An increasing number of people are returning to the Republic to live after spending most of their working lives in Britain.

A high proportion of these returned emigrants will have built up a pension fund that is governed by British law. A 43year-old Family Money reader, who is about to move back to Ireland from London, has a pension fund of £136,000 sterling (€225,350) after working there for 14 years.

His salary is £38,000 and he is moving to Dublin to continue working for the same company. Mr G.F. is anxious to know what choices are open to him and wants to take control of his fund if possible.

Mr John Gilmartin of fee-based financial advisers Business and Financial Planning deals with many cases just like Mr G.F.'s. He said clients in this situation have great freedom and their pension fund can be as speculative or as secure as they want it to be.

"Someone who has a UK-based pension fund can either leave it where it is, put it into a managed investment, buy a portfolio of shares or invest in commercial property. The pension scheme can even borrow money for an investment," Mr Gil martin said.

The pension holder cannot take the money out but can go to a provider that will give them more control over the fund. Then they can take as active a role as they want in managing the fund.

It is possible for someone in this category to control or manage their own scheme, even if they are not working here. However, Mr Gilmartin emphasised that it is unlikely to be worthwhile unless the person has at least £20,000 in the pension fund.

Self-managed schemes are available for the following types of UK pensions:

Company pension schemes;

Personal pension plans;

Retirement annuity contracts;

Statutory pension schemes.

The same options apply to someone who is going to work in the UK and has an Irish pension scheme.

The scheme does not have to be sponsored by the new employer, if there is one, and there are no annual accounts or triennial reports required.

According to Mr Gilmartin, the client can take their benefits from the age of 50, whether they continue working or not.

It is usually necessary to employ a financial consultant to help set up this kind of pension fund scheme. The schemes are secure in that the client cannot get access to cash and is not the sole signatory. They are run under pensioners' trustees guidelines.