QROPS Myth #9 – Brexit will affect your pension

If you’re an expat in the EU, do you really think that your UK pension provider will be unable to make a payment to when the UK has left?

QROPS Myth #8: If you leave your pensions in the UK you’ll have to pay income tax

We often hear the argument that Malta is a superior home for your pension as it has double taxation agreements (DTAs) with numerous countries meaning that regardless of where you retire you won’t pay tax at source but only in Malta. It is certainly true that pensions in Malta are paid out gross and then […]

QROPS Myth #7 – Structured notes are suitable investments

A consequence of transferring your pension away from the UK opens you to the risk that your funds will be placed into investments that would not be allowed if it was still under the watch of the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. There have been many cases of clients losing significant proportions of their pension due […]

QROPS Myth #6: You need to keep a large proportion in cash

Any investment portfolio should always contain a small proportion of cash but by small we mean around 2-3%. If your pension has a cash account of somewhere around 10% then you might want to question whether this money really exists. Consider it this way, pensions are seen as ‘captive money’ until you reach the age […]

QROPS Myth #5: QROPS are ‘approved by HMRC’

HMRC do not approve anything! It is not their function. Their purpose, as stated on the website https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs is: “We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority, and we have a vital purpose: we collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support. We […]

QROPS Myth #4: You’ll be able to access your pension sooner if you transfer it

This is not such a common myth nowadays but in the early days of QROPS there were many advisors going around the world ‘pension busting’ and either helping people to access their pension sooner by either transferring to a jurisdiction that allowed access from a younger age or by allowing the client to take out […]

QROPS Myth #3: Your UK scheme is going to go bust

It’s true that there have been many high profile defined benefit pensions that have gone bust in recent years. The fundamental principle of the way that defined benefit pensions are structured can indeed sound like a risk. A defined benefit pension will promise to pay you a salary in your retirement as a fraction of […]

QROPS Myth #2: You need an insurance bond

When it comes to QROPS there are a few ways of administering the investments – although most people are only ever presented with one option. As the QROPS trustees are not set up to provide this service (they merely provide the legal structure and fulfil normal trustee duties) you will need some kind of investment […]

QROPS Myth #1: Your pension is at risk if you leave it in the UK

What risks? Brexit? Tax? Schemes going bust? What risks have you been told about? The only risk is believing someone who is giving you advice that is biased in their favour. If someone is going to profit from helping you to transfer your pension overseas then you need to really question whether the advice is […]