How to trace a pension?

Are all "pension liberation" schemes a scam?

• I have a local government pension pot. I have cancelled the pension as I am looking to emmigrate to canada. I would like to access the funds now if possible. I have found various websites which offer pension liberation. This is the explanation I received from a company I contacted: You set up a UK limited Company as a personal management company (PMC) "to use, manage, control and invest personal assets in a tax efficient manner" · You join the Lincoln Pension Administration (LPA) Umbrella Remuneration Trust (UPENT) · Your PMC enters into a fiduciary services agreement with the Trustees of the UPENT which renders it a tax exempt entity because the trustees of the scheme are outside the UK (Jersey or Belize) · Your PMC provides you, its director, with sole use of the trustees' discretionary powers in respect of the PMC's assets (your pension "pot") · Your existing pension(s) is/are transferred to the LPA UPENT using standard pension transfer legislation - nothing clever there, IFAs and Accountants do this all the time. · You legally relinquish your rights to annuity and other benefits from the scheme - which UK pension rules allow you to do. · This makes your pension assets no longer pension assets that fall under the Registered Pension Schemes legislation but simply ordinary assets which can be treated as such · LPA passes 89% of the now free asset value into the fiduciary care of your PMC having deducted the 10% transfer fee and two ½% annual administration charges in order to maintain the legal integrity of the arrangement · The director(s) or your PMC (you and your wife/partner) have sole control over the use, investment and management of those assets as directors of the PMC and tax free as fiduciaries. · The PMC holds the "spare" 4% to make annually two ½% payments to the Trustees for "administration" for the next 4 years - again to maintain the legal integrity of the arrangement. · You, the individual or Member of the UPENT, pays the PMC £100 per month to maintain beneficial status of the UPENT in Law (you will appreciate when you read on below about loans that you will merely be borrowing from yourself and paying yourself back £100 per month) and to render the company as tax exempt in law. · In your capacity as fiduciary (acting on behalf of the UPENT Trustees) you lend money to yourself .... the proceeds of a loan in your hand is not income so no income tax. · You pay no income tax anywhere in respect of the PMC assets and provide for your lifestyle support through commercial loans from your PMC as above · The UPENT/PMC combination is not part of your estate so no Inheritance Tax liability · Money not required for Lifestyle Support remains within the tax protection of the PMC for active or passive onward investment i.e. with your fiduciary's hat on you buy and sell investments; these can be anything at all, from property at home or abroad to precious metals, from stock market options to ordinary investment funds such as your investment advisers are using at the moment. · The PMC is a tax exempt entity so whatever it buys and sells is outside UK taxation, so when you sell assets there is no capital gains tax for example · There is no set up cost just two ½% administration charges per annum (a total of 1%) for five years plus the 10% contribution charge, the monthly £100 beneficiary status payment and an annual trustee management fee of £200. · It costs £14 per year to maintain the registration of the UK Limited Company with Companies House · We are paid out of the 10% contribution fee by the tax lawyers on completion for your transfer. Warnings on websites state that the individual may be stung with a massive tax bill as what these companies are suggesting is illegal and avoids tax? Any ideas? Thank you

• Answer:

  take the advice on offer here,you will end up better off.