Social Security vs IRA to ROTH rollovers

I’m considering a move to the UK maybe in 2025. I’m a US/UK dual citizen so free to move whenever I like.

I’m in my early 60s and retired and was planning to make annual  IRA to ROTH rollovers as part of my tax planning and hold off taking SS until my late 60s. However, with the possible move I’m thinking of taking SS early just to get it all sorted before I leave the US and also to give me a good guaranteed income while I get settled in the UK. I already have a US defined benefit pension that I’m receiving and with SS I’ll have around $60k/year which will be just one less thing to worry about. Of course this will probably increase the tax I will pay in IRA rollovers and will reduce the annual SS payments.

So is convenience more important that absolute tax efficiency? This is a very subjective thing and so I’d like your opinions.

If you are not too concerned in leaving as large an inheritance as you can then ease and efficiency looks good to me.

BTW, having SS paid directly into a UK account works really well.

If you are not too concerned in leaving as large an inheritance as you can then ease and efficiency looks good to me.

BTW, having SS paid directly into a UK account works really well.

I was thinking of getting it all set up before I left for the UK so it would be initially paid into a US bank account. My bank will transfer to a UK bank account without any fees, but maybe the exchange rate isn’t the best. Did you apply for SS from the US or the UK?

I was thinking of getting it all set up before I left for the UK so it would be initially paid into a US bank account. My bank will transfer to a UK bank account without any fees, but maybe the exchange rate isn’t the best. Did you apply for SS from the US or the UK?

I will be applying later this year from England but my wife applied in 2021 online via the London embassy and it all went very smoothly indeed but took a long time at the US end. The agent who interviewed her was working from home and was extremely helpful.  The money arrives like clockwork every month and I record the payments in a spreadsheet and the money she gets is much better than I could get using Wise or our bank which also brags about no fees (HSBC to HSBC) but Wise is always much better when I have compared them using 2 simultaneous windows to transfer money.

So, you have the choice of setting up SS before you leave or changing the bank details to have it go to your bank in the UK after you arrive in the UK.

Here is the thread I started on our experience applying

https://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=99441.0

Interesting thread. I was planning to apply for SS online on the SSA website as I have an account set up. Is the Embassy route only required is you don’t have a SSA account?

Interesting thread. I was planning to apply for SS online on the SSA website as I have an account set up. Is the Embassy route only required is you don’t have a SSA account?

My wife and I have had online SS accounts long before we moved back to the UK so we had a good estimate from my wife's account of what to expect.  We used the Embassy route from hearing good things on this site as the agents understand USC's living in the UK much better than SSA in the USA. A useful thing for us was with WEP and OAP as the Embassy agent knew all about the difference between voluntary contributions and contributions through work since only contributions from work count towards WEP. He said that they had a relationship with the UK DWP who would provide the detailed records now that my wife had given permission. (My wife also has 8 years of contributions from being a stay at home while we had a child under school age and those years didn't count in the WEP calculation either).

OAP doesn't apply in my case as my 2 UK private pensions cause maximum WEP without any OAP being taken into account. (Maximum WEP based on 25 years of SS contributions, not the absolute maximum WEP based on 20 years or less)