How to Decode and Check a QROPS
As an expat your pension choices can seem labyrinthine. You may have been a member of one scheme over your entire career or perhaps you have paid into several smaller workplace schemes across different countries. Knowing what to do can seem like an enigma.
There are several types of expat pension transfer available, but knowing whether a transfer is right for you will take some investigation (and almost certainly expert advice).
Here we take a look at QROPS: what is a QROPS, are they a good idea and are they a suitable retirement savings vehicle for you if you intend to move abroad or already have done so?
The Key to a Healthy Retirement Planning? Balance
"Fortunate, indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use." These words, written by The eighteenth century English physician and educator Philip Latham, could just as easily have been written about trying to achieve the balance between spending happily in the present and saving prudently for retirement.
However, the question of how to do this effectively is not one that is easily answered. As it happens, too many retirement savers find that they either spend profligately in the present, thereby jeopardising their retirement lifestyle, or they prepare with too much caution, experiencing years of unnecessary frugality only to reach retirement with more money than they really need.
Finding Old Pensions Before Making a Pension Transfer Overseas
The days of the "job for life" with a single employer are, for most of us, long-gone and we are now far more likely to have multiple jobs paying into a number of different pension schemes. This means tracing old pensions when you retire - whether defined benefit, defined contribution or private stake holder. In order to get an accurate and full idea of your pension wealth it is essential that you begin finding lost pensions to factor every single one into a total valuation.
Pension transfers are a hot topic at the moment, especially if you're an expat and want to transfer pension pots overseas. And if, like many, you have lost track of the various pension pots you have amassed throughout your career, it can be hard to gather together all the information you need to decide whether a pension transfer would be in your best interests.
Five Key Retirement Questions for Expats in Spain
If you live in Spain, or are thinking of moving to Spain for your retirement, it is essential that you seek expat financial advice in order to give you the best possible chance of successfully protecting and growing your wealth.
Blacktower Financial Management has offices in Barcelona as well as Costa Del Sol, Costa Blanca, Costa Calida and on the Balearic Island of Mallorca. From these branches, our team members can help expat retirees throughout Spain take care of their wealth management and retirement investment needs.
In this guide we take a look at some key questions for expats in Spain.
Expat Financial Advice Crucial During Brexit Critical Phase
Attempts to find a roadmap for Britain's post-Brexit future may currently feel interminable, but expats in the EU are beginning to make contingencies, or so it appears. A survey commissioned by an international money transfer platform has found that 34% of British expats are currently in the process of applying for citizenship or permanent residency in another country.
Uncertainty regarding the ongoing effect of Brexit is the chief motivation, and the impact on citizenship could be greater still; a further 23 percent of the adults polled during the survey (carried out by YouGov plc from 18-04-19 to 02-05-19) said they would seek citizenship for themselves and their family in the event of a hard Brexit.
Nightmare for Swiss Based Financial Advisers and their EU clients?
The Malta Association of Retirement Scheme Practioners (MARSP) have been attempting to persuade the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) that Switzerland has the relevant regulatory authorisation, supervision and enforcement in line with the EU in order for Swiss Based Advisors to continue to be able to service their EU clients post changes to Malta Pension Legislation – which has seen many clients having to seek an alternative, appropriately licenced, EU based Financial Adviser.
What’s Your Retirement Income Outlook?
The pension freedoms of 2014 radically altered the way many expats are now able to access their retirement funds. The changes, which came into force in April 2015, ended the age of annuity-by-default and allowed people to take multiple tax-free sums, have flexible options regarding income drawdown and provided more scope for expat pensions and transfers into schemes such as SIPPs and QROPS.
However, although these changes have been empowering, they do place a greater emphasis on the need for trusted expat financial advice, particularly for those who wish to maintain the same standard of living they have enjoyed while working once they are retired and have to live entirely of the retirement income generated by their pensions and other assets.
PM Johnson Could Halt the Threat of No-Deal Litigation
Boris Johnson's elevation to Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has again raised the spectre of a potential no-deal Brexit.
Against this background, it is looking increasingly plausible that predictions of legal action against the UK government by British expats in the EU could become a reality unless the PM takes action. Even in the days before Johnson's win over Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party leadership election, it was warned that expats in Europe could take legal action and sue for loss of rights.
Conservative MP Alberto Costa warned Boris Johnson in a letter dated 20th July 2019*, that unless he was able to tackle the many issues facing expats, his government could be overwhelmed by legal action.