News & Insights

Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have shown that a record number of savers are now members of workplace pension schemes.

The figures show that the proportion of employees who are contributing to a company pension has risen significantly in the five years since Auto-Enrolment (AE) began.

AE was introduced in 2012 and makes it compulsory for employers to automatically enrol all eligible employees into a pension scheme unless the employee actively opts out. An employee is eligible for AE if they are aged between 22 and the state pension age and have a salary of more than £10,000.

In 2012, prior to AE, 47 per cent of UK employees were enrolled on a company pension scheme. This figure has now risen to 73 per cent in 2017. In other words, there are over 9.5 million more people saving for their retirement than there were five years ago, and it's mainly thanks to AE.

Rapid developments in IT systems, financial databases and data-sharing platforms over recent years now mean that it is easier than ever for nation states to share and exchange financial information relating to the investments, income, taxes, savings accounts, properties and pensions of individuals who have assets placed in multiple locations across the world.

Inevitably, this also means it now crucial to ensure you disclose your full list of assets whenever required.

As a British native you might be a little complacent in this regard. The UK has one of the most stringently and best-regulated financial advice sectors in the world, and in many cases if your adviser fails to disclose your full spectrum of assets and interests it is he or she, rather than you, who will be liable.

Recent news about the 30% tax ruling in the Netherlands could have substantial implications for British expats and their financial planning and wealth management strategies.

The 30% tax ruling for expats in the Netherlands enables employers to offer working expats 30% of their salary tax-free as long as they meet certain requirements. The intended aim is to encourage highly skilled workers from around the globe to bring their expertise to the Netherlands. After all, relocating to the Netherlands is not cheap, and the tax advantage is there to help offset all the expense that comes with relocating. There are approximately 60,000 expats who currently claim the tax break.

As we reported last year, the tax break came under fire in a report published by the Dutch research bureau Dialogic for being far too generous and, therefore, costing the Dutch government too much money for it to be sustainable. When published in June 2017, the report suggested several reforms to the system, including shortening the number of years that expats could claim the tax-relief from eight years to five. This was because research carried out by Dialogic found that the vast majority of expats making use of the benefit (80%) claimed it for fewer than five years; less than 10% actually claimed the benefit for the full eight years.

From pension transfers into beneficial QROPS to careful tax planning, expats have a lot to consider so that they can be financially confident and live their life abroad to the fullest.

But with Brexit looming, there are other considerations afoot. For example, should expats keep their British citizenship or apply for nationality in their new expat homeland? And according to new statistics, it appears that the Brexit referendum result has had a significant effect on the number of Britons gaining citizenship elsewhere in the EU. Figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, show a substantial surge in the number of Britons acquiring citizenship in other EU countries between 2015 (2,478) and 2016, when the number more than doubled to 6,555 – that's an increase of 165 percent. The figures include both those who chose to adopt dual citizenship, so that they kept their British citizenship, as well as those who renounced it.

Maintaining your physical health and wellbeing as an expat is often one of the most pertinent aspects of financial planning abroad. Without the NHS to fall back on for care, making sure you've got adequate health insurance in place is an essential part of your preparation when moving overseas.

There is no doubt that ecommerce is one of the most exciting investment sectors that exists today. Every aspect of our lives is affected by ecommerce. It is fast, high profile, and the numbers are breathtaking:

Amazon processed nearly $89 billion in sales from 240 million customers; Visa and MasterCard have over 1,600 million credit cards in circulation; Apple and Google are now worth more than many entire countries.

Amazing as those number are, they pale into insignificance when you consider that the total ecommerce market was estimated to be $1.6 trillion in 2015. However, 20 years ago it didn’t exist, but it is forecast to grow to $3.5 trillion per annum by 2019.

"Non, je ne regrette rien".

Expats in France may be able to translate this famous song title to "No, I regret nothing," which is ideally what every saver wants to be able to say as they reach the end of their expat retirement planning period and look forward to moving abroad to their own personal paradise.

But not everyone has the initiative to stay on top of their pension pot, and it might be interesting for the younger generation to hear what older workers and retirees have to say about their pension saving experiences and what they would do differently if they could turn back the clock.

With this in mind, research recently released by Aegon, which asked pension savers about which decisions regarding their pensions they regretted the most, could prove very useful and serve as a firm reminder of why sufficient retirement planning isn't something to leave until the eleventh hour.

Recently released research from AXA Global Healthcare has given a better idea of how living and working abroad has been of value to professional men and women.

The study, which was exclusively focused on people who'd moved as a result of work assignments, aimed to discover how taking on international roles impacted upon life.

Focusing on men and women separately, the results showed that 43 per cent of male respondents believed their international assignments had increased their value to employers by enabling to become regional experts.

Overall, 51 per cent of men felt that shifting their job overseas accelerated their career development, making this is a top benefit for professionals. Of female respondents 39 per cent, said the same.