News & Insights

The government has provided further reassurance on the future of expat pensions and other financial products and services post-Brexit, with Brexit secretary Dominic Raab dismissing a Department for Exiting the EU technical paper which had appeared to cast their futures into doubt.

During a press conference, Raab had no hesitation in saying that access to expat pensions was little more than "a practical issue that we will be able to resolve".

Raab's statements were measured and entirely unflustered by some of the more recent sensationalist pronouncements on the subject. For example, he carefully explained that although a no-deal Brexit would have an inevitable impact on Britain's contractual arrangements with EU member states, it was extremely unlikely that individual country to country relationships would suffer.

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008. With $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt. Their bankruptcy filing was the largest in history and prompted an immediate fall in the FTSE 100 of 4%. It was the beginning of a slump that by Christmas of 2008 had resulted in 23% being wiped off the value of Britain’s top 100 companies. As a stock market crash, it ranks alongside the dotcom bubble and the shock of 1987. However, while living standards have flat-lined since that date, the stock market revival has been spectacular. Many investors were, however, spooked by the financial crisis of 2008 and liquidated their investment portfolios. Unfortunately as shown below – they lost out on the bull run of the next 10 years.

Pensions are integral to retirement planning, but what does uncertainty around Brexit mean for expats in France and their options regarding a QROPS or SIPP pension transfer.

Despite the uncertain climate, one thing is clear: QROPS or SIPPs still offer plenty of attractive possibilities for British expats residing in France.

As ever – Brexit or no Brexit, deal or no deal – the best thing to do is to sit down with your wealth manager or financial adviser to discuss your retirement objectives, your legacy plans, your current financial circumstances and your attitudes to investment risk and investment growth.

Time is fast approaching for UK taxpayers and expats with UK tax obligations to ensure they meet the 30 September 2018 deadline laid down by HMRC for the declaration of all UK tax liabilities on overseas income and assets that fall under the auspices of the Requirement to Correct (RTC) legislation, Finance (No 2) Act 2017.

Non-compliance, even if it is inadvertent, has the potential to be met with uncompromising penalties, so anyone who is any doubt about their tax obligations regarding offshore investments – if you have expat regular savings or wealth management concerns outside of the UK – should contact their financial adviser immediately as a matter of urgency.

The penalty for most breaches is 200% of the tax that has been avoided. However this may be reduced to 100% depending on the taxpayer's perceived level of compliance. That said, the minimum is 150% in cases where disclosure has been prompted by HMRC. Larger non-disclosures may be punished by further penalty of 10%

British people are living longer than ever before – according to the Office of National Statistics, life expectancy is likely to rise to 85 by 2040. And this figure is an average; if you are physically healthy you can realistically expect to live one or more decades longer, particularly if you have a family history of longevity.

And what if you live abroad in a warm and agreeable climate? Well, chances are that your life expectancy could be even higher. This is good news of course, but it brings with it important expat wealth management and retirement planning implications.

Perhaps chief among these is the need to ensure that your retirement assets are sufficiently valuable to last you through a long and healthy old age, and this means making sure you factor in the likelihood of inflation eroding the purchasing power of your assets over time.

The collapse of foreign exchange company Premier FX in the Algarve has caused shockwaves throughout the expat investor community in Portugal, with many customers now confused as to where they go from this point.

The death of founder Peter Rextrew on June 16 appears to have precipitated financial meltdown for the firm and on the 13 August administrators were appointed.

Customers who have their expat regular savings in Portugal tied up with the forex company and anyone who has sent money to the firm, should now provide as much information as possible to the administrators.

British expats in Spain, France, and Italy are behind a legal challenge submitted to the High Court in London calling on the result of the 2016 referendum to be invalidated.

Those behind the legal action argue that the outcome should not stand as it has now been proven that the Leave campaign broke the Electoral Commission's rules on campaign spending.

The "UK in EU Challenge" group states its belief that two major campaign groups -- BeLeave and Vote Leave – conducted their campaigns unlawfully, preventing the possibility of a free and fair vote.

As it stands, EU citizens living in the UK are required to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme, which confirms that they are a settled resident of the UK. This has raised concern for many expats, and those living and working in the EU, about how they will be able to prove their identity and claim residency abroad if a no-deal Brexit goes ahead.

In the meantime, a useful resource for expats is the Gov.UK website where you can set up email alerts regarding Brexit updates and find out country-specific information about living and working abroad.