Pension Transfer

[Hacker]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me whether the legislation allows me to transfer my pension savings in UK to my MPF account in HK? Are there other types of retirement plan in HK which I can use to receive my pension savings? Will my savings be taxed when it leaves UK?

Thanks
Hacker

[Boris]

If your talking about CASH savings then yes you can. Its not taxable as a transfer as the earnings are accrud (? ) outside of HK .
Put in MPF ? Why? There are better ways of getting a higher return than that.

If you mean to transfer the pension benefit of an active policy then that is more complex and you would have to take it up with more specialised persons than I.
It still would not be taxable ( in the asset transfered )due to the reason before.

[freeier]

caveat, i have no idea how the british pension and taxation system work.

but is there a need to transfer out your pension savings ? can't you leave it there in your UK account ?
if you are eventually going to retire in UK, then leave them there. the UK interest rate is high at the moment, u can get better returns there risk free.

[PDLM]

Personally I'd leave it in the UK - you almost certainly have more flexibility with it there. Moreover, depending on what type of pension plan you have in the UK, there may well be an immediate tax liability for withdrawing the assets (in fact you may not be able to withdraw it at all if the contributions have been made tax-free as a pension plan).

There is really no advantage to MPF in Hong Kong except that your employer is required to match your contributions while employed by them, but only up to HK$1000 per month. Personally I would rather negotiate for an extra $1000 per month and then invest it somewhere else. MPF is designed for people on lower (i.e . average or below) salaries who wouldn't otherwise do any financial planning to force them to save for their retirement. It really isn't designed for people of greater financial means who have any idea what they are doing with investments.

[Hacker]

Thanks for the suggestion posted. However, let me explain my own situation more.

The last company worked in UK offered a final salary scheme but I have only worked for them for slightly over a year and therefore don't qualify for a deferred pension. My only choice is to take a transfer value.

I have a stakeholder pension plan in UK with Legal and General but they refused to accept my transfer value on the ground that I am outside UK and it is not their policy to do business from outside though the legislation permits it. It is a very frustrating situation for me and so I start to wonder if a transfer into my MPF plan in HK is possible.

Please let me know if you have some good ideas for me.

Thanks
Hacker

[Boris]

If L&G won't do it then transfering seems a dead end.

If your planning to permananently reside outside UK then finding a local based insurer to work on L&G might be an option. However - your pension value should be able to be maintained at its present level without contributions, right?

The way then would be to store this value and buy into a new local scheme for your duration outside UK. This, if you can find a suitable company, value , made over your period of employment outside UK, may be folded back into the UK scheme. If THAT companies plan allows.

Also an experianced broker may have knowledge of suitable pension rulings that make L&G look again at their position. The wording on your plan would also be valuable regarding tranferability, not just under UK / EEC law but globally. Its a world village now, right?

I strongly suggest you take it up with a very experianced local broker and then get the plan contracted in writing by the underwriters, both of a new plan and that of L&G.

[PDLM]

Hmmm. I see. Two options occur to me:

1) Is it not possible to get a simple refund from the defined benefits scheme? I suppose there may be a tax hit, but I can't see how you can avoid that if you want to take the money outside the UK Personal Pension environment.

2) Find a pensions administrator in the UK who is prepared to deal with people who have moved abroad, then transfer both your L&G and your employer's funds to that one. I guess there may be a cost associated with that too. I've been out of the UK too long to be able to suggest any such schemes though.

Sorry I can't think of anything else to suggest.

[tylney]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me whether the legislation allows me to transfer my pension savings in UK to my MPF account in HK? Are there other types of retirement plan in HK which I can use to receive my pension savings? Will my savings be taxed when it leaves UK?

Thanks
Hacker

Yes you can use QROPS to make a transfer of pension benefits from UK to HK.

[Music Teacher]

Does anybody know if there is any sort of regulatory body in Hong Kong to whom one can file a complaint about wrong information given by a Hong Kong based intermediary/financial adviser?

In this particular case, the wrong information could result in financial loss. Without going into specific detail, this is nothing to do with the recent collapse of the markets, but to do with my acting, in good faith, on incorrect advice given with regard to the rules and regulations concerned with the transfer of money from the UK to Hong Kong.

[PDLM]

This town is full of shysters masquerading as Financial Advisers. My advice (hah!) is to ignore all of them.

QROPS is fairly straightforward in most cases - there is plenty of information on the Inland Revenue website.

Name and shame.

But, to answer you question, I fear the answer is no. Occasionally some shysters get hounded out of town by the authorities, but there are plenty more queuing up to replace them.