are unaware of withholding tax on dividend income for US equities.  It typically ranges from 15-30%.

 

Ever filled in a W-8BEN form and wondered why?

[al007]

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

 

 Amazon has $43,816,000 ,000 in debt and other liabilities, so is largely worthless. 

I have one very simple question, as a very sophisticated investor are you putting your money where your mouth is and heavily shorting this, some how I doubt it, you might be right but while it is running, my strategy would be run with it and protect with a stop loss

 

Incidentally I do not short stocks gets too complicated for my simple mind

[al007]

5 minutes ago, Oxx said:

 

You clearly are unaware of withholding tax on dividend income for US equities.  It typically ranges from 15-30%.

 

Ever filled in a W-8BEN form and wondered why?

Yes I have completed W8BEN

 

Sarcasm is I believe one of the lower forms of wit, and I am happy to bow to your obvious superiority and will cease to make further comments  

 

And generally withholding tax is only 15% ,not 30% I also generally go for capital growth not income, generally most yields are less than 4% and less tax still 3.4%, no big deal, yes I had shell and BP both yielding over 6.5% but took stock in lieu of dividends

 

Listen these are only my views I am but a very very simple retired Chartered Accountant who is not looking for controversy, I also know there is so much I do not know

 

I turned down Facebook at US$28  !  !!   !!!

 

[al007]

Before I go back into my box I am sure to the delight of some

 

I had to check the ten year performance figures, of what I quoted, of course we know past performance is no guarantee of future performance, because when I am belittled by others it worries me, and I need to double check what I am saying is correct

 

If ten years ago you had invested in  50/50 IYW and IWY one has gone up by 159% the other by 130% so overall an increase of 143%, not bad for ten years plus you would have received some dividends and even if withholding tax at 15 % still a further nice bonus

 

One other point I know OXX is a tax expert but he suggests a Malta QROPS, that could give one a tax liability each year of 30%, but my recommendation of Gibraltar would only be 2.5%, on your full pension rather a big difference, and in Thailand legally no further tax on pensions here at the moment

 

Pick the advice you take very carefully

[YorkshireTyke]

I am definitely not an expert and I am happy to read everyone's advice, tips, experience and comments without it turning into a p*ss*ng contest.

 

I spoke to another, the third, FA today who is regulated by the UK and has 30 years experience in the industry.

 

His recommendation is that everyone with a final salary scheme should move to a QROPS which is the first time I have heard that.

[Oxx]

7 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

I spoke to another, the third, FA today who is regulated by the UK and has 30 years experience in the industry.

 

His recommendation is that everyone with a final salary scheme should move to a QROPS which is the first time I have heard that.

 

It's the first time you've heard that because it's usually regarded as extremely bad advice.

 

He may be regulated in the UK, but the advice he gives to you in Thailand almost certainly is not, and you will not be compensated by the UK for any malpractice.

 

BTW, have you actually checked his UK registration details? You can search at https://register.fca.org.uk/

[al007]

25 minutes ago, YorkshireTyke said:

 

I spoke to another, the third, FA today who is regulated by the UK and has 30 years experience in the industry.

 

His recommendation is that everyone with a final salary scheme should move to a QROPS which is the first time I have heard that.

Observations, generally final salaried schemes are the Rolls Royces of pensions, and all have differences, even if underfunded that in itself is not a reason to go, those schemes want people to transfer out because it can help the solvency of the scheme itself, you need to know the existing pension scheme status re increases and widows pensions , also the assumptions for calculating the transfer, as this value is negotiable, I have negotiated many in years gone by

 

Many people would sell their souls for a final salary scheme, if you named the scheme maybe some input could be given on the chances of it being wound UP, I hope it is not the BHS scheme

 

The only validity of his comment is every dishonest IFA wants to earn on setting up QROPS, there are many bad stories of bad QROPS where you also get locked in.

 

If you are still maintaining a UK address a Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP could be an option,short term, and still leave QROPS open later,  very economical to run depends on where you plan to live in the longer term, legally maybe a little grey !

[YorkshireTyke]

Thanks again for sensible replies. My company scheme is with BAE Systems, I worked for them for over 30 years incl 10 years in Saudi before I retired early.

 

 

BAE have just appointed HL as their go to company for pension transfer/drawdown etc so I contacted them last week but as I live outside the EU they cannot assist me. I moved here when I retired from Saudi 5 years ago and do not maintain a UK address.

 

Please keep this thread going, I find it very useful and interesting and I am sure others are reading and absorbing for their own situation.