Should I invest in an Irish pension , no company match or wait until new auto enrolment, can I back date?

With the upcoming pension auto enrolment is it a better idea to wait and join that or start a pension now (no company match) Can an existing pension be rolled into an auto enrolment one when it starts? Having acquired about 6 pensions in various places in UK, I'd rather one in Ireland than ending up with 2

Current timeframe is that it will be January 2024 before auto-enrolment begins and there are those who believe that there may be delays as that's an optimistic deadline for a huge amount of work to get the scheme off the ground. If you can afford to contribute towards your retirement now, I would do it rather than wait for a few years. Make sure you arrange a pension that has no penalties for stopping contributions in a couple of years.

Final details of the auto-enrolment scheme haven't been published (or worked out) but there's currently no facility to backdate and I haven't seen anything about an ability to transfer existing funds into the AE scheme.

If you are now settled in Ireland and think you will retire here, you could look at a possible transfer of pension funds from the UK to Ireland and possibly some consolidation of the six pots. Transfers from UK to Ireland is a complicated area so you should only talk to a broker with specific experience in the field. Rules changed in 2017.

As Dave said, there is no facility in the information provided to transfer benefits in or out of the AE scheme.

With regards to your UK pensions, if they are in relation to different employments when in the UK and you want to transfer them over, you will have 6 pensions in Ireland. Them the rules.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)