Contact

News & Insights

SPOTLIGHT ON… Rosemary Sheppard, International Financial Adviser

Steering clients towards a prosperous retirement

In a far cry from her earliest days in local banking in the UK, Rosemary now specialises in helping expats in France to optimise their pensions, retirement accounts, savings and investments to fit with their cross-border tax situation and inheritance plans.

Rosemary is a natural communicator and people person; she considers it a priority to help clients fully understand their options rather than simply drawing out a roadmap to steer them down a particular route. This collaborative approach has proven to be incredibly successful and Rosemary takes enormous satisfaction in the fact that many of her clients go on to refer her to their friends. As she says, “People only do this when they trust you and you’ve done a good job for them.”

An eye on the future

Despite welcoming the enhanced regulatory environment that came into being following the 2008 banking crisis, Rosemary says that she is looking forward to a day when it is easier and less costly for clients to track down and receive compensation from funds and / or financial advisers who have mis-sold investments. She is particularly vexed by instances where advisers are able to return to work or start another company remaining financially and professionally unscathed by their transgressions.

The French Connection

Rosemary was attracted to France for precisely the same reasons as her clients: culture, food, good weather and amazing scenery. She is particularly connected to the Dordogne Region, a place she describes as the “land of a thousand and one chateaus”. She also feels a spiritual connection to the world-famous Lascaux caves, which are 10 minutes away from the place where she lives and works.

Rosemary believes that her expertise and region-specific knowledge give her the ideal platform to assist the financial plans of hundreds of expats in the Dordogne. As she says, “Each client has their own specific needs”, but by listening to their individual day-to-day circumstances and broader financial goals she is able to understand how these fit within the cross-border context so that her clients can achieve a financially secure future.

How Rosemary could help you

Rosemary’s one golden piece of advice for expats in France is to seek help from a professional who lives in the same country as you. Preferably, the adviser should have been living there for at least three years as only then can they really understand the complexities of financial services in that region and the day-to-day issues that you face as an expat.

Rosemary is bilingual, she understands both the British and French financial climates. She has lived in France for many years and is happy at Blacktower in France because she is grateful for the opportunity to offer her clients “the best and most appropriate advice tailor-made to meet their specific needs”.

This communication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute, and should not be construed as, investment advice, investment recommendations or investment research. You should seek advice from a professional adviser before embarking on any financial planning activity. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information contained in this communication is correct, we are not responsible for any errors or omissions.

Other News

Tax and Benefits Across Borders – Don’t Get Caught Out

Calculator with Euro buttonLiving as an expat in Spain, or indeed in any other country, brings particular and sometimes very complex wealth management requirements because managing personal finances across multiple jurisdictions is inherently complex and invariably requires specialist advice.

This goes some way to explain why thousands of British expats have recently been caught and penalised for either failing to pay taxes or unlawfully claiming British pension and other social security benefits while living and, in some cases, working abroad.

Cross-border taxation for expats is a notoriously confusing area of wealth management and can seem especially onerous with new data sharing and enforcement rules in place. Unfortunately, not all asset managers are as familiar with tax reporting requirements as they should be. This may seem inconceivable, but wealth management professionals in Spain, across Europe and indeed the globe have an obligation to clients to ensure that they understand and follow all the rules.

Read More

Changes to the Dutch 30% reimbursement ruling confirmed

Thirty Percent SignRecent 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.

Read More

Select your country

Please select your country of residence so we can provide you with the most relevant information: