UK Pension Transfers (SIPP / ROPS)
An options review for non-UK residents: leave it in the UK, move to a SIPP, or transfer to a ROPS — with the trade-offs written down.
A UK pension transfer is an options review before it is a transaction. For a non-UK resident there are three credible routes — leave the scheme in the UK, move it to an international SIPP, or transfer to a Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (ROPS, formerly QROPS). Each has a different tax, charge, currency and flexibility outcome, and for many clients the right answer is to leave it where it is.
ASJ Group produces the comparison. Transfer values, safeguarded benefits, the overseas transfer charge, scheme charges, drawdown flexibility, death-benefit treatment and how your country of residence taxes each route are set out side by side in writing, with the recommendation stated plainly.
Defined-benefit transfers and any regulated advice are handled by an appropriately authorised adviser; we coordinate that engagement, review the output and remain your point of contact. Any product or transfer remuneration is disclosed before implementation.
Scope of engagement
- Leave / SIPP / ROPS comparison
- Overseas transfer charge analysis
- Regulated adviser coordination
Typical clients
- Non-UK residents holding UK defined-contribution or defined-benefit pensions
- Clients who have been approached with a ROPS or QROPS recommendation and want an independent second view
- Expatriates consolidating several small UK pots
- Families planning death-benefit treatment of a UK pension across borders
A named director on the file, from first call to handover.
Scheme details, transfer values, guarantees and safeguarded benefits requested and verified in writing.
Leave, SIPP and ROPS compared on tax, charges, currency, flexibility and death benefits for your residency.
Overseas transfer charge exposure, exit penalties and ongoing costs quantified over the expected holding period.
Where a transfer is right, it is implemented through an authorised adviser and tracked to completion.
What you receive.
Every engagement closes with a director-signed handover pack — retained on file for thirty years.
- Verified schedule of UK pension entitlements and transfer values
- Written leave / SIPP / ROPS comparison
- Overseas transfer charge and cost analysis
- Death-benefit and beneficiary treatment summary
- Coordination with the regulated adviser through to completion
Jurisdictions in active use for this service.
Questions we hear on every intake call.
- What is the difference between a SIPP and a ROPS?
- An international SIPP remains a UK-registered scheme with UK rules and UK protections. A ROPS is an overseas scheme meeting HMRC conditions; it can offer different currency and reporting features but may trigger the overseas transfer charge and sits outside UK regulation.
- What is the overseas transfer charge?
- A 25% HMRC charge that applies to transfers to overseas schemes unless an exclusion applies — most commonly where you are resident in the same country as the receiving scheme. Whether it applies to you is confirmed before anything is signed.
- Should I transfer a defined-benefit pension?
- Usually not. Giving up a guaranteed, inflation-linked income is rarely in a member's interest, and any such transfer requires formal advice from an FCA-authorised specialist. We say so plainly when the answer is to stay put.
- Do you earn commission on transfers?
- Any product or transfer remuneration is disclosed before implementation. The review itself is part of the wealth-management engagement, which is funded through the products and portfolios we recommend rather than fixed fees or hourly charges.
Start with a twenty-minute call. Leave with a written scope.
Every engagement begins with a director — not a junior, not a chatbot. Fixed fees, quoted in writing, before any work begins.
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