What is Expat Financial Planning?

A professional financial plan tailored specifically for expats has many benefits, from simplifying complex financial decisions to learning how to best manage your wealth, assets and investments to meet short, medium and long-term goals.

When it comes to organising your finances before, during and after working abroad there are often lots of issues to consider and important decisions to make:

·       Are you moving somewhere with a higher or lower cost of living than your home country?

·       How will your day-to-day expenditure change?

·       Are there any added financial outlays, such university fees, while you are overseas?

·       Are your current savings and investments tax-efficient?

·       Could you benefit from professional advice with pensions and paper

Personal long-term approach

Hebden Consultancy’s unique personal approach will help you address financial requirements that relate to your family and the country you have arrived in or have returned to. In addition to your personal circumstances, we understand there are many common elements to financial planning that concern most of our expat clients at some point during their time overseas.

Accepting a position as an expat can make your tax situation far more complicated at a time when you’re already busy focusing on a new role, getting to know unfamiliar surroundings and embarking on an exciting chapter in your life. While your employer might tell you about immediate requirements, it is useful to have a professional adviser with you from the get-go. Our planners have decades of experience, understand how to comply with the varying rules, regulations, laws and financial structures in both the UK and governing overseas territories.

We work with expat clients around the world and have staff based in the UK with up-to-date knowledge, expertise, market technology and resources to design individual long-term plans tailored to clients’ needs and with continuous support, as Chris and Diane, expats from Dubai (and previously Vietnam, Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait), found. 

I would sum up Hebden by saying they are trustworthy, reliable and give a very personal service. Hebden are also very good at keeping in touch and making sure you are fully up to speed on what’s happening. They’re also good at looking out for products in the market that would be advantageous to move into.”

 Retirement, repatriation and safeguarding your future

Planning for retirement and making provisions for your long-term health has never been more important. Accepting an expat role may affect your future tax entitlement, pension pot and investment portfolio in both your home and host countries. This may be further complicated by where you would like to retire. Some expats choose to return home and might need up-to-date mortgage advice, while others intend to move to another country they fell in love with while working overseas. All these decisions will affect the course of action you take and we can support you with a realistic strategy that visualises your long-term goals anywhere in the world and at any age, as Sam and Tina, expats in the Middle East, explained:

 “What I like most about working with Hebden is that they always do what they say they are going to, and they often do beyond what you would expect. What’s even more valuable is that [Hebden Consulting] enables us to plan for different ages and stages of our life… we need a more considered approach [and] now it’s about consolidation and starting the next stage.”

The financial implications of repatriating to your own country particularly after many years abroad are usually underestimated. Make things easier by having a solid financial plan in place before so you can return home with a peace of mind, a positive perspective and a robust financial strategy in motion to safeguard your future, as Tony and Michelle, expats who live in Dubai and, prior to that, Bahrain, appreciated:

“ … we had a general financial planning discussion which became a retirement planning discussion. Lots of our friends don’t have a plan, which is scary. They are stumbling into retirement wondering where to live and when to move back to the UK and how to go back to an old life.”

It is also important to plan for the other certainty in life besides tax, particularly if your role is high-risk, you’re older or you’re working in a dangerous environment. If the unexpected happens while you’re overseas, spending a short amount of time planning and writing your will with an adviser and a legal professional is recommended.

Expert financial planning is an important consideration to make as an expat. If you would like to book a free consultation, please contact us today via email: info@hebdenconsulting.com or visit: https://hebdenconsulting.com/

The information is provided in good faith without any warranty and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendation, or an offer of any services or products for sale and is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision. For further details see our Regulatory Statement.


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Andrew Heron