QROPS Pensions

QROPS Pensions- The Qualified Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme helps you to withdrawal your pension fund and transfers it to another fund without paying the taxes that you normally pay on pension withdraws.
If you need QROPS Advice, Contact now for a free pension review +44 (0) 1884 250 118
http://www.gerardassociates.co.uk

Market report of UK Pensions and QROPS [www.gerardassociates.co.uk]

Currency exchange remains a key factor for many expats with UK Pensions and QROPS. The complexity for Pension and QROPS and investment strategies also needs continues monitoring of exchange rates.
Continuing our daily look at factors affecting currencies allows some insight into market conditions affecting exchange rates. Cash and income timing for UK Pensions and QROPS should be considered to maximise the Pension, QROPS and investment income and benefits taken.

Sterling

Sterling retreated from a three-month high against the euro on Friday as UK first quarter GDP data came in weaker than expected and reports Greece was about to accept aid helped the single currency.
Britain's economy grew at a slower pace than forecast in the first three months of 2010 as the harshest winter in 30 years hit retail and industrial production, a first official estimate showed on Friday.
"The data was short of expectations which had been building up in the past few weeks," said Kenneth Broux, market economist at Lloyds TSB in London.
"Given it has had a good week versus the euro, there was always a risk of some profit taking."
At 0940 GMT, the euro was trading up around 0.4 percent versus sterling EURGBP=D4 at 86.75 pence. It had earlier fallen to a three-month low of 86.08 as the single currency came under broad selling pressure on persistent concerns over Greece.
"It's mainly a weak euro which has been pushing euro/sterling down," said Jeremy Stretch, currency strategist at Rabobank.
Sterling had also matched Thursday's two-month trade weighted high =GBP of 79.80.
"The basket is heavily skewed to the euro, so with euro/sterling trading close to 86 pence, sterling is moving higher on a trade-weighted basis." said Rabobank's Stretch.
Versus the dollar, sterling was trading down around 0.2 percent at $1.5365.
Anticipation that Greece would today accept EU/IMF aid provided support to the ailing euro, which had been under heavy selling pressure after Eurostat on Thursday revised Greece's 2009 budget deficit to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product from 12.7 percent.
Britain's economy grew at a slower pace than expected in the first three months of this year, as the harshest winter weather in 30 years hit retail and industrial production, official data showed on Friday.
The pound shed around 40 ticks versus the dollar to trade at $1.5345. Versus the euro it gave back around 30 ticks to hit a session low of 86.58 pence.
The June gilt future FLGM0 rallied to stand 8 ticks higher at 114.63, having been 4 ticks lower ahead of the data.
Britain's leading shares extended gains, up 43.63 points, or 0.7 percent at 5708.96, after UK GDP data.
Short sterling futures pared early losses to stand flat to three ticks lower across the strip.
"The data was short of expectations which had been building up in the past few weeks," said Kenneth Broux, market economist at Lloyds TSB in London.

Dollar

Sales of new homes in the US surged in March, recording their biggest monthly gain in 47 years, as buyers shook off their winter doldrums and returned to the market. New home sales jumped by 27 per cent last month to an adjusted annual rate of 411,000. That easily exceeded the expectations of Wall Street analysts and marked a sharp rebound from the prior month, when sales fell to a record low amid harsh weather. Compared with a year ago, sales are up by 23.8 per cent. “New home sales may be very erratic month to month, but the bounce is still stunning,” said Alan Ruskin, strategist at RBS Securities. Sales were strongest in the south and northeast, where they rose by 43.5 per cent and 35.7 per cent, respectively.The sharp rise in sales brought the inventory of new homes to their lowest level in March since 1971. The number of new homes for sale fell by 2.1 per cent to 228,000, a 6.7 months supply at the current sales rate. Meanwhile, the median price of a new home edged down from February to March, declining by 3.1 per cent to $214,000. Year-on-year, prices are up by 4.3 per cent. Separately, new orders for durable goods in the US fell unexpectedly in March thanks to plummeting demand for aircraft, official figures showed on Friday, but the details of the data show continuing strength in the manufacturing sector.Durable goods orders fell by 1.3 per cent, marking their first fall in the last four months. This missed economists’ expectations that they would continue to rise and was a turnaround from February, when orders were up by a revised 1.7 per cent. Compared with a year ago, new orders have climbed by a healthy 11.6 per cent.

Euro

Greece has asked for emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and countries in the euro zone. All countries using the euro single currency are to provide two-thirds of all loans requested by Greece and the IMF would supply the remainder.

Around 30 billion euros will be loaned to Greece in the first year. The amounts for 2011 and 2012 are yet to be decided. Greece has requested the money as it believes that it is unable to finance itself on the market.

European Central Bank and the European Commission are assessing this at the moment. A unanimous decision of euro zone countries is the final go-ahead. The country expects to receive the funds before May 19, when it has to refinance 8.5 billion euros worth of debt.
The euro continued to slide towards a one-year low overnight as the downgrade in Greece’s credit rating weighed heavily on financial markets.The single currency fell to $1.3201 in Tokyo trade, its lowest since April 30, 2009, and reached 86.26p against sterling. It slid against 14 out 16 leading currencies.
The falls will put added pressure on the G20 meeting in Washington today to find a solution to Greece’s financial woes. Yesterday Moody’s cut Greece’s credit rating from “A2” to “A3” and said that further downgrades would follow unless Athens could restore market confidence.
Moody’s altered its rating after it was confirmed that the Greek Government had run up a budget deficit of €32.34 billion in 2009, representing 13.6 per cent of gross domestic product — far worse than expected.

Finance ministers are attending the G20 summit from today to discuss the global economic recovery but investors’ caution about the summit’s outcome pushed Asian stocks down today. Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 38.44 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 10,910.65 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 166.04, or 0.8 per cent, to reach 21,288.90. South Korea’s market also fell 0.3 per cent, Shanghai’s main index shed 0.3 per cent and Australia’s benchmark was down 0.5 per cent.
Fears that the G20 may not come up with an effective plan to tackle Greece’s debt are fuelling concern that the euro could drop below $1.3000 next week. The Euro rallied on Friday against the Dollar and recovered from 1.3200 to finished just a few pips below 1.3400. But it was not enough to erase previous losses and EUR/USD fell for the second week in a row.


“Although the financial problems in the Euro Zone are expected to persist for quite some time and may even spread to other member countries while the EU and IMF decide how they are going to help provide the needed aid, shorts have decided to cover with a vengeance today”
Gerard Associates Ltd advises expats and people considering living abroad on the options available for Pensions, QROPS and investments in a clear format allowing all customers to make an informed choice. This with the reassurance of UK authorised and regulated advice.

http://www.gerardassociates.co.uk

Currency Exchange

Currency exchange continues to concern many expats with UK Pensions and QROPS. The complexity for Pension and QROPS and investment strategies also needs continued monitoring of exchange rates to optimise returns.

Continuing our daily look at factors affecting currencies allows some insight into market conditions affecting exchange rates. Cash and income timing for UK Pensions and QROPS should be considered to maximise the Pension, QROPS and investment income and benefits taken.

The UK’s trade deficit widening more than expected resulted in sterling falling most noticeably against the dollar which hit a day’s low of $1.4675 against the earlier days high of $1.4915 and pushing through the technical barrier level of $1.47. Britain’s goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widened to £7.5bn in March from February’s figure of £6.3bn, this was due to exports which held steady at £21.4bn but imports rose to £28.9bn up from £27.5bn.

Markets are driven over the recent weakness in the euro against the dollar which remains near the 14 month low it recently hit, this is due to growing concerns of the effectiveness of a $1 trillion package to prevent the spread of the recent debt crisis in Greece, this has sped up sterling’s decline over recent days as risk appetite has left the markets. Yet the pound held steady against the euro which hit a days high of €1.1764 eventually trading around the €1.1670 mark.

Sterling seemed to be recovering on Tuesday from the one year lows after the new coalition government was formed between the conservatives and the liberal democrat parties which started to clear the recent run of uncertainty as to who would lead the country in parliament. With pledges to focus on the UK’s current fiscal deficit which would include spending cuts as top priority all eyes will now be on how they expect to reduce this as the details disclosed are still vague at the moment.

The pound rose to 79.5 on the Bank of England’s trade weighted index up from the previous day.

House prices in the UK continued to rise year on year in April with figures coming in at 9.7% up from the previous figure of 7.3%. This was followed by an increase in consumer confidence in April which only managed to recover a fraction of the previous months drop after continued worries over the impending fiscal tightening which seems to of reduced household’s optimism about the next 6 months.

Elsewhere jobless claims in the US were released with the figure coming in at 444k down from the previous figure of 448k showing less Americans were claiming unemployment.

This helped the dollar to extend further gains against the euro which ended up falling to as low as $1.2540.

Data released today includes in the US retail sales, consumer sentiment and industrial production.

Gerard Associates Ltd advises expats and people considering living abroad on the options available for Pensions, QROPS and investments in a clear format allowing all customers to make an informed choice. This with the reassurance and security of UK authorised and regulated advice.

Some aspects you must know before going for QROPS

According to a recent study, in the present time over two million British people live overseas and the number is increasing day-by-day. British people are going overseas since recently new higher tax rates were introduced in the UK. Majority of those people have built up huge amount of money with the UK pension schemes. On the other side, there are thousands of people who have worked within the UK and had to invest in the suitable UK pension schemes. Majority of those people often get confused while taking the right decision, but not anymore! With the commencement of QROPS, the people of the before-mentioned categories have found new ways to get their pension funds while staying in an overseas country.

There are ample numbers of benefits associated with the QROPS pension schemes. First and foremost, the funds and assets held under a Pension trust like QROPS, which are absolutely free of different kinds of taxes like wealth tax, capital gains tax, income tax and the fund can be passes onto successor-free of any tax including inheritance tax.

Moreover, with QROPS pension scheme you will get the full access to a full spectrum of investment opportunities, and interestingly all these tailored to one’s risk appetite. These can include bonds, commodities, properties, equities, alternative investments and equities. Here one thing needs to be mentioned is that the capital gains and income arising from the investments held within the plan, or the benefits paid by the pension scheme then will not be a subject to the UK tax.

Moreover, the international tax authorities, including the pension authority of Spain, can assist in a variety of scenarios from paying off a mortgage to purchase any kind of major asset. QROPS efficiently meets different requirements of the pension legislation in several countries from all around the world.

Remember, if you made an investment of a lump sum amount of money then it can assist you in different ways for paying off a mortgage to purchase a major asset. As QROPS pension scheme efficiently meets the different requirements of several countries’ pension legislation, you will not have to face the hassles of moving your assets between the QROPS providers to ensure savings remain tax efficient.

Before moving out for a QROPS scheme you are suggested to consult with an expert. Because, as this pension scheme involves different kinds of complexities, before taking an investment decision you should consult with a financial expert.