For years, Expats who were residing in Canada were allowed to transfer their UK pensions to Canada into a QROPS (Qualified Recognized Overseas Pension Scheme) RRSP account within certain limits. In February of 2017, HMRC stopped allowing the transfer of pensions from the UK to Canada.

Unexpectedly on September 15 2019, HMRC started allowing the transfer of UK pensions to Canada into a QROPS. They have added an age requirement which states that you must be age 55 or older to be able to transfer a UK pension to Canada. As of October 2019, there were two companies that were approved to accept transfers again (Industrial Alliance and iA Clarington) to Canada. In January 2020, Cidel Alternate Retirement Plan was also approved. This still stands as of today (October 2022).

Simon Huften at Strata Wealth specializes in assisting with the transfer of UK pensions to Canada into QROPS RRSP accounts. If you are considering moving your pension funds from the UK to Canada, you will want to act quickly because HMRC can stop allowing these transfers at any time (as they have done in the past).