How / why did you get into your line of work in the financial services sector?
I saw the impact of what not having life insurance does to a family. It made sense to me to become a financial adviser as this occupation had come up a few times at career meetings. I always wanted to be a policeman!
What is your special interest or particular field of expertise in the financial services sector right now? Specialist Spanish and UK tax planning and Portfolio Management.
What is the most important aspect of your work, in relation to clients, or the part of your day-to-day role which gives you the most satisfaction? Helping clients understand the Spanish Tax and residency regime with regards to their own financial circumstances.
What’s special/unique/most interesting about the region you work in?
Apart from the Costa Blanca being a beautiful placed to live in Spain, it attracts plenty of UK Expats wanting to live here and this means have a lot of local experience when advising UK Expats. It’s important to note each Spanish Region has different tax rules/laws so anyone approaching us EU nationals and especially UK expats after Brexit can benefit from our local extensive knowledge.
Right now, what is your one piece of invaluable information for expats or anyone seeking retirement planning and wealth management advice?
Take professional Tax & Residency advice as soon as possible! Start with me to get basic guidance and then you will understand how your financial circumstances will be impacted upon by Spanish Tax. There are many tax pitfalls so professional advice from us alongside a professional tax adviser is key to ensuring you get your ducks in a row.
Blacktower already has a long and successful history in the sector, how will you and your colleagues continue to offer value to clients in the next 20 years and beyond?
We all work as a team at Blacktower and have various international experts within the Group which means our clients can rely on us for the full complement of financial advice even if they have arrived from another country to Spain. We work very closely with our clients, we will set out a financial plan via a report often including a cash flow forecast and guidance on Tax and investing. We conduct regular reviews, these are designed to help maintain and update your financial plan whilst retaining site of and helping you to achieve your investment objectives such as a comfortable retirement or making your money work harder in a tax efficient way.
Tell us an interesting fact about yourself
My Dad died when I was 10 leaving my mum destitute with four young children and no life insurance. I saw the impact this had on us financially as a family with my mum having two jobs working 12 hours a day to make ends meet and keep us together. When I joined the London Life Assurance Co in 1990 as a financial adviser in the UK, it was an in-built mission within me to advise clients to take out life cover and income protection insurance to protect individuals and families. These days most of my clients do not have young families and have built up their wealth, however the one thing people should know about me is my continued desire to help all of my clients preserve and protect their wealth no matter how large or small that happens to be.
There has recently been some worry over the future of the “triple-lock”, a measure put in place to help protect pensions in case of a steep rise in inflation (November 2015 saw inflation reach its highest level in two years).