Transferring UK OPS to a QROPS Bond - Money Helper appointment

Hi,

I a transferring a UK pension fund to Ireland. The very last thing needed is a Money Helper appointment, for Pension Safeguarding Guidance, necessary as the UK pension trustees believe there is a potential "amber flag" regarding the QROPS offering overseas investments.

Has anyone had experience of a Money Helper appointment and what should I expect from it?

Many thanks
Betsy

This standard practice despite all funds having overseas investments unfortunately this amber flag is a waste of time. Money Helper is designed to ensure you know what you are doing and why you are transferring, are you aware of the issues associated with your transfer out to the new scheme. Do you know the fees you will be charged, are there entry or exit fees or Lock-in Periods: Some QROPS schemes have underlying investments that lock members into the scheme for extended periods, sometimes up to seven years or more. Exiting these schemes can involve significant fees. You should have any financial advice you have received handy for the call.

If you get flagged for it, there is no avoiding it, it is part of their process. A client of mine had to do it last year despite the transfer value being 2% of his overall net worth (which the life company were aware of) and it being perfectly obvious that he was moving his pension from the UK to Ireland because he lives here! The regulatory requirements in the UK are so onerous that they make them irrelevant. People just want it over and done with and don't read the 80 pages of paperwork they are sent.

Similar story to @Steven Barrett above - we had a client who transferred a fund that was small in the context of his overall pension fund from UK to Ireland, because he's lived here for over 25 years and has no intention of living anywhere else. It got flagged for some reason and he had the Money Helper appointment. They wanted to know all about the "marketing material" that had caused him to enquire about this. (There was none. He asked me if it was possible, because we'd looked after his funds over here for years.) They wanted to know about the fund he was leaving and the details of the product he was transferring to. In general, he didn't find it too troublesome and he did get the impression that they were mainly trying to make sure that he hadn't been given bad advice to transfer or pressured into it.

Yes had one of these recently. All pretty much as above. Quite pointless really in my situation. I had engaged a small financial company to look after it here. It was a transfer of a Zurich UK pension to Zurich Ireland. The moneyhelper person had to phone me and there was questions like was I confident that Zurich Ireland wasn't some scam company who were going to run off with my pension funds!!

While we do laugh at the level of regulation and protections in the UK, it is to protect people from scams. There is a lot more money over there and it is more susceptible to fraudulent operators (not saying we don't have them here too).

I got a call a few years ago from a fella looking for a job. He was telling me that he specialised in QROPS ( I am presuming he read one of my QROPS blogs) and transferring funds to Hong Kong, where the commission paid was great. There's plenty more of him out there.