Now that you have left the UK and the company you worked for in the UK, it is most likely you are no longer paying into the UK pension scheme that you had with that employer. The money that you and your employer contributed up to the date you left the UK will still be invested. However since you have left, the growth could be extremely minimal. Therefore in most cases your UK pension may be ‘frozen’ and gaining very little for your retirement.
Secondly, when you save for a pension, you should regularly review how it’s invested and as you get older, you should change your investment strategy to reduce risk as retirement draws closer. This is not the case with some UK pension schemes- it is most likely you were signed up for a UK pension when you started with the employer in the UK many years ago and since then your money has remained in the same fund with no adjusting based on your age or risk level as you progress through life. You may not even have the option to switch funds with your current UK pension transfer provider.
Thirdly, keeping your UK pension pot in the UK and then receiving the benefits in the USA when you reach retirement age may be difficult. Unfortunately, some pension providers do not typically pay your pension benefits into an overseas account. So you will need to set up a UK bank account to receive the money and report this for tax purposes. You will then need to think about the impact of any transfer fees and exchange rate variations on the money you receive when you try to transfer it to the USA account. When and how any benefits are exchanged, may make a big difference to how much you will get and there can be unforeseen tax complications in both the UK and USA unless the pension payment is made gross.
LDN Wealth can help. As industry experts in UK pension transfers we can make it easy for clients to receive their UK pension in the USA.
