What Is an Expat Pension Review?
An expat pension review is a structured look at the UK pensions you hold, set against where you live, where you may live later and what you want from retirement. Its job is to answer one question: given your situation, should each pension stay where it is, move to a cheaper UK provider, or move to an expat SIPP or an overseas scheme (QROPS)?
A good review does not start with a product. It starts with what you have, what it guarantees, what it costs and what you need. Sometimes the right answer is to leave everything as it is, and a review should be willing to say so.
This page explains how expat pension advice works, who it is for, what we look at, how our process runs step by step, and what to ask any adviser before you commit. It is part of our guide to UK pensions for expats. Last reviewed.
Who Needs an Expat Pension Review?
Anyone with a UK pension who has left the UK, or is about to, can benefit. These are the situations where it matters most.
- You have just moved abroad. Your tax position, your options and your plans have all changed, and your pensions have not.
- You have lived abroad for years. Pensions left untouched can sit in the wrong investments, carry high charges or have out-of-date details.
- You hold a final salary pension. The guaranteed income is valuable, and any decision about it needs care.
- You have several pensions. Combining them might save cost and effort, or might lose benefits.
- You are approaching retirement. Decisions about income, currency and tax become more urgent.
- You are thinking of returning to the UK. What you do now can affect what is possible then.
- You have been offered a transfer. You want an independent view before you act.
- You are self-employed or a contractor abroad. You may have no employer scheme and a mix of old pensions.
What a Pension Review Looks At
| Area | What is checked |
|---|---|
| Your pensions | Every UK pension you hold: type, value, provider, investments and charges |
| Guarantees | Any guaranteed income, annuity rates, inflation increases or spouse’s benefits you could lose |
| Costs | What you pay today, and what you would pay under each alternative |
| Your plans | Where you live, where you may live, when you want to retire and what income you need |
| Tax | UK tax, tax where you live, and any double tax treaty |
| Options | Leaving it, moving to another UK provider, an expat SIPP, a QROPS, or taking benefits |
| Risks | Investment risk, currency risk, and what is hard to undo |
| Passing it on | Beneficiary nominations and inheritance tax |
Types of UK Pension We Review
Each type of pension raises different questions, so a review treats them separately before looking at the whole picture.
Final salary (defined benefit) pensions
These pay a guaranteed income for life, usually linked to your salary and years of service. They are the most valuable pensions many expats hold and the hardest to replace. A review here is mostly about whether giving up the guarantee could ever be justified, and the honest answer is often no.
Workplace defined contribution pensions
Pots built up through employer auto-enrolment. They are often left with default funds and default charges, and often on platforms that do not expect you to live abroad. A review checks the charges, the fund choice and whether the provider will keep serving you from overseas.
Personal pensions and old SIPPs
Older personal pensions can carry exit penalties, high annual charges or limited fund ranges. Some have valuable features such as guaranteed annuity rates. We check for these before suggesting any move.
Public sector schemes
Teachers, NHS, police, armed forces and civil service schemes are generally defined benefit. Many are unfunded, which affects what transfer options exist. Where a transfer is not available, a review still covers how and when to take the benefits from abroad.
The State Pension
The State Pension cannot be transferred, but it is part of the picture. We look at your National Insurance record, whether it is worth paying voluntary contributions, and how you will claim it from abroad. You choose one country for payment and it can be paid into an overseas or UK bank account.
Common Problems We Find in Expat Pensions
- High or unclear charges. Older plans often charge more than current ones, and the charges can be hard to find on the statement.
- Investments that no longer fit. A fund chosen at 30 may be wrong at 55, or may never have been reviewed at all.
- Forgotten pensions. Small pots from old employers that were never tracked down.
- Out-of-date details. An old UK address means missed statements and missed changes to the scheme.
- Beneficiary nominations that are wrong or missing. This can send a pension to the wrong person or delay payment to your family.
- Currency mismatch. Pensions are valued in pounds while your spending may be in another currency.
- Providers that restrict overseas clients. Some limit online access, withdrawals or advice if you live abroad.
- Unregulated transfer pitches. Offers promising high returns for moving a pension abroad should be treated with great caution.
Our Pension Review Process
We focus particularly on final salary (defined benefit) pensions, where the decision is largest and the analysis most detailed. Our review runs in five steps.
- Consultation and fact find. An adviser talks through your circumstances, your pensions and your plans, and completes a full fact find. If a transfer may be worth considering, we begin a review.
- Letter of Authority. You sign a Letter of Authority that lets us ask your pension provider or trustee for the details we need, such as scheme information, value and costs. You send us your latest annual statement from each provider.
- Information request. We send the signed Letter of Authority to each provider or trustee.
- Transfer pack and analysis. The provider issues a transfer pack, which is valid for a limited time (three months). It includes a transfer value, called the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value, on which the decision is based. Our pensions team then runs a critical yield analysis and compares your current charges with lower-cost alternatives.
- Recommendation. Based on where you plan to retire and what you want, we recommend one of three routes: keep your current plan, move to a cheaper provider, or move to an overseas pension scheme or a SIPP for more control over investments.
What You Receive at the End
A recommendation should be something you can read, question and take away. At a minimum you should expect:
- a summary of what you hold and what it is worth
- the options considered, including leaving things as they are
- the recommendation, and why it suits you
- what you would give up if you move
- every cost, in pounds, now and ongoing
- the main risks, and the tax position as far as it is known
You decide what to do. A review is advice, not an instruction.
The Three Possible Outcomes
1. Keep your current plan
If your pension has valuable guarantees, sensible charges and investments that suit you, the best advice may be to do nothing, with a plan to review it again. This is more common than people expect, especially with final salary pensions.
2. Move to a cheaper UK provider
If charges are high or the fund range is poor, a transfer to another UK provider can cut cost without changing which rules apply. There is no overseas transfer charge, because the pension stays in the UK. See our pension transfer guide for how a transfer works.
3. Move to an overseas scheme or a SIPP
If you want more control over investments, or a structure that suits a long-term life abroad, a SIPP or an overseas scheme may fit. These carry their own costs, risks and tax rules. Read the full guides before you decide: Expat SIPP and QROPS for UK Expats.
Final Salary Pensions: What the Transfer Pack Means
If you hold a final salary pension, the review turns on the transfer pack that your scheme issues. These are the terms you will meet.
- Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV). The lump sum the scheme says your guaranteed benefits are worth if you transfer out. Transfer values move with markets and interest rates, so a high figure is not automatically a good deal.
- The guarantee period. A transfer pack is usually valid for a limited time, here three months, after which you may need to ask for a new one.
- Critical yield. The investment growth you would need each year, after charges, to replace the guaranteed income if you transfer. The higher it is, the harder the transfer is to justify.
- What you give up. A guaranteed income for life, often with inflation increases and a spouse’s pension.
Regulated advice is required before you transfer safeguarded benefits worth £30,000 or more. For many people with a final salary pension, leaving it in place will remain the right answer. Our guide to final salary pension transfers for expats covers this in detail.
Three Illustrative Examples
These are simplified, hypothetical examples to show how a review can end. They are not real clients and not a recommendation for your situation.
Example 1: A teacher in Dubai with a final salary pension
A former UK teacher has a defined benefit pension and wants to take control of it. The review finds a guaranteed, inflation-linked income and a spouse’s pension that a transferred pot would struggle to replace. The outcome is to keep the pension, update the nominations and review again at retirement.
Example 2: A manager in Singapore with two old workplace pots
Two workplace pensions sit with providers that charge more than current alternatives and neither supports overseas clients well. The outcome is to move both to one lower-cost UK provider, keeping the money in the UK so no overseas transfer charge arises.
Example 3: A contractor in Kuala Lumpur planning to stay long term
A contractor with a large personal pension plans to settle abroad permanently and wants investments in several currencies. After comparing costs, risks and tax, the review considers an expat SIPP or an overseas scheme, and sets out what each would cost and what could go wrong.
Pension Advice by Region
The pension rules that apply are the UK’s, wherever you live, but the tax and practical issues vary by region. We work with expats in:
- Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China and Japan. Local tax treatment of foreign pensions differs widely, and some of these places have no tax on foreign income, which changes the planning.
- The Middle East: The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others, where there is often no personal income tax but also no local pension to fall back on.
- Europe: Spain, France, Portugal and others, where local tax treatment of pension income can matter a great deal.
- Australasia: Australia and New Zealand, which have their own pension systems and rules on foreign pensions.
- The Americas and Africa: Including the United States, which has its own tax rules for foreign pensions and needs particular care.
Where tax treatment depends on your country of residence, we say so clearly. For local tax advice we recommend you speak to a tax adviser in the country where you live.
What to Have Ready for Your First Conversation
You do not need everything before you start, but these make the first conversation more useful:
- your latest annual statement for each pension
- the names of past employers whose schemes you may have joined
- your State Pension forecast, if you have one
- the country you live in, how long you expect to stay, and where you may go next
- when you would like to retire, and roughly what income you would like
- any other pensions, including overseas ones
If you have lost track of a pension, the government’s Pension Tracing Service can help you find it.
Costs: What to Ask Any Adviser
Whoever you speak to, ask these questions before you agree to anything:
- What will the review cost, and what do I pay if the advice is not to transfer?
- Is the fee fixed, a percentage, or commission from a product?
- What ongoing fees apply afterwards, and what do they pay for?
- Will I get the figures in pounds, in writing, before I decide?
- Who is paid if I go ahead, and who is paid if I do not?
. For a fuller checklist, see the section on choosing an adviser in our expat SIPP guide.
How a Transfer Value Is Worked Out
The Cash Equivalent Transfer Value on a final salary pension is not a simple measure of what your pension is worth. Trustees and their actuaries calculate it by estimating what the scheme expects to pay you over your lifetime and then converting that into a single sum today. Three things drive the answer:
- Interest rates and gilt yields. When yields rise, the sum needed today to fund a future income falls, so transfer values can drop even though your pension has not changed.
- Life expectancy assumptions. The longer the scheme assumes you will live, the more the income is worth.
- The scheme’s own method. Different schemes use different assumptions, so two similar pensions can produce different figures.
This is why a large transfer value can be misleading. A big figure is often a sign of low yields rather than a generous offer, and the guaranteed income it replaces is still there if you stay. It is also why timing matters: a value that is guaranteed for a short period can change when it is reissued. A review looks at the income you give up, not just the sum you are offered.
Taking an Income: Drawdown, Annuity or Both
If you hold a defined contribution pension or a SIPP, you will eventually choose how to turn the pot into income. The main options are below, and the right one depends on how much certainty you want, how long you may live and where you will be living.
| Option | How it works | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Drawdown | Your pot stays invested and you take income as needed | Flexible, but your income can fall if investments fall, and the pot can run out |
| Annuity | You swap the pot for a guaranteed income, for life or a set term | Certainty, but usually not reversible, and the income may not rise with inflation unless you pay for that |
| A mix | An annuity to cover essential costs, with drawdown for the rest | A common compromise between security and flexibility |
| Lump sums | Taking cash from the pot in one or more payments | Part may be tax free, but the rest is taxable, and large withdrawals can lead to a high tax bill |
For an expat, the question of which country taxes the income, and at what rate, can change the answer. Withdrawing the whole pot in one year, for instance, can push you into a higher tax band in a country that taxes worldwide income. A review looks at tax before income, not after.
Pensions and the Currency You Will Spend
Most UK pensions are valued and paid in pounds. If you spend in dollars, euros, dirhams or ringgit, the exchange rate becomes part of your retirement income. A falling pound can raise what your pension is worth in your local currency, and a rising one can cut it, with no change to the pension itself.
A review asks three practical questions:
- In which currency will most of your spending be?
- How much of your income is fixed in pounds, and how much could you hold in other currencies?
- What would a drop in the pound do to your plan, and could you live with it?
Holding some investments in the currency you will spend is one way to manage this, and it is one reason some people consider a SIPP or an overseas scheme. It does not remove currency risk, and it adds cost and complexity, so it needs to be weighed against simply leaving the pension where it is.
If You Plan to Return to the UK
Many expats come home eventually, and a pension decision made now can limit what you can do later. If you may return, a review should cover:
- How a transfer would be treated if you came back. Moving a pension out of the UK and then returning can mean tax charges or restrictions that do not apply to a pension that never left.
- Guarantees you would not be able to rebuy. Once a guaranteed income is given up, it generally cannot be recovered.
- UK tax on your pension once you are resident again. UK pensions are taxed under UK rules when you live here.
- Your State Pension record. Years abroad can leave gaps, and it may be worth filling them before you return.
If your plans are uncertain, keeping flexibility is usually worth more than saving a little in charges today.
Passing On Your Pension
What happens to your pension when you die is easy to overlook and expensive to get wrong. A pension is generally not part of your will. It is paid according to the scheme’s rules and the nomination you have on file, which is often years out of date.
- Check that every pension has a current beneficiary nomination, including the right name, address and relationship.
- Check what each scheme pays: a lump sum, an income for a spouse, or neither.
- Ask how tax would apply to your beneficiaries, who may also live abroad. The UK rules on inheritance tax and pensions are changing from 6 April 2027, so this is worth checking now.
If you also hold a will in another country, make sure it does not conflict with the pension nominations. Wills and pension nominations are separate documents and can pull in different directions.
How to Compare Pension Advisers
If you speak to more than one adviser, which is sensible, compare them on the same points:
| Question | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|
| Are they authorised? | The firm and the individual appear on the FCA register, and the permissions cover pension advice |
| Do they cover your country? | They explain how they can advise you where you live, and what they cannot do |
| How are they paid? | Clear, written fees, with no hidden commission |
| Will they say no? | They are willing to recommend doing nothing |
| What do you get in writing? | A report with the options, the costs and the reasons |
| What happens afterwards? | They explain any ongoing service, its cost and how to end it |
Be especially careful with any adviser who proposes a transfer in the first conversation, promises a return, or pushes you to act quickly because of a deadline.
When to Review Your Pensions Again
A review is not a one-off. Look again when you move country, change job, marry or divorce, approach retirement or hear about a rule change. Without a trigger, a check every two or three years is sensible. Charges, investments and tax rules all move, and what suited you at 40 may not suit you at 55. It is also a good time to check your expat insurance cover.
Be Careful With Unsolicited Pension Reviews
Offers of a free pension review that you did not ask for are a classic scam warning sign. A genuine adviser can explain who they are, how they are paid and what they are authorised to do. Check any firm on the FCA Financial Services Register, never take advice from a firm that contacted you first, and report suspected scams to the FCA on 0800 111 6768.
Speaking to Us
We speak to clients by phone or video from our offices in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, and we work with expats around the world. The first step is a conversation about your pensions and your plans, with no commitment to go further. Book a call
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is an expat pension review?
A structured look at your UK pensions, set against where you live and what you want from retirement. It ends in a recommendation to keep, move to a cheaper UK provider, or move to a SIPP or overseas scheme.
2. Do I need expat pension advice?
It is strongly recommended before you move or transfer a pension, particularly if you hold guaranteed benefits. A review can also be worthwhile if you have not looked at your pensions since you moved abroad.
3. How long does a review take?
It depends mainly on how quickly your providers send the information. For a final salary pension, the transfer pack and analysis take longer than the first conversation.
4. What is a Letter of Authority?
A document you sign that lets an adviser request information about your pension directly from your provider or trustee.
5. What is a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value?
The lump sum a scheme says your guaranteed benefits are worth if you transfer out. It changes over time and is not a measure of whether a transfer is a good idea.
6. What is a critical yield?
The investment growth you would need each year, after charges, for a transferred pot to replace the guaranteed income you would give up. The higher it is, the harder a transfer is to justify.
7. Will the review tell me to transfer?
Not necessarily. Keeping your current plan is a possible outcome, and for many final salary pensions it is the right one.
8. Is advice needed to transfer a final salary pension?
Yes. Regulated advice is required before transferring safeguarded benefits worth £30,000 or more.
9. How much does a pension review cost?
Whatever the answer, ask for all costs in writing before you agree to anything.
10. Can you review a pension I have lost track of?
The government’s Pension Tracing Service can help you find it first. Once you have the details, it can be included in a review.
11. How often should I review my pensions?
When your circumstances change, and otherwise every two or three years.
12. How do I check that an adviser is genuine?
Check the firm and the individual on the FCA Financial Services Register, and be wary of anyone who contacted you without being asked.
13. Can I get a pension review if I live abroad?
Yes. Reviews are done by phone or video, and the documents are signed electronically or by post.
14. Can I claim my State Pension abroad?
Yes, if you have paid enough National Insurance. You choose one country for payment, and it can be paid to a UK or overseas bank account.
15. Is tax paid on pension withdrawals if I live abroad?
It depends on the pension, the rules of the country you live in and any double tax treaty. This is one of the things a review looks at.
16. Can my partner and I be reviewed together?
Yes. Pensions, plans and retirement dates are often linked, and a joint review shows the whole household position.
17. What if I have a pension I no longer want to keep with the same provider?
You can usually move it to another UK provider. A review checks first for exit charges and for guarantees you would lose.
18. Does moving abroad change my UK pension?
Not by itself. Your pension stays in the UK and keeps growing. What changes is the tax you pay on it, the options you have and the way you manage it.
Glossary
- Fact find: The questions an adviser asks about your finances, pensions and plans.
- Letter of Authority: A signed document allowing an adviser to request your pension details.
- Defined benefit (DB): A final salary pension with a guaranteed income.
- Defined contribution (DC): A pension pot built from contributions and investment returns.
- Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV): The lump sum a scheme offers if you transfer out.
- Critical yield: The growth needed each year to replace a guaranteed income after a transfer.
- SIPP: A UK personal pension where you choose the investments.
- QROPS: An overseas scheme that meets HMRC’s requirements to receive UK pension transfers.
Thinking About a Pension Review?
Speak to us before you move anything. We’ll look at your pensions, where you live and where you may move, and talk through the options. Book a call
Risk warning: The value of investments can fall as well as rise. Tax rules can change and depend on your circumstances.