# Group PRSA to Personal PRSA



## Ciaran2011 (4 Feb 2011)

I have two pensions in stasis setup via previous employers. One managed by Mercer, the second a New Ireland PRSA group scheme.

The amounts in each are modest and I am many years from retirement age.  
I am looking to unify both these funds in some way. A brief bit of research suggests a personal PRSA may be the way to go. Have you done something similar, any advice?


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## punter (10 Feb 2011)

An informed response would need a lot more information (Age, years service, type of pension, current investment strategy, other benefits etc etc)

I have consolidated a number of pension arrangements into a PRSA. It took a bit of work and there are limits. Key among these is the following from ther revenue.ie website:


> Transfers from an occupational pension scheme or a statutory scheme to a PRSA will be allowed where the member has been in the scheme for 15 years or less and either:
> 
> the scheme is being wound up, or
> the member is changing employment.
> The value of AVC contributions to an occupational pension scheme may be transferred to a PRSA without regard to the foregoing restrictions


 
A transfer may require a "Certificate of Benefit Comparison" and these aren't cheap. 

There is a very good diagram on the irishlife website. I can't link to it but you can google "Transfer from Company Pension to PRSA site:bline.ie"

This article is also worth reading [broken link removed] even if you are not being made redundant

Good luck with it.


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## punter (10 Feb 2011)

I just re-read the title and if your transfers are actually from one PRSA to another it is a lot more straightforward. Most of what I said above was based on you transferring from and occupational pension scheme to a PRSA.


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## LDFerguson (10 Feb 2011)

A transfer from one PRSA to another must be done on the basis of 100% allocation, i.e. 100% of the value of the old PRSA must be transferred into the new, without deduction.  

Incidentally, the term Group PRSA is a bit of a misnomer as a "Group PRSA" is nothing more than a group of individual PRSAs, administered together for practical reasons.  A PRSA is by definition an individual contract between you and the PRSA provider.  So if you have two PRSAs, you already have two individual PRSAs and you could consider simply transferring both funds into one of them, if you are happy with the funds available under it. 

Liam D. Ferguson


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## squaw (25 Feb 2011)

I have just read the article above. Thank you for posting.
A couple of years ago our OP scheme was converted to a Group PRSA scheme but I don't remember being told about the actuarial cost involved.
Should I (and the other members) have been. I remember at the time that the value was a lot less when it was transferred so if the charge is 1% then would this money have come from each of the OP members funds or would it have been a charge to the company who were the trustees.

If it was a charge on each of our funds, could I now get details of what the charge was?


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