Pensions are in such a mess in Britain that virtually a 3rd of workers will not have enough money saved to pay for retirement till they are in their 70s.

Millions are intending to work on for up to 10 years after retirement age – some until they are 75 years old or more.

The horror driving retirement savers is they may outlive their money and finish up spending their subsequent years in misery.

One of the Problems faced by ex pat OAPs is whether to leave allowance funds back in The United Kingdom when they depart – or whether to shift their retirement savings offshore.

The most heavily recommended offshore allowance is a QROPS.

The attractions of a QROPS are many for ex pats – annuities paid gross, bigger tax-free lump sums and more flexible investment options to name a couple – but are they worthwhile for everybody?

Assuredly, QROPS aren't a universal retirement solution.

The key test is taking a look at current annuity arrangements and how they're performing and then comparing these with an offshore alternative.

There can be no doubt that people generally live longer and that the percentage of the population made out by retired people is on a steady increase. This phenomenon place government pension and health systems under great pressure. Unfortunately, too few people make adequate plans for their own retirement. Registered Retirement Savings Plans allow individuals to start planning for retirement early in life. A RRSP calculator is often used to manage such plans.

These plans can contain a very wide variety of savings components. This may include cash, mutual funds, stocks and bonds. Individuals are required to register such plans with the official revenue agencies as a legal trust. Any contributions made to this trust are deductible from tax. Tax on the funds itself is also delayed until money is eventually withdrawn during retirement.

The tax advantages of these funds are significant. Any income earned by the fund is tax exempt until retirement, when funds are withdrawn. Even then, tax rates are lower than it would be during the working years. This exemption encompasses all types of taxes including capital gains tax, dividend tax and even income tax. The contributions made to the fund are also deductible from tax and normal income tax is calculated only after deducting the contribution.

The world is chock-full of global financial consultants prepared to take a pension saver’s money to help with setting up a qualifying recognized overseas pension scheme.

Though the majority finance experts are controlled and credible, some sharks are swimming in the QROPS market, so these are some tell-tale signs on how to spot themQROPS

: up front – Financial advisers don't ask for money before they have undertaken any work. If your confidant is asking for money, then that's the first danger sign that something is wrong.

Limited Money QROPS or investment options – A ‘whole of market ‘ confidant has no restriction on products or suppliers. Somebody pushing a single supplier or jurisdiction probably has some financial reason to do so that may not be in the best interests of the client. The possibility is they are ignoring your fiscal circumstances to squash your pension in to a product that suits them best, when the service should be fining the best product to match the customer.

Retirement savers could face another pensions raid from the governing body that might raise ?7 bn. from their funds.

Treasury officials admit that scrapping higher rate pension relief on contributions is a ‘talking point ‘ for policy setters.

The measure is one of many Chancellor George Osborne is taking a look at for fast savings to raise the Treasury’s depleted coffers.

Relief for lower rate (20%) taxpayers would probably remain, but relief for higher rate taxpayers (40% and 50%) could go.

Any money raised from the move would go toward paying for the proposed fixed ?140 a week state pension.

Although the measure is albeit a talking point, the Treasury is quick to point out that it is not on the official policy must-do list

Many financial gurus blame previous Prime Minster Gordon brown’s levy on dividend payments to pension backers for the sorry state of the UK’s retirement savings.

Tax relief to top up funds is the major attraction for pension investment in the Uk. If this benefit is reduced or scrapped, lots of the motivation for saving would be lost.

When you’re thinking about your retirement savings, you may have wondered how you could pass your money on to second- and even third-generation beneficiaries. A stretch IRA could be the solution you need.

A stretch IRA isn’t an entirely different type of IRA. Instead, it’s a provision you can add to your current IRA whether it is a traditional IRA, Roth, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA. A stretch IRA permits your IRA to keep growing tax-deferred indefinitely because it can be passed from generation to generation.

To be a stretch IRA, the IRA needs to have two provisions. First, the IRA should allow you to designate a beneficiary who can elect to receive distributions based on a life-expectancy period. Second, the IRA should allow the beneficiary to select a second- or third-generation beneficiary. This is the provision that mainly makes it a stretch IRA.

To avoid an excess accumulation penalty, the primary beneficiary needs to withdraw a minimum amount every year based on the beneficiary’s life expectancy. The life expectancy of a 48-year-old beneficiary is 36 years, so there would be a $5,000 minimum required distribution on an $180,000 IRA. If that beneficiary passes away prematurely, the second-named beneficiary would continue receiving distributions based on the prior 36-year life expectancy.

Will most baby boomers truly retire? The old mainstays of golf, grandkids and travel have not been enough to please many retirees from previous generations. With the great amounts of energy and success that live within the baby boomer generation, retirement is not likely to sustain their attention much longer than it did their parents’.

If the current generation of retirees is any indication, baby boomers and younger workers alike have a thing or two to learn from their older counterparts. A 2006 Putnam Investments study let us see that about a third of America’s more than 20 million retirees returned to work for at least 15 hours a week, most of them after less than a year in retirement. Two-thirds said they do so because they wanted to, not because they needed to financially.

The return to work could signal a problem that most retirees don’t anticipate: having something fulfilling to do. The keyword is fulfilling, and it’s the driving force behind a return to work. Of course, the added income and the potential health insurance benefits don’t hurt either. The phenomenon has become so recognized that In areas with large and increasing populations of retirees, such as Arizona, many employers are catering to the retired crowd.

Your employer has announced it wants to eliminate several hundred jobs by offering buyouts, also known as early retirement packages, to a group of employees. That group includes you.

Analyzing the financial implications of a buyout package may be difficult enough if you’re more than happy to go. It gets complicated on the emotional side when you intended to be loyal but now see that loyalty as betrayed. So consider first the security of your job if you decide to stay. Will it be eliminated later with a less attractive severance package or none at all? And if you stay and the job stays, how will you feel about working for an employer that gave you the highway choice?

Your age and life stage will greatly impact your decision. You may be young enough that retirement now isn’t an option, so the severance will be your paycheck while you find a different job. Or you may have young children and decide severance will provide income while you stay at home for a few years. If you were looking at retirement within a few years anyway, this might give you the option to being early.

A Roth IRA is a type of personal retirement account that is kind of like a traditional IRA (Individual Retirement Account) but with a few differences. Most importantly, unlike a traditional IRA, contributions made to a Roth IRA aren’t tax-deductible. That means that you can’t take an IRA deduction on your Roth IRA to lower your taxable income.

Even though there are not immediate tax benefits to having a Roth IRA, there are other benefits. A very significant benefit is the tax-free withdrawals that are able to be made in the future. But, to get these benefits you need to follow the Roth IRA rules.

You are allowed to own both a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA, but the maximum IRA contribution limit is $5,000 between the two accounts. That means if you contribute $3,000 to a traditional IRA, you can only contribute $2,000 to a Roth IRA. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) won’t permit you to contribute more than your income to a Roth IRA. If you make $3,000, you can only contribute a maximum of $3,000 to a Roth IRA.