I would be interested in who this was Roger. I am looking into this myself right now. Any info appreciated. Sue
We have a meeting today with someone from deVere can you enlighten us as to their competence etc. Have just started looking into QROPS no intention of committing to anything today but it looks like an interesting proposition for us. Any help appreciated. Sue
Vic, I have recently gone the QROPS route myself with someone I was introduced to through SFN. I took the 25% of my "pot" in cash and the rest is invested through Scandia. I intend taking 5.5% of that annually. Your wife's situation and mine sound very similar. It was an ideal route for me. Let me know if you want the guy's name.
Rob Hesketh has a page on this site he set up our assurance vie and adviced us on how to get the best from our millions
We are just starting to have him represent us for our Assurance Vie.
He comes highly recommended by Simon Davies of our asset managers, S C Davies.
He has known and worked with him for over twenty years.
We had a long Skype conversation with him and found him to be on the ball and personable.
Thanks Jane. Have you dealt with him & if so has he arranged anything for you? I am really looking for somebody who has one of these things. I have yet to meet an FA who will guarantee your money back if the advice given is bad but they are quick to take your dosh in fees etc. It's a minefield. I'm sorted for better or for worse but as my wife is younger than me the odds are she will outlive me by a long shot. We are just looking for the best deals to keep her in horses in her dotage :-)
Vic, here is someone who will give you good advice. He is fully conversant with all the French financial regulations. He has have been recommended to us by our asset maangers in UK.
Alan Blaskiewicz [alan@classic-fs.com]
He lives and works in Belgium and he likes to speak to you via Skype, so you can make up your own mind.
Hope you don't mind if I enter this thread with a pension query. Some while ago I asked if anyone had any personal experience of QROPS or Drawdown or whatever. My wife has a pension fund of about £100,000, is 60 years old & doesn,t fancy taking an annuity which will probably not even give her money back over her lifetime. We don't really need the income as my pensions etc. are sufficient & she will get the full UK. OAP in 2015 (robbing ba**rds) but have somewhat conflicting professional advice as to what is the best thing to do.
Does anybody have any personal experiences & advice to offer?
Thanks very much for the reply Brian. I will retire well after 2016 unfortunately. I will probably work for another 9 years. I will be contacting the UK to find out what happens with someone in my situation.
Thanks again.
Hard one. Devere mean state pension. The government has claimed that changes will make most people better off. Second state pension will be abolished when a new single tier pension begins in April 2016, A few bodies such as the TUC and some financial institutions beg to defer. The TUC alone are saying that people doing their (minimum of) 30 or more years to qualify for full pension are likely to lose out by as much as £2,000 a year. The current notional level of the flat rate pension is £144 a week. At the time of its announcement the government had said that the flat rate will provide a fair base which is set above the basic level of means test, thus help people know how much they need to save (private pension) for the kind of retirement they want. Pension experts, including deVere, are arguing that high income earners who contributed significantly more to their state pension than those who correlate with the proposed £144 will end up losing a lot on the uniform single tier pension. In other words, they will be paying pension contributions of which a large part will not go back to them although the government says that pension contributions are actually a saving and investment scheme.
I am 65 in seven weeks time. I have paid nothing like 30 years in the UK and have had a forecast of thirty odd quid a week. Ironically many of the years I was not paying I was receiving grants from UK government funding bodies but they were tax and social charges exempt, so I had to insure myself and buy a private pension (one of the two that went entirely broke a few years back at that). On enquiring about the flat rate in 2016, the people in Newcastle told me that since my pension begins in 2013 I will almost certainly be exempted. On the basis of my own situation, which I will live with because I intend to work as long as I can in any event, get good, sound advice on your situation. Your 50:50 might disadvantage you, although if it is after 2016 the details are not yet available.
The government cannot provide them but deVere's argument you have received appears to be right but I suspect that they are aiming at higher end earners who will seriously lose money and not you or I. They are not a dodgy company but perhaps might be proposing a fairly costly scheme as the couple of companies who have approached me did.
Thanks Catharine.
Stuart - will pm you over the weekend re this. x