Lawsons Network UK Pension Transfer Service

Alongside existing network Member, Patterson Mills Sàrl, Lawsons Network provides our global network of Members a UK pension transfer service, fully licensed and regulated in the UK.

Lawsons Network UK Pension Transfer Service

Alongside existing network Member, Patterson Mills Sàrl, Lawsons Network provides our global network of Members a UK pension transfer service, fully licensed and regulated in the UK.

Comment ça marche

This service offers a full advice suitability report, with UK regulated advice and UK IFA sign-off where needed.

Due to Patterson Mills’ close links with the UK, it has a wealth of experience with the ins-and-outs of all pension transfer types. Indeed, Managing Director, Edward Mills, has over 38-years of experience in this sector.

This means that our Lawsons Network UK Pension Transfer Service is ideally positioned to assist you and your clients in bringing their UK pension fund money into your potential AUM universe, whether it’s using an International SIPP, QROPS, or other International Pension Plan.

Transfer types covered

Defined Contribution (DC) Transfers

These can be a Personal Pension, Section 32 buy-out Plan, or an Occupational Money Purchase Scheme. Where there are safeguarded benefits, the UK pension scheme trustees will require a UK IFA advice sign-off. These benefits can be any of the following:

Guaranteed Minimum Pensions (GMPs)
Section 9.2 (b) – Reference Scheme Tests
Drawdown contract with inherent guarantees (“3^rd way pensions”)
Guaranteed Annuities
Tax-free cash protections – not technically ‘safeguarded’ though important.

The advice suitability report protects you, whilst your Client can feel 100% comfortable that the right UK licensed advice has been sought and provided.

The UK pension provider is satisfied by the UK IFA Advice Certificate being signed by an appropriately regulated UK Advice Firm.

Defined Benefit (DB) Transfers

These are more heavily regulated, and Patterson-Mills in the UK has partnered with a close connection that provides qualified DB Transfer Advice. This involves a detailed client journey, starting with initial exploration of the subject with the client, known as “Abridged Advice”. This is followed, if it has resulted in a classification of the DB scheme funds in question as being potentially in client interests to transfer, by the “Full Advice” stage.

The abridged advice is currently offered without charge to the client. There is a small £75 charge to Money Alive, a financial educational company that provides video content necessary to be viewed by the client. This video educational content provides important regulatory verification that the client understands the concepts.

For DB schemes, it is recommended that a minimum Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) is £100,000.

Although there are exceptions, generally your client must be aged 55 or over to receive DB transfer advice using this service.

Such exceptions could be where there is serious ill-health, or a transaction need to be started prior to 55 in order to complete efficiently at age 55. Another exception would if the client is deemed a professional investor with extensive fund knowledge and an understanding of risk, reward and loss.

Regardless of exceptions, there is no access to funds, if transferred, prior to age 55. In fact, for those born after 5^th April 1971, it’s age 57.

Fees and charges

Patterson Mills Sàrl charges a fee for its service, paid to Lawsons Network AG.

DC transfer service

UK regulatory requirements mean that a suitability of advice letter is required from Patterson-Mills regulated in the UK, along with sign-off (where needed) for the certification of safeguarded benefits.

Our standard fee, charged via Lawsons Network AG, is CHF 2’500.- (2,438 €, or £2,150 – pricing is based upon the CHF amount).

DB transfer service

For amounts above £30,000, this is a highly complex advice process and the costs vary with the CETV amount. The key is to ensure that Full Advice fees are avoided unless absolutely necessary. This is done by having highest quality Abridged Advice at the start of the process.

Thus, if full advice is undertaken, the idea is that the outcome of the Abridged Advice would have been that it is ‘highly likely’ to be deemed appropriate to transfer-out, should the client wish to do so. This would mean that the non-contingent fees to which the client would have agreed, would only be incurred when making a successful transfer-out. Then, the advice fees would come from the pension transfer fund itself, via the new pension or QROPS provider.

Our DB transfer partners are highly qualified and greatly experienced in this specialist sector, transacting DB advice services on a daily basis. In other words, DB advice is all our partners do and so the service has been finely tuned to work and uses the latest digital processing, making it easy to implement in the international marketplace.

Typically, the cost of Full Advice for DB transfers would be in the region of 2% to 5% of the amount, the higher the CETV, the lower the comparable percentage cost overall.

Is a pension transfer right for your client?

There are benefits of transferring a UK pension fund to a new pension scheme. This could be to an International SIPP – to merge funds onto one platform. Alternatively, to an approved QROPS, enabling you to manage the client funds in a properly aligned way, alongside their other investments that you are managing.

However, it can be a complex process that requires specialist advice.

With regards to a DB scheme, UK law actually requires you to take advice before surrendering your DB pension if receiving a transfer value (CETV) of more than £30,000.

All transfer advice must come from a Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised firm.

Lawsons Network, with Patterson Mills, know how to get pension transfers done as seamlessly and efficiently as possible.

Vous avez trois grandes options en matière de prestations de retraite au Royaume-Uni :

Transfer-out to an International Pension Plan, registered with HMRC as a UK pension (e.g. an “International SIPP”).
Leave the funds in the UK scheme.
Transfer to a QROPS, or other International Pension Plan, subject to prior residency tests and tax assessments.

A qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme (QROPS) must be registered with HMRC and is usually only available from age 55.

An International SIPP remains under UK pension rules.

The benefits of this service

The key here is that Lawsons Network is providing its members with a cross-border service that complies with UK regulatory rules for UK pensions.

Our international dimension means that the Patterson Mills Sàrl in Switzerland can deal with your client internationally, whilst Patterson-Mills Financial Planning Limited in the UK is able to offer UK compliant advice that satisfies the UK pension providers.

For your clients:

A pension free from future UK taxes and (somewhat ad-hoc) changes in UK laws
Consolidate their schemes under one roof
Provide regulated advice in the relevant jurisdiction
Overcome any complications of being in an underfunded UK defined benefit scheme

Although an underfunded DB scheme has the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), it is not as comprehensive as it may at first appear and rarely provides anywhere near 100% protection in asset value terms.

Avoid exchange rate risk
Establish control of investment choice
Freedom from UK rules in the longer-term

UK Overseas Transfers

These are where a UK pension scheme is transferred to a non-UK pension. The most commonly used is a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS). This is an HMRC recognised overseas pension scheme which has been registered with HMRC.

This means the pension provider for the QROPS must have provided details and evidence to HMRC that:

The scheme satisfies all the UK HMRC requirements to be a qualifying recognised overseas scheme
The scheme will notify HMRC if the scheme ceases to be a qualifying recognised overseas scheme and supply them with information when making certain payments
The scheme must not have been excluded from being a QROPS. Exclusion may happen if the scheme fails to comply with any of the HMRC requirements
1. If this happens, HMRC must inform the scheme manager within 30-days. There is an option to appeal this decision

Bien qu'un régime puisse être reconnu comme un QROPS, la législation fiscale locale peut ne pas autoriser un transfert vers ce régime.

New rules for overseas transfers

Transferring to a QROPS is subject to the new HMRC Overseas Transfer Rules, which replaced the previous benefit crystallisation events (BCEs) relevant to transfers from the UK to an overseas pension arrangement.

The scrapped Lifetime Allowance, from 6^th April 2024, has been replaced by the Overseas Transfer Allowance (OTA).

The OTA is £1,073,100.

Transfers in excess of the OTA are subject to a tax charge by HMRC and so great care is needed from a planning perspective for larger pension funds.