FEES - COSTS - CHARGES
Undisclosed QROPS Transfer Charges
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When you first left the UK and landed in your overseas paradise you were probably contacted by an offshore financial advisor. Maybe one of the big boys like DeVere or Blevins Franks? Did you take a meeting with them and did they advise you to transfer your UK pension benefits into a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS)?
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Up until recently the QROPS transfer market was big business for offshore financial advisors, but due to non commission disclosure your UK pension fund may have taken a 19% hit/reduction during the transfer process. Below is a list of fees, costs and charges that you may not be aware of due to your offshore financial advisor legally not having to disclose commissions!
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Broker Fee
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You may have been charged a broker fee of up to 5% of your pension fund and may not have been made aware of this. In a lot of cases this was a tick box on the transfer or investment documation which may have not been brought to your attention, especially if you did not complete the paperwork yourself.
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Investment Bond Wrapper
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Offshore financial advisors often use investment bonds to boost commission by up to 8% of your fund transfer. Client funds are placed into bonds with companies like Hansard or Royal London 360 who pay them a commission up front.
On top of the 8% up front commission the bond wrapper would also pay the advisor a further 1% yearly commission if the box on the form was ticked.
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Structured Note Commission
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Your funds will leave the investment bond and often be placed in a structured investment note giving the advisor another 5% up front payment. A lot of these notes were renewable every 6 to 12 months and even if poorly performed the advisor would be paid again once reinvested.
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​​​QROPS Repatriation Fees & Charges
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We like to be very transparent about the fees you will pay if you decide to repatriate your QROPS back into a HMRC approved UK pension scheme.
To keep things simple we have two different fees which is a scheme establishment fee of 5% of your transfer in gross value, and is a one off charge for arranging your transfer and all associated works involved. This can be quite intense and time consuming as transferring QROPS companies will not want to let your funds go, especially if they are charging you a £1,000.00 to £2,000.00 yearly administration fee. Secondly we charge a yearly administration fee of £495.00 which is for things like preparing HMRC returns, yearly statements and general administration duties.