Blacktower sponsored NORCECA beach volleyball tournament

The defined benefit scheme – whereby the employer promises the employee a specified payment upon retirement, the amount of which is calculated based on several factors including the years the contributor has been in the scheme, their age, and their salary at retirement – is no longer viable in today’s world.

Recently, the high-profile collapse of the construction firm Carillion has served as yet another example of why this is the case.

The collapse means that, just like in the heavily reported case of retail giant BHS, thousands of employees are likely to have their carefully laid out retirement plans affected. Now that the company has gone into liquidation, it cannot afford to pay employees their expected pension amount, leading to yet another sizeable pensions black hole with a deficit of around £580 million (although the BBC reports that the final figure could be as high as £900 million).

Discretionary fund management (DFM) is an increasingly important component of the expat financial advice offering.

There are many reasons for this; from the way it frees time for the adviser to focus on wealth management, to the flexible, bespoke and client-focused level of service offered by the DFM firm. It is all about providing solutions that work for the client, and by allowing a trusted, expert third-party to make decisions related to asset allocation and fund selection, clients can have increased confidence that they will achieve their financial goals.