Pension unlocking - High Court freezes pension reciprocation scheme assets

A High Court judge has issued a freezing order affecting over a million pounds of assets. Papers released by
the High Court revealed that three related firms  - Ark Business Consulting, Ark Commercial Pension
Planning and Ark Commercial Retirement Planning  - had been prevented by Mr Justice Henderson from
moving around £1.08m from the country to Cyprus. The monies frozen relate to fees billed by the firms
when a pension scheme member tries to "unlock" their monies while under age 55. The schemes claim to
be able to circumvent minimum pension age rules by writing loans (of up to 50% of the pension scheme
funds) to members instead of paying pension benefits.

The law firm McGrigors is acting on behalf of Dalriada Trustees and their pensions partner Ian Gordon said:

"Many of these so-called unlocking schemes test the boundaries of what is legal and effective, and everyone should be made fully aware of the risks. The types of organisations who typically market schemes
of this nature are often registered abroad and as such are not regulated by the FSA. We would advise
anyone who is approached with an 'unlocking' or reciprocation proposition to proceed with the utmost
caution. Some press reports have indicated that pensions reciprocation agreements are marketed as a
means to free up investment for capital in overseas real estate ventures, and that type of arrangement
should sound alarm bells."

The Pensions Regulator and the FSA also issued warnings about such schemes last month

Pension - Fixed Protection

Anyone without primary or enhanced protection can apply for the new fixed protection. Individuals are only likely to need fixed protection if they think that their benefits from all registered pension schemes will be more than £1.5 million when they take their benefits. With fixed protection there are restrictions on further benefit
accrual after 5 April 2012.

Delay to pension income changes

The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) may not be in a position to publish the revised tables of relevant annuity rates in time for the changes in April and in view of the delay, may state that the final cut off for when reference periods must use the new GAD tables will be the 5th June 2011. Providers may therefore be able to use the existing tables for reference periods starting before that date.

All change for pensions.

HMRC have published a summary of the impending changes such as:

• the reduction in annual allowance
• the removal of the requirement to annuitise by age 75 and 
• early access to pension saving

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