Expatriates Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people living abroad on a long-term basis. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I worked for several years for a UK company, and have a corresponding amount of pension in their pension scheme. Now it looks like I'm pretty unlikely to return (and even if I do, it's a pain to have to maintain two relationships with pension funds), I'd like to work out how I can go about transferring those funds to my company pension scheme here.
I'm deliberately leaving the 'here' vague, as I suspect the answer depends more on the UK than the target country.
To move money out of a UK pension fund you have to provide proof that the target fund (where you are intending to move the money to) satisfies UK requirements. The key term here is QROPS (Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme). If the target fund is a QROPS (there's a non-exhaustive but fairly comprehensive list here(pdf)) then it
can receive the transfer of UK Pension Benefits without incurring an unauthorised payment and scheme sanction charge.
If the target fund is not a QROPS, you can suggest that they become one - this page on http://www.hmrc.gov.uk explains how (basically there is a fairly simple form to download, fill in and send, or you can do it online).
