Pensions

Question:

Thank you for calling me and emailing. I have two annuities in the UK worth approximately 34,000 pounds sterling. They are pensions with the Prudential and Standard Life. I would like to get the cash now to invest here in the USA.
I have talked to representatives before and have learned that you can’t help with overseas annuities. I hope that isn’t the case. M. Forrester

Answer:

American Pensions are by nature non-assignable and insurance companies would not allow someone to sell the payments. Also. with your pension being paid in Pounds and not USDollars, I would not purchase the payments because of the potentially fluctuating conversion rates. That is pretty much the industry standard rule. To be fair, it’s not unreasonable to do the conversion, just no one has set up to handle transactions with other currencies.