Contact

News & Insights

SIPPs Suitability a Key Question for Expats in Spain

SIPPs and Suitability – the FCA View

In 2018 the Financial Conduct Authority asked Work & Pensions Select Committee chairperson, Frank Field, to provide a list of questions that SIPP providers must answer before enabling clients to access a SIPP.

This is because the FCA had serious concerns about whether all financial advisers were giving full consideration to the twin issues of suitability and due diligence checks before recommending a SIPP. It also called on all advisers to ensure that SIPPs align with clients’ investment objectives.

Fees – a Question of Transparency

It is important that all SIPP clients fully understand the long-term fee burden and charging structure. For example, does the SIPP provider impose a one-off charge or ongoing investments fees and, importantly, does it charge an annual flat fee or calculate its fee as a percentage of the total value of the scheme?

Expat Pension Transfer Advice from Blacktower FM

Blacktower FM gives full consideration to your retirement planning goals and financial circumstances before recommending any SIPP product. We also ensure that the provider is fully scrutinised so that you are not later left counting the cost.

Our advisers have helped many clients find the SIPP that is most suitable for them, particularly in cases where their cross-border financial needs are not able to be met by an employer-sponsored pension scheme.

Where appropriate, we may also be able to help clients consolidate multiple pension arrangements into a SIPP in order to improve the management and efficiency of their most important retirement asset.

For more information about how we may be able to help you, contact us today. We have offices across Europe, including in France, Germany, Portugal and Spain, all providing wealth management the Blacktower way. Discover the difference.

*Sarah Stokes, Managing Director at Pension Claim Consulting Ltd, quoted in The Express, 29 April, https://www.express.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/1120473/brexit-news-Pension-news-expats-state-pension-compensation-claim-SIPP

Other News

Understanding Risk in Retirement Investing

Avoid RisksLife is inherently risky: if we did not accept risks as an inevitable part of life, we would never leave our homes or attempt to alter or improve the circumstances which lie ahead. So, we must negotiate a certain amount of risk while avoiding the most obviously dangerous situations.

Investing for retirement in stocks, shares and other commodities is similar; we need to accept the risks. By making calculated decisions we can hopefully avoid making detrimental investment decisions.

Unfortunately, those who don’t know how to invest for retirement, or those who receive bad, fraudulent or unregulated retirement investing advice, may be tempted by the promise of so-called “guaranteed” returns or unrealistically high dividends only to find that they have sacrificed their life savings for fool’s gold.

Read More

Mine was consumed, how about yours?

Dave Diggle - Blacktower Financial Management

A couple of years ago my Bank was taken over by La Caixa.  To be honest, this was one of the easiest changes I have had to deal with in Spain and therefore, in this regard I was lucky.  Especially as the previous bank took 6 months to assess a loan application I had made, to finally arrive at a negative answer. By the time I’d got that answer I’d already made 5 repayments to an obliging bank.  ‘Opeless.

We have seen many banks be swallowed up here in Spain since the crisis and I will remind you, the Spanish banking industry was seen as a fine example at the beginning of the crisis in 2008, because its purposeful structure should have prevented contagion (spreading or transfer of problems of a systemic nature).  Instead, individual institutions took the risk rather than having it spread throughout the industry and that is why some 7 years later we are still seeing takeovers of failed banking businesses. Time has dictated that maybe it wasn’t such a shining light.

Read More

Select your country

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