News & Insights

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. 

It's 10 years on from the Northern Rock collapse. But have we all become complacent enough again to believe that the banks are now too big to fail. Well wake up and look at the facts.

Britain's finance sector is an "accident waiting to happen", according to a report branding the Bank of England's stress tests as "worse than useless" on the 10th anniversary of the Northern Rock collapse.

Germany has always been a popular EU country with those who want to relocate. And it appears there is good reason for it.

The recently released Expat Insider Survey 2017 tells us a lot about the country and portrays several of its key aspects in a very positive light, which is why it's no surprise that Germany has such a large expat community. Such information will be invaluable to those planning to relocate to Germany in the near future, as it gives them a better idea of the sort of lifestyle they can expect and what other expats' experiences have been like.

While many expats are overseas because they've retired, a significant number of Britons move away for work.

Taking your skills abroad can be a thrilling prospect, and, of course, where in the world you end up will greatly depend on global career opportunities, but for many Britons, the chosen destination is the Netherlands, one of Europe's most popular expat havens when it comes to relocating for work.

The term “frozen pension” can be misleading, because a frozen pension can be defined in multiple ways. In short, however, a frozen pension is one which no longer increases in value. This could be because you have moved abroad and no longer eligible for increases through inflation, or you’ve moved employer and are no longer contributing.