Introducing QROPS
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QROPS pensions step by step
How do you get a QROPS pension? If you have never looked into making overseas investments before, you may wish to break the process down into stages to make it more manageable.
Where do you start?
Funnily enough, you should start with your UK documents. After all, you need to get a recent balance to get a true picture of the value of your pension pot. Also, you may need to check the rules and regulations to see whether a transfer would even be permitted. QROPs advice is a must for every exapt pension.
Some schemes do not allow transfers after their members have started to take benefits.
Who can you ask for help?
The next step is to find an adviser. If you have a friend or relative who has made a similar move abroad and been impressed by a particular firm of advisers, so much the better. But if you do not have any such recommendations, you need to look at the qualifications and expertise of the advisers on offer.
One thing you may wish to bear in mind is that pensions is specialised enough, but overseas pensions is a specialism within a specialism. Accordingly, the person you choose should have handled such work before, rather then being a generalist who is tacking this sort of work for the first time.
Another thing to consider is the independence of the adviser you select. After all, if an adviser is tied, then by definition they are not able to offer you any QROPS pension on the market.
Will you have to pay?
QROPS pension advisers either charge for their advice by the hour or get paid a commission by those institutions whose products they recommend. Either way, make sure that you understand how the adviser is getting paid from the outset. Click here for independent QROPs advice.
How long will it take?
The answer to this question depends on three things: how efficient your existing scheme is at dealing with the transfer request, how efficient the QROPS pension adviser is in orchestrating the move, and how quickly the new QROPS pension is set up or accepts the assets. It is impossible to give an exact timescale, but you should leave around six weeks for the process to be completed.