Transferring a UK pension to the USA

[Toledospod 0]

Hi everyone!

My wife asked me to post this as she rarely has time to get on the net, what with looking after the little bambino.

She recently left her job in London which she was at for over 2 years(well, she got made redundant(severence pay to anyone Americans reading this), but that is another story). During the time she was working for the company, Prudential Plc, she was signed up to a company pension plan. Upon leaving the company, the pension plan is still there but she will no longer contribute to it. My father suggested to her that she might be able to cash the pension plan in as she and I are both leaving the UK soon(as many of you regulars will know). He reckoned that she would get back all the money that she contributed to the penson plan, without any penalties, although he suggested she contact her company to find out.

So my wife contacted an independant advisor first of all and asked about this and they told her she wouldn't be able to cash the pension plan in at all, even if she was leaving the country, but she could transfer the UK pension to a US equivalent, i.e. a 401K(I don't know anything about 401K's, but my wife does).

Has anyone from the UK been in a similar situation and transferred their pension plan to the US when they moved there and if so, how did you do it?

[MrsWhizz 0]

Great question! My husband and I were just talking about this very thing. Please keep me posted.

[AFQuaid 18]

My father looked into this, it can be done...you need to contact your local pension office to have your pension payed overseas. You can continue to recieve this from the UK unless you become an US citizen through naturalization. Best of Luck.

And for those on the long term high band incompacity benefit in the uk (like myself) I just found out they will pay it into a US bank account for me as long as my needing it still applies (unable to support myself). But the down side is it may be subject to both UK and US taxes. So thats a bummer but great news that we can get a little bit of help with that I got the form from the pension office about that ready to fill in and send off 2 weeks before i leave.

I hope this helped

[Lou Lou 1]

If she has been contributing to the plan for over 2 years, then no, she can't cash it in. I tranferred a pension into another UK one but I'm sure there must be someone who has moved it over to the US? We haven't bothered to move mine as we intend to move back in a few years anyway.

[meauxna 15]

So my wife contacted an independant advisor first of all and asked about this and they told her she wouldn't be able to cash the pension plan in at all, even if she was leaving the country, but she could transfer the UK pension to a US equivalent, i.e. a 401K(I don't know anything about 401K's, but my wife does).

Has anyone from the UK been in a similar situation and transferred their pension plan to the US when they moved there and if so, how did you do it?

There are a lot of expats who have dealt with the issue who post to this group: http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=57

The pinned post at the top of the forum is a great place to start, and there are a couple of folk who work in the financial industry & are familiar with the issues.

You may find it's better to leave it over there, or not.

My father looked into this, it can be done...you need to contact your local pension office to have your pension payed overseas. You can continue to recieve this from the UK unless you become an US citizen through naturalization. Best of Luck.

And for those on the long term high band incompacity benefit in the uk (like myself) I just found out they will pay it into a US bank account for me as long as my needing it still applies (unable to support myself). But the down side is it may be subject to both UK and US taxes. So thats a bummer but great news that we can get a little bit of help with that I got the form from the pension office about that ready to fill in and send off 2 weeks before i leave.

I hope this helped

I think they're talking about a different kind of pension, Fiona. We are doing more what you suggest.. my husband was already collecting from his pension scheme (early retirement) and now receives his funds directly deposited in the US. The tax on his is collected in the UK and is not taxed in the US.

If you look further into it, there is a tax treaty with the UK to avoid the double taxation you mention.

[Toledospod 0]

AFQuaid, thanks for your advise, but I think you might have mis-understood my post. It is my wife, who is already a US Citizen, who has the pension that she wants to transfer.

Judging from what you have all said and what I also read on the British Ex-Pats board, it sounds like this isn't going to be an easy task, since the pension rules changed last month apparently. My wife is going to phone her old company and get the low-down from them.

We'll let you know what happens.

Thanks for the advise

[Tim and Bethanie 1]

If you do find out anything, pass it on in a p.m please. Tim called his company last night, seems the calls are outsourced to a different country, causing him difficulty to get his point across and a decent answer. He is going to write to them instead, and hope for a good answer. The only thing we came across while searching, was cashing it in at the age of retirement. It still seems to me when looking through his pension plan last year there was a comment about cashing in if you were going to be a non resident. I too will let you know if he comes up with anything sooner.

Bethanie