Moving to Dubai for work

I just accepted a three-year contract in the UAE and I'm trying to sort out my finances before I leave London. I have about £80k in a standard workplace pension here. I keep hearing about QROPS and transferring funds offshore to save on taxes, but it sounds incredibly complicated. Has anyone moved their pension recently? Is it better to leave it frozen in the UK or move it to an international plan?

I left my pension in the UK when I moved to Abu Dhabi five years ago. unless you are planning to retire abroad permanently, the fees for transferring to a QROPS can often outweigh the tax benefits. The transfer charges can be massive, sometimes up to 5% of your total pot.

It really depends on your long-term plans. If you are definitely never returning to the UK, a transfer might make sense to avoid future currency risk. However, the regulatory landscape changes constantly. When I was looking into this, I interviewed about four different advisory firms. I did a lot of due diligence, reading things like Devere Group reviews https://www.deveregroup.reviews/ and checking the FCA register to see who was actually licensed. It was eye-opening to see the range of experiences people had with fees and fund performance. Ultimately, I decided that a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) was safer than handing control over to a large international brokerage.