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Thread: UK Pension Transfers to NZ With Full Withdrawal

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  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default UK Pension Transfers to NZ With Full Withdrawal

    Hi all

    I'm new to this forum and am actually a kiwi myself . My wife and I have been living in London for a year and will be returning home shortly. First I have a piece of advice and that is to anyone currently working in the UK who will look at transferring a NI pension to NZ - arrange it before April 6th!! We had informal dealings with a particular NZ based pension transfer company who failed to inform us that you MUST contract out of the NI pension before the end of the tax year because you cannot claim pension funds paid in previous tax years. That slip cost us NZ$5.5k. Not exciting.

    Needless to say we are now looking for another pension transfer firm. We are wanting to withdraw all funds asap as talked about here. I have been looking at TaxBack.co.uk and wonder if anyone can shed any light on good/bad experiences with this firm, or indeed any other alternatives.

    Many thanks
    Brad

  2. #2
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    Unfortunately new rules from April 06 mean that you can no longer do this. You can still transfer your pension to NZ but can’t touch it – without paying a major tax penalty – until retirement age which is 50 before 2010 – 55 after 2010.

    ASB do quite a good brochure setting out the rules on this.
    http://tinyurl.com/pvk6y

  3. #3
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    Rangiora, Canterbury, NZ
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    Default

    Good job i noticed this thread. We haven't even thought about our pensions yet. Now i've got something else to worry about.

    Olivia

  4. #4
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    Hi Brad

    Welcome to the forum

    I transferred my largest pension fund earlier this year. I've no need to touch it before I'm 50, so I'm happy.

    BNZ organised it all for me, no charge at all for. Their future lifestyle fund is managed by Axa. Axa are recognised by the UK for transferring funds out. They were efficient and communicative.

    We looked at Brittania but there was a 5% charge.

    HTH

  5. #5
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    Aug 2006
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    Default

    I'm in a similar position, I managed to nip in just before April so get 2 years worth (when we leave end of this year)

    I asked Britannia about the rules changes and if kiwis can still get lump sums, this was the reply (17/7/06):


    Hi Matt,

    1. Yes you still can transfer your pensions to NZ
    2. Yes you can receive a lump sum payment here in NZ instead of a annuity payment at retirement
    3. We can send you a transfer pack as soon as you wish as there is no longer a requirement to provide evidence of residency.

    Regards,

    The Team @ Britannia

    > > My girlfriend and I have a private pension with Norwich Union UK which
    > > we will be transferring when we get to NZ next year.
    > >
    > > I realise there have been some law changes recently - I wanted to make sure:
    > >
    > > 1. Will we will still be able to easily transfer this to NZ
    > > 2. Will we be able to get this as a lump sum?
    > > 3. Is there anything we should do whilst we are in UK to help facilitate
    > > the transfer

    The other NZ transfer company I have been emailing is:
    http://www.ukpension.co.nz/

    I think you can get a lump sum up to a certain amount, I think I read that in these forums, so do a search.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jax
    I think you can get a lump sum up to a certain amount, I think I read that in these forums, so do a search.
    It was 49% 0f the pot if it is more than $20k and the whole amount if it is less tha that. But im not sure if that has changed since April - my understanding is that it is still the same.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Avalon
    It was 49% 0f the pot if it is more than $20k and the whole amount if it is less tha that.
    With that amount being in $s it sounds as though that’s a NZ rule? The rule change in April that prevents lump sums being taken before retirement is a UK rule (part of the A-day “pensions simplification” changes) so even if the NZ one hasn’t changed this may still be affected.
    Last edited by Trigirl; 22nd August 2006 at 09:44 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Arrgh! It's so confusing, eh? I guess that's what you get when trying to swing through loopholes. I think I'll just have to approach a company that can assure me that they have recently provided this service successfully.

    As noone made mention of TaxBack, I'll leave that one for now. Jax mentioned Brittania, but I have heard bad views of them too. I'll try to stay clear of the banks for now as I have read elsewhere in this forum that they have never done cash payouts. Thanks for the ASB brochure link Trigirl - I'll bring that up with the various potential companies.

    I'll keep this thread posted.

    Cheers
    Brad

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