Lifetime allowance reduced further
The recent budget changes announced by George Osborne have dealt a further blow to UK pension policyholders, by reducing the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) to 1.25m with effect from April 2014. This means that pension policyholder with funds in excess of this amount will be liable to a tax charge oof 55% on the excess. Given [...]
Lifetime Allowance reduced to 1.25m
A further blow to UK pensions was delivered by the Chancellor in his Autumn Statement last week, when he announced that the maximum annual contribution was reduced from £50,000 to £40,000, and perhaps more importantly, the Lifetime Allowance was reduced to 1.25m from 1.5m. The impact of this is potentially very serious for UK pension [...]
GAD limits to be increased to 120%
The Chancellor’s December Autumn Statement bruoght with it some much needed welcome news for pension polivyholders, in the form of the proposed increase of Government Actuarial Dept (GAD) drawdown limits to 120% of the equivalent annuity income from the current 100% maximum. This is welcome news for pension investors, who had seen their maximum income [...]
Offshore pension funds benefit from market revival
Offshore pension funds have benefited from the recent revival in global markets, with over £50 million having been added to the value of QROPS schemes in the last month, due to the concerted rebound in stockmarket prices, and a measure of confidence having been restored to previously troubled markets. Professional investors have increasingly become minded [...]
Offshore pensions gain momentum
Clarity has been restored recently to the offshore pension market, as HMRC in the UK have now given further confirmation that they remain happy to gie approval to all QROPS schemes, as long as they continue to abide by the rules laid down, and do not attempt to push these rules beyond the limits they [...]
QROPS now above £5 billion
The popularity of QROPS penions schemes is ever increasing, a fact borne out by the fact that mre than £5 billion has now been transferred into QROPS schemes from UK pension schemes, including final salary, persoal pension stakeholder pension and executive pension schemes, by UK expatraites whi wish to transfer their pensions into an overseas [...]
Worldwide stockmarkets rally
QROPS pensions are able to invest in a wide range of investments, but in order to maximise returns, it is preferable for QROPS investments to be made into equities, as these have traditionally been the strongest perfomaing asset classes over history. However, recent volatility has made many investors wary of making QROPS investments of their [...]
Malta and Isle of Man now preferred QROPS jurisdictions
After recent changes in legislation, Whereby nearly all Guenrsey based QROPS schemes had their status removed, Isle of man and malta based schemes are now oue referred choice for QROPS jurisdiction. This is because they do not fall foul of the recent HMRC stipulation, which states that residents of the country in which QROPS are [...]
Guernsey QROPS schemes hit hard
The future of Guernsey QROPS schees remains in serious doubt after HMRC removed approval status for QROPS for all but three out of three hundred Guernsey based QROPS schemes. the proble appears to be in HMRC’s opinion that QROPS schemes should be available in the same format to residents o the country in which the [...]
Eurozone problems worsen
The problems appear to be getting deeper and deeper in the troubled Eurozone. Moody’s have recently downgrared 16 Spanish banks due to concerns over property loans, and even the Spanish government has been downgraded. Allied to this is the continued fears over Greek debt default, and the contagion effect this may have in the rest [...]