New job abroad - what to do with Irish pension?

Hi all,

Just looking for a little bit of advice on the following....

I recently moved to a new job in Germany. I have now received the Leaving Service Benefits details of my pension from my job in Ireland. The value of the pension is just over 50k. I have been given the following four options:

1) Transfer payment to new company's pension plan

2) Deferred retirement benefit from the plan

3) Transfer payment to a pension transfer bond (buy-out bond)

4) Transfer payment to a PRSA

To be honest, I never really thought much about pensions (I am 34) and I just took the default option (5% employer, 5% employee) in my previous job.

In the current climate, what would any of you do in the same situation? By the way, option 2 is the default option which will be applied to the pension unless I fill in the form and specify another option.

Thanks.

Leave it where it is, option 2. You can always transfer at a later date if you need to.

Barring prohibitive pension company charges I'd move it - money in German institutions is safer than in Irish ones, though I'm guessing moving it abroad won't be as straightforward as it would be within Ireland.

I remember reading that Revenue weren't impressed with the amount of people moving pensions out of Ireland, but in a clear cut case like yours I can't see how they'd obstruct it. If it's in Germany you get the satisfaction of at not paying the Irish government levy on private pensions for at least the next 3 years. Chances are purely due to the size of German market pension, fund charges are less as well. Also the worst case threat of complete Irish government private pension confiscation is removed.

You'd need to check your German options as well, could the money be used to buy a couple years of a German Defined Benefit scheme etc. in which case it might be a total no-brainer.

Under EU rules transferring it to your German employer's pension fund should be no problem, but before you do you need to understand what 50K will buy you in the new pension fund.

In general at your age, I'd go with moving it to German, unless there is some big show stopper on the German side.

Jim.

Thanks for all the replies folks, much appreciated.