combining a number of UK company pensions, over to Irish pension pot. pros and cons

Hi Looking for abit of advice, and any pitfalls.
I have 4 UK company pensions, with 3 different pension providers. They total around £160K, with fees ranging from .4% to 1.15%. They have been doing ok and making growth since i started to manage them more, but the market has been on an up.
I have an Irish company pension that i am actively paying into at the moment, and there fees are from 0.185% to 0.25% but are more limited but still growing pretty well. I`m looking at combining these 4 UK pension into my Irish company pensions, I have checked and i can move the pensions without any loss to bonus etc, and the UK pension companies can transfer to Ireland.
Now my question is, are there any fees or pitfalls tax wise etc with doing this? Is it better to just do this via the pension companies or would it better to get a broker involved, and pay them a fee for the transfer, so everything is sorted? Or would it be better to leave them in the UK with the higher fees, and leave them till i reach retirement age and have a sterling pension, are there any pitfalls with this way. I understand its better to have a diverse portfolio, and may give me better options with how i use them at retirement age, but i think the fees may become a problem, and easier to look after if they are in one place.
Any help gratefully apricated.

Where to start

Fees in the U.K. are actually probably lower. What you are seeing is better disclosure of fees in the U.K. compared to Ireland. Ireland doesn’t show the total cost for pensions whereas the U.K. does.

You might wish to access some of your pension early Irish pensions can be taken at 50 U.K. pensions at 55 so combining your U.K. and Irish pensions would prevent you taking your current scheme at 50 if you left current employer or would prevent you taking your U.K. pensions at 55 if you remain with current employer to normal retirement date.

The transfer rules changed in November last year and the process is now more complex than it used to be in an attempt to catch pension scams.

This might not be an issue for you but for the sake of completeness if you are close to the Irish standard allowance at retirement (€2m currently) then you may be better off leaving your U.K. pension outside of Ireland as you can have a 2m Irish allowance PLUS a £1m U.K. allowance. Although the original U.K. pension is excluded from the Irish allowance, any growth counts against the Irish allowance so for some people, growing the U.K. pension overseas is more tax efficient.

“Low risk” U.K. funds will actually be quite risky due to the currency mismatch. So you should generally invest in risk assets in the U.K. and defer the pension until such time as you are nearer age 50.

You should also look into topping up your U.K. state pension entitlement.

Just some examples of the complexity here.

Marc Westlake
Chartered Certified and European Financial Planner
www.globalwealth.ie

Marc said:

“Low risk” U.K. funds will actually be quite risky due to the currency mismatch. So you should generally invest in risk assets in the U.K. and defer the pension until such time as you are nearer age 50.

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Without meaning to hijack, I am in a somewhat similar position as the OP. Marc, do you mean high or low in the bolded text above?

Cash and bond funds (gilts) are in Sterling or hedged to Sterling.

Looked at from a Euro perspective this is a bad strategy. Irish investors should be hedged to euros not Sterling

For higher risk investments like equities it doesn’t matter

Marc Westlake
Chartered Certified and European Financial Planner
www.globalwealth.ie

Many thanks for the replies most helpful.

Don`t think there will be anyway that i will reach 2mill on my pension pot.
I have written off to HMRC and been given a statement for class2 NI payments, and have to April to pay that, so should be on my way to a full UK state pension and a partial Irish one. (20-29 years).

I`m currently 55 and really won`t be looking to move jobs in the near future anyway. So moving the pensions from the UK to my Irish company pension still looks like a good deal to myself, but i will check more into there fees first.

I just didn`t want to get hit for high fees to move from sterling to Euros, or be hit with any tax bill for moving it from one state to another, were my concerns.

Again thanks for the help. I guess i need to do abit more research