Unlike KiwiSaver, where people take the same account with them when they switch jobs or KiwiSaver providers, UK workers can accumulate separate pension accounts with different employers, which has led to some rare \u2013 but extraordinary \u2013 discoveries. <\/p>\n
Rees-Williams says he had one client who thought he had a pension worth about \u00a3400,000 [$916,000) only to discover he in fact had two separate schemes with the same provider, meaning \u201che actually had \u00a3800,000\u201d. <\/p>\n
Another client who transferred money a decade ago was recently contacted by a UK insurer about a forgotten pension worth \u00a3236,000. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s life-changing for some people,\u201d Rees-Williams says. <\/p>\n
But once people discover the money exists, the next challenge is deciding whether to leave it in the UK or bring it home. <\/p>\n
Part of the complication is that UK pensions are taxed almost in reverse to how KiwiSaver is taxed. <\/p>\n
In New Zealand, retirement savings are taxed going in, and on investment returns, but then withdrawals are tax-free at retirement. In the UK, pension contributions and investment returns are generally tax-free, but withdrawals are taxed later. <\/p>\n
That also needs to be weighed up against the fact there is a limited four-year window after becoming a New Zealand tax resident where transfers can potentially be made without being subject to taxation. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you transferred it in year five, you would have to pay tax on a little bit of it, and it increases every year,\u201d Rees-Williams says. <\/p>\n
If you do decide to transfer your funds, the process can be painfully slow. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe longest one we\u2019ve dealt with is five years,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
UK pensions must be transferred into a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension fund, or QROP, so funds can\u2019t be withdrawn for a first home or financial hardship. <\/p>\n
Whatever you decide to do, Rees-Williams says the worst mistake is simply forgetting the money exists. <\/p>\n
Watch or listen to the full episode of <\/b>The Prosperity Project<\/b><\/a> for more.<\/b><\/p>\n The Prosperity Project is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and financial adviser.<\/b><\/p>\n Follow the show at <\/b>iHeartRadio<\/b><\/a>, <\/b>Apple Podcasts<\/b><\/a>, <\/b>Spotify<\/b><\/a> or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlike KiwiSaver, where people take the same account with them when they switch jobs or KiwiSaver providers, UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1026738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3093],"tags":[25029,13236,51,55240,14381,474,40333,42401,11319,1232,20996,3577,2074,617,2499,47075,105482,283593,46343,57006,125916,40881,5598,21032,10908,16,15,42402],"class_list":["post-1026737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-be","tag-big","tag-business","tag-cases","tag-could","tag-finance","tag-forgotten","tag-kiwis","tag-missing","tag-money","tag-more","tag-of","tag-pension","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-project","tag-prosperity","tag-realise","tag-sitting","tag-some","tag-spent","tag-than","tag-the","tag-they","tag-thousands","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-years"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116750380340463514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}