Increasing numbers of the estimated 4.7 million British expats are taking their pensions out of the UK, according to two financial advisory firms
Increasing numbers of pensioners who’ve found a place in the sun have opted to move their pensions overseas with them.
Wealth management specialists the deVere Group saw a 15 per cent increase in the number of clients transferring pensions into a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) last year.
QROPS, which were established in 2006, are HM Revenue & Customs-recognised pension schemes based in selected jurisdictions outside the UK. Around 10,000 expats move their pensions each year.
“The 15 per cent growth in our QROPS business to the year ending December 2013 reflects the sustained upward trend in the QROPS sector more generally,” said Nigel Green, the deVere Group founder and chief executive.
“I would attribute this to the growing public awareness of the mounting problems of the UK pension system. There is a growing public perception that there are fewer incentives to keep retirement funds in the UK due to the scrapping of some key age-related benefits, among other factors; and because, as clients frequently tell us, pension pots have in recent years become easy targets for stealthy and not-so stealthy government raids.”