What are the most common financial planning issues facing expats?
By Robbie Lawther, 9 Jun 23
Clients need to get advice before they have moved
Question 6: Are there enough products/services offered by product providers to help expats around the world?
Paul said: “This is an interesting question. I think, I wouldn’t focus on products per se, because the reality is, it’s very hard to build a product that suits different families and works across multiple jurisdictions when, as I alluded to earlier, people often don’t know where they’re going to end up and, short of legislators all agreeing that they’re going to treat a certain product in one way, it’s going to be very hard to set something up that perpetually is efficient or is correct or is the right thing to do from a planning perspective.
“I think what I would love to see is the industry wake up and realize, look, you know, those clients who have wealth are transient. And so, if we as an industry in Europe or the US or the UK or wherever, want to support international families, then we need to be able to deal with whole families, let’s not deal with one fraction of that family.
“The question should be, can we offer a wealth management service to that family in infinitum, regardless of where their assets might be? Or where they choose to live?
“Because, otherwise, you’re only going to be good for one part of the journey or one part of the asset base and that family is going to have to rely on the good old Excel spreadsheet to be the one piecing it together. And I think most families would say they don’t want to do that.
“So, for me it’s not about products, but more about a realisation that these families are growing in number their wealth is growing. And that direction of travel is not going to change, so the industry needs to wake up to that start offering services that that are suitable and designed for that type of family.”
Tags: London & Capital
