Guidance for Indians abroad, and for coming home

Living Abroad

Living outside India doesn't shut the door on planning for your finances back home. Eligible NRIs and people of Indian origin can access many of the same insurance and investment services available to residents — including LIC life insurance, health insurance and mutual fund investing — subject to the specific eligibility rules that apply to your country of residence.

What applies depends on where you currently live, your residency status, and the specific product involved, so this is confirmed individually rather than assumed to be the same for everyone.

Returning to India

Moving back to India after years abroad usually means untangling several things at once — insurance cover that needs to transition, investments that may need restructuring, and sometimes a UK pension to think through. Guidance here is about bringing that into one coherent plan, rather than treating each piece separately.

This often overlaps with the NHS Pension and QROPS guidance below, for anyone who spent part of their career in the UK.

NHS Pension

If you've worked for the NHS and later left — whether for a role elsewhere or a permanent move to India — your NHS Pension Scheme benefits don't simply end. In most cases they become a “deferred pension”: the entitlement is preserved and revalued over time, and it remains payable to you at your normal pension age wherever in the world you're living, including India.

The NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme, and UK regulation requires that transferring a defined benefit pension worth more than £30,000 out of the scheme can only be done after taking regulated financial advice — it isn't a decision you can (or should) make without that step. It's also worth knowing upfront that such transfers are often found not to be in the member's best interest once properly assessed, so this is approached as a considered question, not a default recommendation.

If you're unsure whether to leave your NHS pension deferred or explore other options, that's exactly the kind of question worth a proper conversation before deciding either way.

QROPS

QROPS (Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme) is a framework recognised by HMRC that allows certain UK pension savings to be transferred to an approved overseas scheme. It's most relevant to private and workplace pensions built up while working in the UK — the UK State Pension itself cannot be transferred this way.

Whether a transfer is appropriate, which schemes qualify, and what charges or allowances apply all depend on your specific pension type, its value, and your circumstances at the time of transfer. None of this is a one-size-fits-all decision, and it isn't something to conclude from a general guide — an individual assessment is the only reliable way to know what applies to you.