FamilyGuys Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Can anyone recommend someone for advice on whether/ how to transfer our Teachers Pension ( husband and I both teachers). I contacted Andrew at Vista months ago but he said he couldn't help as we're not yet residing in Oz. I have followed some threads on this but still none the wiser and feel we need professional advice. Or maybe we are too late to catch the April deadline? Thanks for any recommendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Can anyone recommend someone for advice on whether/ how to transfer our Teachers Pension ( husband and I both teachers). I contacted Andrew at Vista months ago but he said he couldn't help as we're not yet residing in Oz. I have followed some threads on this but still none the wiser and feel we need professional advice. Or maybe we are too late to catch the April deadline? Andrew is the man, I think his point is that you can't begin the process until you're resident in Australia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 You may not be too late but you need to act fast by getting a redemption value on your pensions. You can transfer the pensions to a private UK pension before April and then transfer it using a QROP to Oz at the appropriate time. I believe that you can transfer the pension to Oz up to 12 months before you go to Oz. I suspect that when you spoke with Andrew you had no date of arrival. On a separate matter though have you satisfied yourself that it is in your best interest to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 I think what GGS says is a very good question. Don't assume that transferring the pension is your best option, especially as you haven't even got to Australia yet. There will probably be some tax penalties in the transfer - and if you ultimately go back to the UK, you will have paid that penalty for nothing. I know you may think that won't happen, but here am I heading back to the UK thirty years after I arrived. If you've asked me ten years ago, I'd have said "no way", but it's surprising what changes life brings you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FamilyGuys Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 Thanks Gbye Grey Sky and Marisawright. To be honest I don't know whether it's the right thing to do which is why I want to get some advice. I think Andrew's main concern was that we shouldn't make the decision before living in Oz for a while which is fair enough. The majority of my family all live in Australia now and love it (one sister has been there for over 20 years) so I'm pretty certain I'll retire there too. Maybe I'll contact Andrew again and see if he can give me some pointers. If anyone else can recommend a financial adviser I'd be really grateful! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gbye grey sky Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 You don't mention the number of years however my recommendation is that you get a redemption value without further delay. It can take a couple of months to get. Any advice of the type you are seeking will have to be paid for as a great deal has to be considered before considering closing out an index-linked pension and your personal circumstances, attitude to risk, as well as options should you ultimately not retire in Oz would have to be considered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew from Vista Financial Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Hi Thanks for the post and the comments so far. Essentially when we work with clients we are looking to try to ascertain where their retirement benefits are best placed for their circumstances in the first instance, we do not just blanket transfer pensions like most pension transfer companies. As mentioned many times before a transfer should be done for the right reasons and not just in the basis of potentially not being able to transfer a pension in the future (there is also still that slim chance that transfers to Australia might be able to continue post April http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/money-finance/220374-government-response-uk-pension-ban-australia-qrops-3.html#post1936671603). Therefore the fundamentals that come into effect at the start of our client interactions is that it is a person’s intent to remain in Australia as we like to ensure that before embarking on the advice process a person has settled into Australian life and feel it is their intention to remain/retire here. Because of this we do not generally deal with clients until they have arrived and been in Oz for some time, added to this is, the advice we provide includes comprehensive retirement planning and modelling and for us to do this we need to have details of our clients full financial position including their Australian employment earnings and status as well as their expected retirement income. Without being in Australia it would be extremely difficult for us to run retirement modelling projections unless someone had a very clear expectation/understanding of what their Australia employment situation, income and outgoings looked like. I can certainly understand the dilemma that people with government un-funded defined benefit pensions are facing at the moment given the potential impending transfer ban and why they may wish to look at the potential of transfer prior to leaving and we have had a number of enquiries of this nature. To this point in time I have not transferred a pension for a person not living in Australia already but even if someone wanted to in my mind some further hurdles exist here: Firstly, I believe in most cases if one is still in employment/pensionable service they are not able to transfer out of the pension and therefore if employment does not cease until post April 6 2015 there would not be the option to transfer. Secondly, although it might be possible to open an Australian Superannuation Fund without a tax file number (TFN) the Super Fund could not accept the transfer until a TFN is obtained (a UK transfer is generally classed as a personal contribution): https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Super/Compulsory-employer-contributions/Providing-your-tax-file-number-(TFN)/ The point made in relation to transferring the pension from an government un-funded defined benefit scheme (ie NHS, Teachers Pensions etc) before April 6 2015 may potentially be an option however the point above about being in employment may work against this. Also most of the time nowadays UK personal pension schemes require members of defined benefit schemes looking to transfer to take financial advice and have any transfer signed off by a UK Financial Adviser. So of course it is not that we do not wish to assist but given the above points it is either not possible to assist or could prove very difficult to advise/assist. Hope this help, FamilyGuys perhaps you could pop me a further email to confirm your situation again if you don't mind (Andrew@vistafs.com.au)? Kind regards Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FamilyGuys Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Thanks to everyone for advice so far. Andrew, I will send you an email explaining our circumstances and with details of our pensions. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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