I was just wondering if your financial situation would happen to get very desperate, would it be possible to liquidation a pension (personal one) that has only been running for a few years. Presumably this isn't generally recommended, you'd get taxed on all the contributions and couldn't wthdraw any SERPS related contributions but otherwise would it be feasible to recover a reasonable amount from it ?
Cheers for any opinions.
not ones I have seen, the best you can do is stop contributions, you get what is left at retirement time.
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:02:31 +0000, mrcheerful . scribbled by his own authority...
(in article ):
As I understand it, with the exception of 'selected' occupations e.g., footballers, jockeys etc., where their earning capacity is short lived, the earliest retirement age for a pension is 50.
I didn't get the op so excuse piggybacking.
There are companies that claim to be able to release your pension, but I believe they only operate where the client is aged >P as they just transfer any non state pension with higher age limits to a personal pension. Watch the fees. The FSA has issued a warning -
Other than that you can only get early payment or cash in on serious ill health or if you're on the list of careers where it is allowed.
Daytona
There are shady firms that will transfer a PP to a pension provider in another country. The new provider is Inland Revenue approved, but the rules in that country are lax and it is possible to get access to the entire fund.
The firm I came across wanted 20% commission, and a minimum fund of
150k before they were interested.It's probably illegal - if you get caught. The interesting thing is that it can be done even while the beneficiary remains UK resident. Otherwise (in the case of the beneficiary emigrating to that country) the avenue is open to him doing it himself and nobody will care.
I don't know what country it was done through; perhaps Spain, Luxembourg, etc?
I am sure any good IFA will have a contact. It's risky however; the firm doing it could run off with the money.
"John-Smith" wrote
The IR is getting wise to these "trust-busting" (pension liberation) schemes. A well-known life office was "fined" 500,000 recently for their involvement...
You may find that the (current) scheme administrators do not allow the transfer-out to be paid in "dodgy" circumstances (for fear of IR fines).
mrcheerful . wrote on Thu, 17 Feb 2005
I think it is going to be possible, under the revised pension legislation due to take effect in 2006, to cash in, on a per lifetime basis, small pension funds if they don't amount to more than about fifteen thousand pounds.
That's simplifying it a bit, and I don't even know if it's all totally crystallised in black and white yet; but try googling on pension and "trivial commutation". There's a helpful simple summary, for example, at: .
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