Choosing The Right IFA For Your Family

Finding the right professional who we can trust with our pensions, family finances and savings is like recruiting a specialist to fill a role in a business – but few of us think that way. Hiring a financial expert at work would involve a lengthy and detailed process of applications, interviews and reference checking before […]

The QROPS Jurisdictions Embracing Pension Freedom

The UK pension reforms which allow savings to effectively be accessed as a bank account have been extended to the QROPS model, but not every jurisdiction is currently in a position to offer this. To allow ‘open season’ to take effect on overseas schemes, each individual QROPS jurisdiction must first amend their own legislation to […]

QROPS for US Residents

QROPS were seen as an impossible dream for US residents with UK-based pensions up until 2010. The reasons for this were mainly based around the reporting requirements to the IRS. Pension trustees used to tend to overlook US residents for QROPS, because of the resources required to fulfil the reporting necessities. The relatively low number […]

Malta Continues to Embrace QROPS

As a global financial hub, Malta continues to emerge, and pension providers continue to be drawn to the Mediterranean island to set up new schemes. With flexibility, stability and a high level of regulation being among its more prominent features, Malta also benefits from having more than 65 double taxation agreements in place (with more […]

UK Employers Getting Shot of Pension Schemes

Expensive staff pensions are falling by the wayside with regularity as companies see them as an expense they can ill-afford, according to research conducted by the Pension Protection Fund (PPF). The PPF is the body which looks after pension holders in the UK, it compensates members of funds with companies which have gone into insolvency, […]

QROPS, The Time is Now

Almost every financial publication are covering the public sector pension reforms right now, and amid reports of further sweeping to come following the General Election in May, it is a story that is unlikely to go away any time soon. So exactly what is going on in the public sector? Why are there such a […]

QROPS Demand Set to Increase

With yet more unfavourable tax legislation on the way for British expats courtesy of Chancellor George Osborne, overseas financial institutions are bracing themselves for another huge spike in demand for QROPS solutions to help counteract the latest plans of the Exchequer. Although under consultation currently, the proposed plan is to make expats pay tax on […]

UK Pension Terms Explained

Pensions are never far from being in the financial headlines. We all know it’s something we need to be thinking about, but every time we try to read something about it, something more instantly interesting tends to crop up and we brush any thoughts of the future under the carpet for the time being. ‘It […]

As new LTA deadline looms QROPS enquiries to grow

Many UK pension holders will face hefty tax burdens when the pension lifetime allowance (LTA) drops from GBP 1.5 million to GBP 1.25 million in April. Yet future retirees are failing to take action to protect their fund across the UK, even with the threat of facing charges as high as 55%. LTA history The […]

Rethinking the 4% retirement rule in America

Many experts in America believe the oft-cited “4% withdrawal rule” for retirement still holds up. The basic premise is that if pensioners withdraw 4.5% of their savings each year, their inflation-adjusted nest egg should remain for 30 years – the average time span used in retirement planning. Yet now, some experts are beginning to doubt […]