General Financial Planning

Using life insurance to mitigate Inheritance Tax

In recent research from Barclays Wealth, three in five (60 per cent) UK adults aged between 45 and 54 said they did not know if their investments would be subject to inheritance tax when they were passed on to family. Additionally, the survey found that a quarter (26 per cent) of respondents did not know if their property’s value would be considered separately to the rest of their financial assets for inheritance tax purposes.

What Experience Tells Us About Markets and US Presidential Elections

The upcoming US presidential election is my 7th as a professional financial adviser. If I have learned anything from the previous 6, it is that, despite the protestations of many to the contrary, no one has a clue how markets will perform, react or move in the coming weeks. They may go up, they may go down, they may even stay the same.

Keep it simple – A financial planning lesson from Marie Kondo

I was watching Marie Kondo on Netflix last night (yes, being stuck at home due to the coronavirus has become that desperate already). If you haven’t heard of her, she is the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying. Anyway, it made me think of how a spot of tidying could be applied to our personal finances. You see, if we have too many financial products, be they bank accounts, pensions, investments or insurances, it leads to us not being…

Coronavirus scams: How to avoid falling victim to them

With news of the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread as fast as the virus itself, sadly so too are coronavirus related scams. These scams are not just in the context of trying to capitalise on scarcity by massively overcharging for hand sanitiser and toilet paper but they are more subtle and pernicious tools that hackers and identity thieves are using to try to take advantage of the uncertainty.

The Basics of Good Expat Investment Advice

Historically, expat investment advice has been characterised by the focus on the sale of a financial product, e.g. a pension plan or an investment fund. While products are, obviously, a necessary feature of a wider holistic financial planning strategy, good quality expat investment and retirement advice encompasses much more than simply selling products.

New UK tax year (2019/2020): Implications for expats

We ticked over into UK tax year 2019/2020 a few weeks ago and this brought a resetting of thresholds and allowances for the next 12 months. This post summarises the changes that specifically affect expats.

10 financial tips for expats to ensure a prosperous New Year

With another New Year only a few days away and people feverishly working on thee I decided to replace my regular monthly update of financial issues affecting expats with some of my top financial tips for ensuring a prosperous New Year.

What does good expat financial advice look like?

Have you ever wondered what proper financial planning for retirement looks like? Before answering that question, let’s start with another. Do you actually need a financial adviser? A strange question to see on a financial adviser’s blog, right? You could be forgiven for thinking that my answer may be ever-so-slightly conflicted.