News & Insights

Recent pension transfers I have been involved with include British Airways and BT, amongst others, and these have prompted me to consider their perceived “gold-plated” image and whether clients may be better off transferring out to a Self-Invested Pension Plan (SIPP), perhaps, or a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS).

If you are contemplating your pension planning, ask your pension trustees to send you a Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) and you may be shocked by the size of the sum involved. The British Airways Scheme recently offered over £500,000 transfer value to a member whose pension entitlement would be £20833 at retirement. That’s 24 times the income.

In the UK, the first week of October is National Work-Life Week, which encourages employers and employees to look at how they can improve their well-being at work and strike a healthier balance between family life and their job. The aim is to help reduce stress among a company's workforce by offering more flexible ways of working, allowing workers to have time for other priorities in their life.

Of course, it's not just in the UK where this is an important issue. Many workforces worldwide could do with a better work-life balance, and if you are soon to be moving to another country for work, it's likely you'll be wondering what the work culture is like. After all, spending long hours at your workplace without much else to do in your free time may mean you miss out on some of the best aspects of moving to a new country, such as forming a new circle of friends. And too much neglect of your personal life may end up affecting your emotional well-being and this is often one of the main stress factors expats have to deal with.

Brexit has thrown up so many concerns for expats already that it's no wonder expats are feeling jittery.

And now it has emerged that private pension providers based in the UK are in danger of not being able to pay pensions to British expats after Britain leaves the EU in 2019.

The risk is so significant that Nicky Morgan, chair of the Treasury select committee, has written a letter raising his concern about the matter to Phillip Hammond, asking the chancellor whether he plans to discuss the problem soon during Britain's exit negotiations.

Portugal offers an attractive regime of taxation to European Nationals considering a move here.

The regime is entitled (NHR) which stands for Non-Habitual Residents. Uncommon with other EU nations, a flat rate of taxation at 20% is applied to income derived in Portugal and a near total exemption for international income. For most European nationals, the NHR regime offers a simple and efficient residency programme.

The absence of wealth, inheritance and gift tax, coupled with a residency permit which allows free movement within the Schengen area, makes NHR extremely popular.

Portugal is hands down one of the best places for expats to retire to (certainly in the eyes of our Portugal team). And you just need to look at the statistics to realise how popular it is as a retirement destination.

For example, Live & Invest Overseas have ranked the country's popular southern region, the Algarve, as the best place in the world to retire for four years in a row.

This is further backed up by HSBC's Expat Explorer Survey, which is based on research conducted by YouGov, polling over 27,500 expats from 159 different countries. According to the report, 42 percent of expats in Portugal are retired, compared with a global average of just 11 percent. And out of these retirees, the overwhelming majority (96 percent) rated the country as good or very good, showing the reason that once your working years are over, so many choose to retire to Portugal.

The Rock has recently celebrated a special date: Gibraltar National Day, which happens on September 10 and marks the anniversary of the 1967 sovereignty referendum, when citizens chose whether to remain under British rule or pass over to Spanish sovereignty. The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of staying British.

This year, over 3,000 Gibraltarians dressed in red and white, honouring their beloved territory's flag, and filled Casemates Square for a rally. This was then followed by festivities including fireworks, a helicopter drop of petals, and blasts of red and white smoke.

Since the Pensions Freedom Act came into force in the UK, in April 2015, there has been a huge outflow of money from defined benefit pension schemes and personal pensions in the UK. Many people have taken advantage of the new flexibilities by having control of their own pension pots.

However, it's becoming increasingly difficult to transfer from some schemes now, as hurdles have been put in place by some providers.  It is true that these hurdles ensure that individuals are not transferring their pots to unauthorised schemes, but they also act as a "double check" that the advice provided about the pension transfer is from a qualified Independent Financial Adviser (IFA).

Back in 2015, the introduction of the non-domiciled (non-dom) tax resident status as part of the Cyprus tax system paved the way for new opportunities around tax planning and savings, as well as opening the door for potential inheritance tax benefits. The opportunity is, however, not that straight forward, as the tax agrement requires careful individual attention.