—– Spoiler alert, skip to the summary at thew end for what you are ultimately going to have to do——

So you have moved out of the UK and are happily living your expat lifestyle away from the UK but you have a pension or more specifically a Standard Life pension that you now want to access or at least make sure you can access it in the future.

Accessing your pension Pre 55

As you are not of pension age yet then you cannot actually take any money from the pension, if you are told otherwise then be careful as this is against UK pension legislation and its frankly not possible. So what are the options, well you can actually keep it with Standard Life and let them keep investing the money for you, they are likely to still be able to offer you different Standard Life investment funds which may or may not suit you circumstances.

You could also transfer it so that you can then have more flexibility, ultimately if you are going to stay offshore for the foreseeable future then you will want to move it away from Standard life anyway, the reason for this is explained below.

Accessing your pension post 55

So you may now be in the situation where you are of the age where you can access your pension or you just want to make sure its handled correctly and ready for you to take as and when you need it.

Traditionally whilst being in the UK you had a few options, Drawdown or an annuity. Since Brexit unfortunately Standard Life no longer want to deal with anyone that is not in the UK. This means you have to go elsewhere, or transfer it away, it’s as simple as that. What about an annuity? Well unless you have been offered a GAR or guaranteed annuity from Standard Life then unfortunately annuities are not available for non-uk residents. So basically you cannot go to the open market and buy an annuity or even buy one directly from Standard Life, unless you have the GAR.

What are my options now I am not in the UK.

Basically you need to transfer away from Standard Life, its as simple as that but you can do either;

• Transfer to a UK Pension that recognises your Non-UK residency

This is essentially another UK pension but they are usually titled as an ‘International SIPP’. These are not QROPS they are based in the UK and under UK legislation. You may say well this si just the same as Standard life, the thing is it is under the letter of the law but Standard Life just don’t have the regulatory power or compliance to deal with offshore clients therefore this option to transfer Is often the best and most cost effective. Also the biggest thing its under UK legislation and the umbrella of the FSCS or financial Services Compensation Scheme, so you have the insurance of that behind you.

• Transfer to a QROPs

Now a QROPs or Qualified Registered Overseas Pension Scheme is great in theory but they are expensive, less flexible than UK pensions and unfortunately they are unregulated meaning that anyone can offer them and therefore they have no insurance or comeback and the charges are often hidden and complex. We don’t see the benefit of them.

So what next; -The struggles to move away from Standard life.

Now you may initially have been told by Standard Liife they can deal with you but as this goes further up the chain of command you will, or Standard life will realise that they cannot deal with you. Now this is where the fun starts… so Standard Life will say they cant help and you have to transfer away but due to you being a non – UK resident then your transfer will be warned as a red flag i.e. a risky transfer. This is an FCA directive that was brought in a few years ago, which is aimed at making sure pension clients do not transfer their pensions to offshore schemes that invest in crazy investments which promise the world and ultimately drain your pension pot, beware of the scammer is the point.

Clearly this is a great thing, the less people transferring into schemes which lose them money the better. Now this directive is ultimately trying to stop people transferring to a QROPS as this is when these things go wrong due to the unregulated investmetns held within them. As we don’t do that then this should not be an issue but unfortunately it will still have an impact on you if you are not in the UK

As the likelihood is we will advise you to move to an International SIPP which is actually a UK pension and as we are authorised UK advisers moving to a UJK Pension which is more than likely going to be invested in standard run of the mill funds then this should not raise a red flag but it does.

So the problems you will face are;

• Your pension will go to the due diligence team and they will require
  • An interview with the Government pension authority, i.e. the money helper website, you will need a number to prove this has been done.
  • A completed questionnaire, this will ask where you are transferring, how much it will cost, why you are transferring, what is the investment strategy, who has advised you.
  • They are likely to ask for a copy of your advice letter
  • They will want lots of ID and address verification
  • They will need HMRC details of where you are transferring to, with signatures from the new pension scheme.
  • You are also likely to have a telephone interview with the due diligence team directly asking why you are transferring, Clearly you will mention that Standard life cannot deal with you so you have to leave.

Again I reiterate the above is a good thing for certain circumstances but if you are being advised by a UK advisor to transfer to a UK pension then we do feel this is overkill but it is what it is. We will help with all of the above but there are things you have to complete yourself as we cant be seen to complete some parts for you but we will try and ease this pain. Be warned is all.

Summary.

If you are a non UK resident with a Standard Life pension then you will want to transfer away from them sooner rather than later as ultimately they cant deal with you, and as mentioned above its not going to be easy but we can help ease the pain of it all, just be patient in the process.

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