# Pension arrangements



## limeyontour (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi,
We moved over to Ontario from the UK in May of last year. Now things have settled down and we are living regular lives again I finally have the time to think about the finer details of our move. 

I have a UK pension that is frozen over there until retirement age. I have two questions:

1. I may have the option of buying pension years in my new Canadian pension scheme, but dont know whether to keep two seperate funds. My only concern with keeping the UK fund is the uncertainty of exchanging pounds to dollars every month when I start receiving a monthly pension. But i do like the thought of keeping two separate fund, to hedge my bets. Just wondered what other people have done or arranged to do in similar situations.

2. My wife and I paid national insurance contributions for approximately 20 years. Does anyone know if will we be able to claim any kind of Uk state pension at age 65 ?

I appreciate that this kind of information is best discussed with a financial adviser but I am sure that there are many expats out there that have already been through this scenario and found answers, that would at the very least give me a basic knowledge to make us a little more informed.

Any help is appreciated.


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## JGK (Dec 12, 2009)

I think you can apply for an assessment of your final UK pension payout and can purchase additional years there as well.

Personally I'm maintaining the UK NI contributions for a UK state pension as well as paying into the canadian pension scheme


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## MandyB (Jan 14, 2010)

1. I may have the option of buying pension years in my new Canadian pension scheme, but dont know whether to keep two seperate funds. My only concern with keeping the UK fund is the uncertainty of exchanging pounds to dollars every month when I start receiving a monthly pension. But i do like the thought of keeping two separate fund, to hedge my bets. Just wondered what other people have done or arranged to do in similar situations.
Answer: I am doing the same investigation at the moment and have found that I can transfer my own pension into a RSP (Alberta) as long as my UK pension server is QROPS - see HMRC web site where there is a list of Canadian companies recognised by UK government. I have to check out what costs are involved but the RSP is a tax benefit for residents and all the pension is available after 5 yrs in Canada not a percentage like UK. Also rollover of all funds to your spouse not just 55% like UK. A lot better. Still investigate yourself.

2. My wife and I paid national insurance contributions for approximately 20 years. Does anyone know if will we be able to claim any kind of Uk state pension at age 65 ?
Yes go to HMRC web site there are forms you have to fill in so the pension is paid to you from UK to Canada. You can choose monthly, bi-annual or yearly payments. investigate web site.
Hope this helps
MandyB


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