S P E C I A L
E D I T I O N
2024 2025 2026 THREE YEARS IN A ROW
Wealth Management For Life, Globally
THREE YEARS RUNNIN Company of the Year, Excellence in Client Service and Excellence in Fintech at the 2026 Investment International Awards
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Written by Mike Coady Chief Executive Officer
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kybound Wealth has been named Company of the Year for the third consecutive year, alongside awards for client service and fintech. CEO Mike Coady on what that says about the business, and a closer
look at the people, service and technology behind the results. At the 2026 Investment International Awards, Skybound Wealth was named Company of the Year for the third consecutive year, winning both the Readers' Vote and the Overall award. We were also named global winner of Excellence in Client Service (Advisers) for the third year running, won the Middle East award in the same category, took Excellence in Fintech (Advisers) and received a Highly Commended for Best Fintech Innovation (Advisers). Over the following pages, CEO Mike Coady reflects on what three years at the top says about the business, and we look at the people, service and technology behind the client service and fintech awards.
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Company Of The Year: The Year Changes, The Choice Doesn’t
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Skybound Wealth has been named Company of
they pick up the phone. That's why we build
the Year for the third consecutive year, winning
so much of our technology ourselves. The
both the Readers’ Vote and Overall awards in 2026.
Skybound App keeps clients connected to their
"I'm proud of these results, and I'm happy to
plans wherever they are. Hub, the system our
say so plainly. Recognition from Investment
advisers work in every day, brings their client
International's readers matters to us, and
information together.
winning the Overall award again makes this
"For me, technology has to earn its place in
a moment worth celebrating. What I want to
the advice process. It should help our people
recognise most, though, is the work behind
prepare properly, find the right information
it: the decisions, the follow-through and the
and follow through on what has been agreed.
people clients rely on throughout the year.
It should also make it easier for clients to
"Being chosen once is good. Being chosen three
understand their plans and stay connected to
years running says something about how a business is run. "Here's what I think it says. Consistency is a set of habits, not a slogan. Answering quickly.
the people advising them. That is the standard we build against."
Thank You
Getting the detail right. Telling clients what they need to hear, not just what they'd like to hear. Holding the same standard on a busy Friday afternoon as on awards night."
Service And Technology, Side By Side
"To our clients: you trust us with some of the most important decisions in your life. We take that seriously every day, not just on awards night. Thank you. "To our people: this result is yours. It belongs to the advisers, the support teams, and the colleagues in compliance, technology,
"It's no coincidence that client service and fintech were recognised in the same year. At Skybound, they belong together. "Our clients live and work all over the world. They need advice that keeps up with them, and advisers who know their situation when
operations and marketing. It also belongs to the people who spent long evenings on submissions that most of the industry will never see. The submissions told the story. You wrote it. "To our partners: thank you for working alongside us, and for the expertise and support you bring to our people and our clients."
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Excellence In Client Service: Three Years Of Recognition For the third year running, Skybound has won the global client service award for advisers at the Investment International Awards, with a Middle
Advice That Considers The Whole Decision
East win added in 2026. The recognition reflects the advisers, servicing teams and specialists who keep client relationships moving when circumstances change, from a review meeting through to a move overseas.
A useful review begins with finding out what has changed for the client. A different job, a growing family or a planned retirement can change the question they need help answering. The
Our internal client satisfaction survey asks about
adviser's role is to explore those circumstances,
both the adviser relationship and the wider
explain the choices and recognise when
experience of Skybound. The results reported in
specialist input is needed.
our 2026 award entry included 308 responses,
Our structured review pack brings policy
with adviser service rated 4.58 out of 5 and the overall experience rated 4.45 out of 5. Among respondents, 96% said they would recommend us.
valuations and relevant market information into the discussion. Preparation gives the adviser a starting point; their judgement and knowledge
These figures represent the clients who
of the client make the conversation useful.
responded. Looking at the two scores together
Specialist support includes tax planning led
helps us examine the experience beyond the advice meeting, including communication, administration and follow-up. Asking for feedback carries a responsibility to act on it. When a client raises a concern, someone needs to understand the issue, take responsibility for the response and explain what happens next.
by Shil Shah and Skybound Property & Finance, led by Kieron Franklin. A property purchase or mortgage decision can affect cash flow, tax and retirement planning. Bringing the relevant expertise into the discussion helps clients consider those connections, with the scope of support agreed for their circumstances and location.
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Behind that advice are colleagues coordinating documents, resolving administrative questions
Following A Request Through
and following up outstanding work. Their contribution is part of the client relationship,
A client request creates work that needs an owner. In
and this recognition belongs to them too.
Hub, our operating platform, requests are recorded with a named person responsible, a status and a next
Continuity When Clients Move Consider a family preparing to leave the UAE after several years abroad. They have investments, insurance and plans for their children. Alongside the move itself, they need to know who will support them, which arrangements require attention and how the next person involved will pick up the decisions already made. This hypothetical example illustrates the work of Global Partners, our servicing team led by William Bailey. The team helps coordinate support when clients move country or responsibility for an account changes, keeping the history of the relationship intact through the transition.
action. Advisers and managers can see outstanding work and follow its progress through to closure. The relationship continues between meetings, too. The Skybound App gives clients access to portfolio information and important documents, and its Learn section provides guidance they can explore in their own time. Through SOAR, the Altitude newsletter, technical guides and events, our specialists explain issues affecting internationally mobile clients. "A client shouldn't have to understand how many people or systems sit behind their financial planning," says Mike Coady. "They should know who's accountable, understand the advice they receive, and feel that someone is on top of things. That's what we keep investing in."
The arrangement depends on the client's agreed service, destination and the relevant regulatory permissions. It may involve a different adviser or regulated entity, or a referral. The client needs a clear explanation of who can help and what will happen next.
“Being chosen once is good. Being chosen three years running says something about how a business is run.” Mike Coady, Chief Executive Officer
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Excellence In Fintech: Technology Built Around The Advice Conversation Skybound won Excellence in Fintech (Advisers) at the 2026 Investment International Awards, with a Highly Commended for Best Fintech Innovation (Advisers). The recognition reflects the work of Chief Technology Officer Husain Rangwalla and our in-house technology team in connecting financial planning, written recommendations and client requests through Plume. Plume brings together three products with distinct roles. Advice Suite supports the adviser's planning and recommendation work. The Skybound App gives clients access to information, documents, requests and meeting bookings. Hub supports the colleagues responsible for progressing work and recording approvals. Connecting them keeps information useful as a case moves forward: details gathered in a client meeting can inform the planning and the written recommendation, and a request made through the app can become an assigned task for the people who need to act on it.
Making Planning Easier To Understand
Reducing Repeated Work
MoneyMap brings cashflow planning into the client
The Suitability Report Builder within Advice Suite helps
meeting. It uses information from the client's fact-find
prepare reports around the adviser's licence, the client's
to help an adviser explore affordability, capacity for
jurisdiction and the type of recommendation. It draws
loss and different scenarios, and the results feed into
on information already captured in the advice process,
the recommendation.
reducing repeated drafting.
Consider a hypothetical client deciding whether to
According to our internal figures, advisers had produced
increase their regular savings and still meet other
11,976 suitability reports through the builder by
commitments. Adjusting the assumptions during the
September 2026. We estimate a saving of around 90
meeting lets the adviser and client examine the effect
minutes of drafting time per report. The final document
on the plan together, and discuss what the change would
still needs professional review, and the adviser
require and which trade-offs the client is comfortable
remains responsible for the recommendation. The time
making. The projections depend on their assumptions,
released creates capacity for getting to know a client's
which the adviser needs to explain.
circumstances, discussing the options and following up agreed actions.
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A Clear Route To The Adviser The Skybound App gives clients a way to manage parts of their relationship with us around their own schedule. They can submit identity documents as part of onboarding, view policy information across providers, sign documents and choose an available adviser meeting in their own time zone. Clients can raise requests for valuations, changes to personal or payment details, topups and withdrawals. Each request creates a task, notifies the adviser and paraplanner, and reaches Hub for assignment and tracking. Our internal figures recorded 4,786 requests raised through the app by September 2026. Hub also supports digital approval routes and records the decisions made along the way. A pension case, for example, can involve the pension manager, line manager and compliance team through the relevant route, and managers can view activity across teams and regions. A client may never need to know the name of the system behind a request. Its value comes from the people handling their affairs being able to find the relevant information and progress the next step. "I want our advisers to have the time to understand the decisions a family faces," says Mike Coady. "Connecting the planning, the written advice and the work that follows should help them do that. Clients should be able to see the benefit in a clearer conversation about their money."
What Comes Next "Awards are a good moment to stop and say thank you. They're not a finish line," says Mike.
“A client shouldn't have to understand how many people or systems sit behind their financial planning.” Mike Coady, Chief Executive Officer
"We'll keep investing in our advisers, in their development and in the next generation coming through. We'll keep building technology that makes good advice easier to give and easier to receive. And we'll keep holding ourselves to the standard that got us here. "I want our people to enjoy this recognition. They have earned that moment. But clients should never have to rely on an award to judge the quality of our business. They should feel it in how we communicate, the advice we give and whether we do what we said we would. That remains my responsibility."
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A Message From Our CEO, Mike Coady A
sk most internationally mobile professionals
Rules will keep changing, as they always have. The
whether their retirement is on track and they
answer is rarely to react to every headline. It is to build
will tell you it probably is. Ask them how they
a plan that can absorb change: diversified, reviewed
know, and the answer gets quieter.
and genuinely understood.
That pause is what this issue is about. Our first annual
It has been a busy quarter at Skybound too. We were
research report, The Retirement Reality Check, found
once again named Company of the Year (Advisers)
that the large majority of the people we surveyed hold
at the Investment International Awards. MoneyMap,
pensions or investments in more than one country,
the planning tool behind so many of our client
yet only around a third of them clearly understand
conversations, turned one. We welcomed Alexandra
how where they live affects what they hold. The
Merz, Emmanuel Asuquo and Olympian Delicious Orie
problem is rarely a lack of wealth. It is a lack of sight.
to the team, and named Savills our preferred property
None of that is a failure of intelligence. These are
partner. Each, in its own way, is about the same thing:
capable people who have moved faster than their
help them act on it.
property somewhere they may or may not return to.
If you have never seen everything you own in one
Each decision made sense at the time. Very few have
place, that is usually the best place to start.
ever been looked at together. So this issue takes the questions the research raises and answers them one at a time. How much do you actually need? What do you hold, and should any of it move? Where will you be taxed, and when? What changes if retirement happens somewhere new? You will find the answers across the Feature Well and our Cross Border Desk, and in a Panel that asks three of our advisers where they would retire.
Mike Coady
Mike Coady
Chief Executive Officer
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giving clients a clearer picture and the right people to
paperwork. A pension here, a portfolio there, a
The Briefing One question runs through this issue: can
Our Cross Border Desk looks at what retirement
you see everything you own in one place? Our
really involves in Spain, Cyprus and the United
first annual research report, The Retirement
States, what to settle before coming home from
Reality Check, suggests most internationally
the UAE, and the dilemma of retiring somewhere
mobile professionals can't. The large majority
that is neither home nor here.
hold pensions or investments in more than
We also ask why delaying a pension feels free
one country, and only around a third clearly understand how where they live affects them. We look at what that gap costs, and how to close it.
and almost never is, whether financial advice is really for the rest of us, and why an inheritance that arrives in your seventies may do far less than one that arrives decades earlier. For creators and
From there, each article takes on one of the
athletes, we look at why brand deals don't build
questions the research raises. How much
wealth on their own.
income you will actually need. What you hold,
Alongside that, three advisers answer the same
and whether any of it should move. Where you will be taxed, followed through one pension in three different countries. What happens when the currency moves against you, who is covered if something goes wrong, and who can still advise you once you have moved.
brief on where they would retire, our property team reads the Bank of England's next move, MoneyMap marks its first year, and the latest from inside Skybound includes a conversation with Alexandra Merz on her journey from the trading floor.
This Issue's Contributors Mike Coady
Kieron Franklin
Chief Executive Officer
Group Head of Property & Finance
Tom Pewtress
Taylor Condon
Group Head of Proposition
Country Manager - Spain
Ryan Donaldson
Ben Stockton
Private Wealth Partner
Private Wealth Manager
Carla Smart
Joselyn Pfeil
Group Head of Pensions
Private Wealth Adviser
Peter Gollogly
William Bailey
Regional Director
Group Head of Global Partners
Robert De Angeli
Christopher Ellis
Private Wealth Manager
Private Wealth Partner
Emmanuel Asuquo
Peter Smith
Private Wealth Adviser
Private Wealth Manager
Shil Shah
Michael Hanlon
Group Head of Tax Planning
Private Wealth Adviser
Jabir Sardharwalla
Will Spires
Chief Investment Strategist
Private Wealth Adviser
Craig Stokes
Jacob Mangoro
Managing Director - UK
Graduate Associate
Josh Clancey
Josh Watson
Private Wealth Manager
Group Head of People
Husain Rangwalla
Arun Sahota
Chief Technology Officer
Private Wealth Partner
Kieran Tween Private Wealth Manager
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Inside Issue Nine
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Forecast & Analysis 14. Quarterly Market Commentary Cutting through the market noise to explain what actually moved, why it matters for your money, and what we're watching next
56. Who's Covered If Something Goes Wrong? Healthcare, Income, Wills And Trusts: the part of a cross-border plan most families leave until last
In Focus
60. Don't Let The Deal Run Out
26. Built Across Borders
Why refinancing a UK mortgage from abroad takes longer than you think, and how to get ahead of it
What Skybound's first Retirement Reality Check reveals about planning a retirement that crosses borders
66. Is Financial Advice Really for the Rest of Us?
32. How Much Do I Actually Need?
Why most people rule themselves out of advice, and what that quietly costs them
Building a retirement number when your life spans more than one country
70. The Bill That Never Arrives
36. What Do I Actually Hold?
More than half of the expats in Skybound's Retirement Reality Check have put off a decision because the rules felt too uncertain.
A closer look at the pensions you own and the decisions to make before moving them
42. Location, Location, Taxation
74. Brand Deals Don't Build Wealth. Plans Do.
Why the country you retire to can matter as much as the pension you retire with
What a £20,000 brand deal leaves behind when the deals stop
22. Cut, Hike or Hold Again?
48. Who Can Advise Me Once I'm There?
81. Great Wealth Transfer Or Great Wealth Traffic Jam?
After six meetings without a change, the Bank of England is under growing pressure to raise interest rates
Financial advice is regulated country by country. Here's what that means when you move
Inheritance in your seventies, and why when family wealth arrives can matter as much as how much
24. The Panel: Three Voices One Question
52. What Happens If the Currency Moves Against You?
90. When Financial Products Don’t Add Up To A Plan
Each edition, three advisers go head to head on the issues that matter the most to you right now
Earn it here, hold it there, spend it somewhere else: why exchange rates belong in your retirement plan
They have a collection of financial policies and accounts, and the difference matters more than ever
20. Skybound's Cross-Border Cost Index The Skybound Index and Cross-Border Policy Watch: the cost of living abroad this quarter, and what changed in the rules
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In Focus
Contents
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Cross-Border Desk 94. Before You Book the Flight Home Returning to the UK from the UAE, and why the order of events decides how much of your savings comes home with you
98. Retiring to Spain: The First Year and the Next Thirty Why the order of decisions matters more in Spain than almost anywhere else in Europe
102. Retiring to Cyprus: Sun, Simplicity and Small Print
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Inside Skybound
114. 400km. Four Runners. One Reason. Four of our team are running 100km each through the mountains of Hatta to support children caught in Nepal's floods
116. The People Who Know Us Best Why almost half our new joiners came through referrals
118. Barcelona Open, the Algarve Next: Skybound Grows Its European Footprint A second Spanish office and a forthcoming Algarve base bring Skybound closer to clients whose financial lives span more than one country
121. Jamie Proctor Takes The Lead
Why the island appears on more British retirement shortlists every year, and what to check before you go
Former professional footballer Jamie Proctor takes the lead as Skybound’s Athletes & Creators division expands
106. Retiring to America: Read the Treaty First
122. Risk and Compliance Aren’t Synonyms: What My First Rotation Taught Me
What changes when the United States becomes home, and why savings built elsewhere can become expensive
110. The Third Country Dilemma Retiring somewhere that is neither home nor where you live now, and the three sets of rules that come with it
Jacob Mangoro discovers Compliance goes beyond qualifications and classroom learning
124. MoneyMap One Year On How a picture of your plan turns a rough idea into a number
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How Advice Works
126. From the Trading Floor to the Family Table Alexandra Merz on a career that ran from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank to advising international families at Skybound
130. Your Questions Answered Real questions submitted through the Skybound app and website, answered by the advisers who see them every week.
132. The Short List 5 Traits of a Plan Built to Move With You
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FORECAST & ANALYSIS What moved. What's next.
Quarterly Market Commentary Q3 2026 Review & Q4 2026 Outlook
Cutting through the market noise to explain what actually moved, why it matters for your money, and what we're watching next.
Written by Jabir Sardharwalla Chief Investment Strategist
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Volatility did not ease in the third quarter. Renewed conflict with Iran kept energy prices high and inflation sticky, and both pushed bond yields up. Higher borrowing costs, and what they mean for debt and share prices, are the main subject of this report. The breakdown of the memorandum of understanding with Iran pushed Brent crude up 42% over the quarter, back above $100 a barrel. More than 80% of developed-market central banks raised interest rates. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose 53 basis points (0.53 percentage points) in September alone, its biggest jump in four years. The wider economy held up better, with firm employment data and heavy AI spending, and the S&P 500 gained 2.3%. Yields have climbed further since the quarter ended, and two problems follow. The first is the global maturity wall, because a large share of cheap government and company debt now has to be refinanced at today’s higher rates. The second is valuation. A U.S. 10-year Treasury now pays around 5%, against a dividend yield of about 1% on the S&P 500, so more of a share’s price has to be justified by future growth. The closing section asks whether growth can outrun these costs, and the answer is a cautious maybe. For now, AI adds to the problem, because its heavy borrowing pushes yields up. If it delivers the productivity gains it promises, it could become part of the solution. A settlement between the U.S. and Iran would help, but it would not remove the maturity wall or government deficits. The answer may be growth strong enough to live with higher yields, rather than a fall in yields.
“By kicking the can down the road all these years, that same can has simply become bigger.”
Disclaimer This report was compiled on 1 October 2026. All figures, market data, and statistics referenced are correct as at that date and may not reflect subsequent changes in market conditions. Readers should note that financial markets can move quickly, and figures cited here should not be relied upon as current at the time of reading. Skybound Wealth Management accepts no responsibility for any decisions made based on data that may since have changed.
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FORECAST & ANALYSIS What moved. What's next.
Market & Macro Review For Q3 2026 Three-quarters of the way through the year and volatility simply hasn’t let up. The same, persistent themes dominate – the Gulf War and the ensuing energy crisis, sticky inflation and rising bond yields resulting in more expensive debt, higher debt-servicing costs and rates outperforming growth (r > g). The table below summarises performance by asset class and style for Q3 and year-to-date 2026, alongside previous calendar years: 2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
YTD
Q3 '26
Cmdty 16.1%
Growth 37.3%
Growth 26.2%
MSCI EM 34.4%
Cmdty 32.9%
Cmdty 16.2%
MSCI EM 37.8%
Global Agg -1.2%
Growth 34.1%
Growth 34.2%
Global REITs 32.6%
Growth 28.5%
Global REITs -4.9%
DM Equities 28.4%
MSCI EM 18.7%
Cmdty 27.1%
Value -5.8%
DM Equities 24.4%
DM Equities 19.2%
Value 21.6%
MSCI EM 23.7%
Value 4.0%
Small cap 23.2%
Growth -6.4%
Small cap 26.8%
DM Equities 16.5%
Value 22.8%
Global Agg -16.3%
Small cap 16.3%
Value 12.3%
DM Equities 21.6%
Value 15.3%
DM Equities 2.0%
DM Equities 23.1%
DM Equities -8.2%
Global REITs 24.4%
Small cap 16.5%
DM Equities 22.4%
DM Equities -17.7%
Value 12.4%
Small cap 8.6%
Growth 21.3%
Small cap 12.7%
Growth 0.0%
Value 18.0%
Value -10.1%
Value 22.7%
Global Agg 9.2%
Growth 21.4%
Small cap -18.4%
Global REITs 10.9%
MSCI EM 8.1%
Small cap 20.4%
DM Equities 12.1%
MSCI EM -0.2%
Global REITs 8.0%
Cmdty -11.3%
MSCI EM 18.9%
Value -0.4%
Small cap 16.2%
MSCI EM -19.7%
MSCI EM 10.3%
Cmdty 5.4%
Cmdty 15.8%
Growth 9.0%
Global Agg -2.5%
Global Agg 7.4%
Small cap -13.5%
Cmdty 7.7%
Cmdty -3.1%
MSCI EM -2.2%
Global REITs -23.7%
Global Agg 5.7%
Global REITs 2.8%
Global REITs 8.4%
Global REITs 5.8%
Small cap -3.6%
Cmdty 1.7%
MSCI EM -14.2%
Global Agg 6.8%
Global REITs -10.4%
Global Agg -4.7%
Growth -29.1%
Cmdty -7.9%
Global Agg -1.7%
Global Agg 8.2%
Global Agg -2.7%
Global REITs -5.7%
Source: Bloomberg, FTSE, LSEG Datastream, MSCI, J.P. Morgan Asset Management. DM Equities: MSCI World; REITs: FTSE NAREIT Global
Despite the headwinds of the above factors resulting in Brent crude moving back above $100 pb, European gas prices over €70 per megawatt-hour for most of September and over 80% of developed Central Banks (CBs) raising policy rates – as well as the U.S. raising a new wave of trade tariffs, the global economy still displays some degree of
Adviser’s Take:
What Q3 Actually Meant
resilience. The latter is evidenced by activity indicators, employment data, consumers holding up (by drawing on savings as incomes soften) and the massive splurge in AI
Strip away the tables and Q3 told a familiar story with
investing. Summarising performance:
a sharper edge. The conflict in the Gulf pushed oil
• The re-escalation in the Iran conflict and the breakdown in the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) drove up oil prices. Brent rose +42% in Q3 while WTI Crude rose +30%. • Agricultural commodities also surged. Bloomberg’s Agri spot index rose +13% in Q3, its biggest since 2022. Sugar (+23%), Corn (+21%) and Wheat (+16%) were the main highlights. • The Inflationary push had a huge impact on yields in September alone: The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose 53 basis points, its biggest monthly increase in four years. The Eurozone (EZ) was not spared either! Euro Sovereigns fell -4.4% over Q3, their worst quarterly performance since 2022. • Earnings remain robust with flash PMI indicators showing an acceleration in growth. The S&P 500 gained +2.3% over Q3 while the Mag-7 gained +11.1%. Ironically, the growth strength itself contributed to the bond selloff. • The bond selloff occurred across both long-dated and short maturity bonds. The former highlights ever-rising risk premia while the latter reflects rising rates.
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back above $100 a barrel, agricultural prices followed, and inflation refused to go quietly. Central banks responded the way they usually do, and bond yields climbed quickly: U.S. 10-year yields had their biggest monthly jump in four years. Yet the economy held up better than the headlines suggested. Companies kept earning, consumers kept spending and the AI investment boom carried on. The largest U.S. technology companies rose more than 11% over the quarter, even as bonds sold off. The one thing worth remembering: when the cost of money rises, the price of everything else gets re-examined. Existing bonds fall in value, borrowing gets more expensive and shares have to work harder to justify their prices. That doesn't mean something has broken. It means markets are adjusting to a world where money is no longer cheap.
Outlook For Q4 2026 What happens when the Genie simply won’t go back in its bottle? In my last quarterly, I summarised the current state of play as follows:
Growth Engine
Current Status
Commentary
Consumer
Slowing
Higher oil squeezing disposable incomes
AI Capex
Strong
Still the world's most powerful growth engine
Government Spending
Accelerating
Defence, infrastructure and industrial policy (Geopolitics, Government Spending & Growth)
Housing
Improving
Gradual recovery as rates stabilise
Manufacturing
Mixed
AI strong, consumer goods weaker
The first three remain largely unchanged. Housing is starting to suffer as mortgage rates begin to bite for new mortgages. Manufacturing is seeing input prices rise and this is reflected in output prices at the factory gates. The recent lull in military action is almost entirely down to upcoming elections at the end of this month in Israel and the first week of November in the U.S. (midterms). At the end of September, key bond yields stood at:
10Y yield
30Y yield
10Y move, rolling one-month period
30Y move, rolling one-month period
U.S.
5.19%
5.47%
+53bp
+30bp
UK
5.38%
5.87%
+42bp
+16bp
Germany
3.60%
3.87%
+35bp
+13bp
Japan
3.09%
4.16%
+21bp
+10bp
Country
What jumps out is the scale of the sovereign bond sell-off – not
This leads into the first of two major, looming issues: The
just U.S. Treasuries either. Every major market has experienced a
Global Maturity Wall. By kicking the can down the road all
material increase in 10y yields over the past month while 30y yields
these years, that same can has simply become bigger! The issue
have also risen across all four – just not to the same extent. In other
isn’t just about the sheer size of debt outstanding – but HOW
words, there has been a “flattening” taking place at the longer end
MUCH of that debt now needs to be refinanced at substantially
of the yield curve. The significance of this is higher interest-servicing
higher rates given where yields and interest rates are moving.
costs on debt – not existing but new debt that finances new funding.
The OECD’s Global Debt Report 2026 (published March 2026)
It would be wrong to assume ALL debt suddenly moves higher.
addresses much of this issue:
Funding / Refinancing Pressure
Current Status
Commentary
Government + Corporate borrowing in 2026
$29tn
+$4tn / +17% vs 2024; roughly double a decade ago
OECD Sovereign borrowing in 2026
$18tn
Record borrowing requirement
Of which: refinancing existing Sovereign debt
78%
$14tn is refinancing rather than new borrowing
OECD fixed-rate Sovereign debt maturing 2026 to 2028
⅓ of outstanding
Huge volume of legacy debt rolling over
IG Corporate debt refinancing 2026 to 2028
24% of outstanding
65% of maturities currently carry coupons ≤4% (a significant refinancing gap!)
Non-IG Corporate refinancing 2026 to 2028
31% of outstanding
67% currently carry coupons ≤6% (significant refinancing pressure building!)
9 major AI companies: projected Bond issuance 2026 to 2030
$1.2tn
New borrowing competing for the same capital
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FORECAST & ANALYSIS What moved. What's next.
The issue is: cheap legacy debt maturing grefinances
This leads into the second of two looming issues: Valuation
at today’s much higher yields g interest expense rises
– based on the Dividend Discount Model (DDM). At its
gearnings impact gmore capital required g investors
simplest, the value of an equity is the present value of
demand greater compensation. To make things even more
its future cashflows. So, comparing – and contrasting –
complicated, governments and corporates have responded to
current (trailing) dividend yields of four, major indices to
higher long-term borrowing costs by shortening the maturity
their national sovereign 10y yield, we have the following (as
of new issuance. The share of debt over 10y issuance has
of end-September):
fallen to its lowest level since 2009 for sovereigns and the lowest on record for corporates.
Market
Current dividend yield
Current 10y sovereign yield
Yield gap (i.e. Equity dividend yield minus 10y Sovereign yield)
S&P 500
1.04%
~5.2%
~-4.2%
FTSE 100
3.08%
~5.4%
~-2.3%
Euro Stoxx 50
2.32%
~3.6%
~-1.3%
TOPIX
1.8%
~3.1%
~-1.2% TO -1.4%
In other words, the risk-free alternative is becoming increasingly competitive with equity income. For instance, in the U.S., an investor can earn roughly 5% or more from a 10y Treasury vs say a 1% cash dividend from the S&P 500. That’s NOT to say Treasuries are automatically preferable! However, it does mean considerably MORE of the equity valuation must now be justified by future growth.
*The valuation changes are NOT market forecasts!
Div. Yield
5Y Div. Growth*
Terminal Growth*
+25BP
+50BP
+100bp
S&P 500
1.04%
11.0%
4.0%
-14.5%
-25.4%
-40.5%
FTSE 100
3.08%
5.0%
4.0%
-7.0%
-13.0%
- 23.0%
Euro Stoxx 50
2.32%
7.0%
3.5%
-7.3%
-13.7%
-24.1%
TOPIX
1.8%
8.0%
2.5%
-9.6%
-17.6%
-30.0%
• CORPORATES: the key question is what level of earnings offsets the
These are based on a two-stage DDM. Only the
refinancing pressure? OECD identified 24% of global IG (investment
Sovereign/Risk-Free rate is being “shocked” in the
grade) corporate debt and 31% of non-IG debt outstanding as of end-
above (i.e. +25bp, +50bp and +100bp). The rest
2025 that needs to be refinanced in 2026 to 2028. Of the debt coming
(dividend growth, terminal growth and equity risk
due, 65% of investment-grade debt carries a coupon of 4% or less, and
premium) are all held unchanged.
67% of non-investment-grade debt carries a coupon of 6% or less! The
The message is stark: the lower the current dividend
OECD expects much of this legacy debt to refinance at a higher cost.
yield or more distant the cashflows, the greater is the theoretical sensitivity to higher discount rates. That’s why the potential impact is so large – particularly in the case of the S&P 500! What happens if the discount rate (sovereign) permanently rises say +50bp and absolutely nothing else changes? Real markets do not behave like that because a +50bp hike may well coincide
The issue is whether earnings can rise quickly enough to absorb them e.g. if all existing debt costs 4%, refinancing a quarter of it at 5% raises the total interest bill by approximately 6.25%. EBITDA would need to rise by the same proportion to maintain interest cover, all else equal. Refinancing the same portion at 6% raises that hurdle to around 13% of EBITDA growth. • SOVEREIGNS: the key question here is how much growth offsets
with a stronger nominal GDP g stronger revenues g
higher rates? It’s wrong to suggest GDP has to exceed the 10y Bond
stronger earnings g stronger dividends.
yield because governments refinance gradually, not the entire debt at
If +50bp (+0.50%) theoretically knocks -25% off the S&P
the same time. The relevant rate is the effective interest rate across
500 DDM valuation, how much additional earnings/ dividend growth is required to restore that 25% back i.e. can we grow our way-out of it? This is where the distinction between Corporates and Sovereigns becomes key:
18
Index
the ENTIRE debt stack – not today’s marginal 10y yield. The OECD’s research shows interest payments amounting to some 3.3% of GDP in 2025. It projects interest costs to add 2.5 percentage points to the OECD debt-to-GDP ratio in 2026, while inflation reduces it by 2.4 percentage points. In other words, the beneficial denominator effect from inflation is no longer keeping ahead of the interest bill.
Adviser’s Take:
What To Actually Do With This The outlook makes two big points. The first is the
Two things are worth watching rather than
maturity wall: governments and companies borrowed
reacting to. First, whether earnings keep growing
cheaply for years, and a large share of that debt now
fast enough to absorb higher borrowing costs.
has to be refinanced at today's higher rates. The
AI is adding to the demand for capital today,
second is valuation: when a government bond pays
and if its promised productivity gains arrive,
5% or more, shares have to justify their prices through
it could become part of the answer. Second,
future growth rather than income, particularly in the
how concentrated your portfolio has become.
U.S., where dividends pay around 1%.
A portfolio tilted towards a handful of highly
Neither point calls for a dramatic move. Higher yields
valued shares is the most exposed to rising rates.
cut both ways. They put pressure on share prices and existing bonds, but they also mean cash and new
A properly diversified one, reviewed with your adviser, is built to live through periods like this.
bonds pay a meaningful income again.
CONCLUSION: Can we grow our way out of this?
And the great paradox? AI! AI is currently PART of the
Possibly – but the hurdle is rising!
problem: Capex g Borrowing g Capital Demandg Yields
• For corporates, the issue is can earnings grow faster than the interest bill? If 25% of debt currently costing some 4% refinances at 5%, the total interest bill rises by some 6%; refinance it at 6% and the increase becomes some 13%! It requires a roughly corresponding amount in growth to preserve existing interest cover. • For governments, the issue is nominal growth vs the effective interest rate on the entire debt stack – NOT today’s 10y yield. As more cheap legacy debt refinances at today’s higher rates, that effective rate rises too, and so does the growth hurdle.
rise. If, ultimately, it delivers the promised productivity gains, AI could become part of the solution: Productivity rise g Earnings/GDP rises g Greater capacity to absorb those higher financing costs. It all comes down to timing. A US/ Iran settlement would certainly help put PART OF THE GENIE BACK INTO ITS BOTTLE. However, it doesn’t change the Maturity Wall, Government deficits or the extraordinary competition for capital! The final answer may not even be substantially lower yields at all; it may be sufficiently stronger earnings, productivity and nominal GDP growth to LIVE WITH HIGHER YIELDS! The Genie may eventually go back in the bottle – but only partly. It’s highly questionable whether it still fits!
Disclaimer
Thank you for your continuing support. As always, we really value it, so please reach out to us if you have any queries.
This report was compiled on 1 October 2026. All figures, market data, and statistics referenced are correct as at that date and may not reflect subsequent changes in market conditions. Readers should note that financial markets can move quickly, and figures cited here should not be relied upon as current at the time of reading. Skybound Wealth Management accepts no responsibility for any decisions made based on data that may since have changed.
19
FORECAST & ANALYSIS What moved. What's next.
Skybound's CrossBorder Cost Index Autumn 2026 • Five-pillar comparative indicator
A quarterly guide to cross-border costs and rules, with a consistent UK reference point. The Skybound Index brings together public indicators of rents, everyday prices, labour taxation, international primary school fees and health system spending across nine markets. Its score is an editorial benchmark, not the price of a defined household budget: 80 does not mean a family's bills will be 20% lower. Cross-Border Policy Watch explains recent and forthcoming developments, distinguishing enacted rules from proposals.
Switzerland leads this reading at 139, followed by the
among the nine markets. Their zero employment income tax
United States at 117 and the UK reference score of 100.
proxies also reduce the composite scores; they do not imply
Switzerland's rental and everyday price indicators sit well
an absence of other taxes or business liabilities.
above the UK, while the U.S. has the highest health spending
For anyone weighing a move, the useful next step is to
indicator in this group. That spending measure describes the
compare actual housing, school and insurance costs with
national health system; it does not estimate what an expat
income after tax, in the currencies in which income is
will pay for care.
received and bills are paid. The Index provides context for
France scores 93, with lower rent and school fee indicators
that calculation.
offsetting a higher labour tax measure. Spain is 82,
This edition corrects the Swiss tax input and refreshes the
Portugal 81 and Cyprus 77. These are country-level
tax and schooling data, while retaining the original five pillars
comparisons: a particular city, neighbourhood or school
and weights. Scores are not directly comparable with Issue 8;
can give a different picture.
no quarter-on-quarter change is reported.
The UAE scores 72 and Saudi Arabia 42. In the UAE, the rental
Weights: rents 32%, everyday prices 30%, labour tax
indicator remains above the UK's even though everyday
proxy 20%, school fees 10%, health system spending 8%.
prices and international primary school fees are lower in
Each input is rebased to the UK. Numbeo's rolling country
this snapshot. Saudi Arabia has the lowest rental indicator
estimates combine contributed and collected prices.
The Skybound Cross-Border Cost Index - Autumn 2026 revised baseline • Composite scores • UK = 100 139
140 117
120
100
100
93
UK = 100 82
81
77
80
72
60 42
40 20 0 Switzerland
20
U.S.
UK
France
Spain
Portugal
Cyprus
UAE
Saudi Arabia
Tax uses OECD tax wedges for single workers without
The rules are moving too. HMRC has added detail to the
children earning each country’s average wage, a separate
pension inheritance-tax reforms, Spain has changed
Cyprus model and narrower employment income tax proxies
non-resident property filing deadlines, and the UAE has
for the Gulf. Health uses national spending per person in
extended Small Business Relief. France's proposed pension
purchasing-power terms, with mixed 2023–24 observations.
and gift changes remain subject to parliamentary approval.
The weights are editorial choices, not measured household spending shares.
Cross-Border Calendar — the quarter ahead
Sterling Since The Previous Issue
• 3 November — U.S. midterm elections. 5 November — Bank of England rate decision. • 29 November — Switzerland votes on additional
Between 30 July and 2 October 2026, sterling fell 1.3% against
VAT funding for the 13th AHV pension, including a
the U.S. dollar, while gaining 1.2% against the Swiss franc and
proposed standard-rate rise from 8.1% to 8.5% from
0.6% against the euro. A stronger pound reduces the sterling cost of a fixed foreign-currency bill; a weaker pound increases it. These currency movements are separate from changes in the composite Index.
2028, and on federal taxation of married couples. • 8–9 December — Federal Reserve meeting. 10 December — Swiss National Bank assessment. 17 December — Bank of England and ECB decisions.
Cross-Border Policy Watch
• 31 December — Spain's 2025 imputed-income return deadline. Swiss pillar 3a contributions must be credited by year-end to count for 2026.
Inflation and borrowing costs remain central to the outlook.
• 15 January 2027 — normal IFICI registration deadline
UK annual CPI inflation was 3.1% in August; the euro area's
for eligible applicants who became Portuguese
September flash estimate was 3.8%. At the 6 October
tax resident in 2026. 31 January — UK online Self
information cut-off, Bank Rate was 3.75%, the Federal Reserve's
Assessment filing and payment deadline for 2025/26.
target range was 3.75–4.00% and the ECB deposit rate was 2.50%. Persistent energy pressures could keep rates higher for longer, but future decisions depend on incoming data.
Jurisdiction United Kingdom Pensions
What changed and when
Who it affects and what to consider
HMRC's 27 August note explains administration of the reform bringing
Pension holders: update scheme records and
most unused pension funds and pension death benefits into estates for
nominations; review estate exposure, including
inheritance tax from 6 April 2027. Overseas treatment depends on the
overseas pensions.
scheme and long-term UK residence. United Kingdom -
From 6 April 2026, voluntary Class 2 payments for periods abroad ended for
Expats: check whether top-ups improve your pension.
National Insurance
most people. New overseas Class 3 applicants generally need ten continuous
Eligible transitional applicants must meet HMRC's
UK-resident years or ten years of qualifying contributions.
application and payment conditions by 5 April 2027.
Modelo 210's new 1–20 April 2027 filing window, where tax is payable,
Non-resident landlords: confirm your reporting
Spain -
covers annually grouped 2026 rental income and, for separately reported
method and payment deadline; retain rental-day
Property returns
rents, October–December 2026. Annual grouping already existed. The 2025
and ownership records.
imputed-income deadline remains 31 December 2026. United Arab
Small Business Relief now extends to tax periods ending by 31 December
Eligible resident businesses can elect to be treated as
Emirates -
2029. Revenue must not exceed AED3m in the current and every previous
having no taxable income each period; registration
Business relief
relevant tax period. Qualifying Free Zone Persons and members of specified
and filing obligations continue.
large multinational groups are excluded. France - Budget
The 2027 Finance Bill proposes a €3,000 cap on the retirement-pension
Retirees and families planning gifts or share transfers:
proposals
element of the 10% income-tax allowance, temporary cash-gift relief and
assess potential effects with a French tax adviser
changes to deferred gains on certain holding-company share transfers.
before changing plans.
These proposals remain subject to enactment and final commencement rules.
Disclaimer Sources: Numbeo country comparisons accessed 6 October 2026; OECD Taxing Wages 2026 and Tax Foundation (2025 tax data); World Bank/ WHO (2023–24 health spending); Bank of England exchange-rate data. Policy and calendar sources: HMRC, AEAT, UAE Ministry of Finance, French National Assembly and the relevant public authorities. Calculations: Skybound Research. Information checked on 6 October 2026, before the UK Budget scheduled for 28 October and the late-October Fed and ECB decisions. Subsequent announcements are outside this reading. Scheduled dates may change. This is general educational information; personal costs, tax treatment and eligibility depend on individual circumstances.
21
FORECAST & ANALYSIS What moved. What's next.
Cut, Hike or Hold Again? Written by Kieron Franklin Group Head of Property & Finance
Reading the Bank of England as an Expat Borrower After six meetings without a change, the Bank of England is under growing pressure to raise interest rates. Kieron Franklin, Group Head of Property & Finance at Skybound, on what that shift means for expats with UK mortgages.
In September, the Bank of England's decision to hold Bank Rate at 3.75% came as some relief. Lenders had already
What It Means For Expat Borrowers
been repricing fixed-rate mortgages upwards as swap rates climbed, and inflation figures showed CPI rising to 3.1% in
For most expats with UK mortgages, a Bank Rate decision
August, driven largely by fuel costs. A hold gave borrowers
doesn't change today's payment, because most are on fixed
a little breathing space.
rates. What it changes is the price of the next deal. Fixed
It may not last. The vote was closer than the headline
rates are priced from expectations rather than from the
suggested: six members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to hold, but three wanted an immediate rise to 4%. Since then, expectations have moved further. Some are
current Bank Rate, and several major lenders have already raised their mortgage rates in anticipation of a rise. If your fix ends in the next six to twelve months, the deal you move
predicting two rises before the end of the year, and four
onto may cost more than the one you have now.
over the next twelve months. A rise would be the first
Tracker payments follow their contractual link to Bank Rate;
since August 2023.
standard variable rates change at the lender’s discretion.
Not everyone agrees. Some economists argue that policy
For landlords, higher rates also tighten the rental cover
is already tight enough, that inflation will ease as growth
tests lenders apply at refinance, so a property that passed
slows into 2027 and that the next move should eventually
comfortably last time may need a closer look.
be a cut. The Committee will also assess the implications of the 28 October Budget for inflation and interest rates.
Timing matters more for expats than for most. Refinancing from abroad typically takes four to six months from first conversation to completion, and most mortgage offers remain valid for several months. Securing an offer early gives you a position you can improve on if rates move in your favour, rather than a deadline to chase if they don't.
“If your fix ends in the next six to twelve months, the deal you move onto may cost more than the one you have now.” Kieron Franklin, Group Head of Property & Finance
Worth A Look We don't have a crystal ball. But if the speculation in the media made you stop and think at any point in recent weeks, that's usually a decent signal to check where you actually stand, particularly if you're coming up for renewal or sitting on a variable deal.
Disclaimer This article is for information only and does not constitute mortgage or financial advice. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
22
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THE PANEL WHERE WOULD YOU RETIRE? Three advisers, three countries and the same client with two destinations in mind Where to retire is one of the most common questions our advisers hear. We gave three of them the same brief: a client in their mid-fifties, with a rough retirement number and two destinations in mind. What do they need to know first?
The Brief Our client is 55, has spent most of their career abroad and holds a mix of pensions and investments in more than one country. They have a rough idea of the income they will need, and two possible retirement destinations. Each panellist answered for the country they know best: what should this client weigh first, and what is the mistake they see most often?
Australia Ben Stockton - Private Wealth Manager
"Most of my clients considering Australia are Australians weighing up whether to go home or stay in the Gulf, so the first thing I ask is whether they have really compared the two. Retiring in the UAE and retiring in Australia are very different financial propositions, and it's worth putting real numbers against both rather than assuming home is the default. "If Australia is the answer, timing is everything. Your superannuation is preserved until you reach your preservation age, which is 60 for anyone born after mid-1964, and meet a condition of release, so the super has to fit the retirement date rather than the other way round. Becoming an Australian tax resident again also changes how your overseas investments and pensions are taxed from the day you arrive. In many cases, assets you acquired abroad have their cost base reset to market value when you become resident, which can be valuable, but only if you understand which assets qualify. "Staying in the UAE has its own checklist of questions. The UAE offers a retirement residence route for people over 55 who meet financial criteria, but healthcare becomes your own responsibility once employer cover ends, and private premiums at 70 look very different from premiums at 55. Going home brings access to Medicare, but also brings your worldwide income back into Australian tax. Neither option is obviously cheaper until you cost it properly. "The mistake I see most often is treating the move home as the plan. It isn't. It's a tax event, and the decisions that matter most are made before you get on the plane."
24
Portugal Ryan Donaldson - Private Wealth Partner "Portugal still appears on a lot of shortlists because of the reputation it built under the non-habitual resident regime. The first thing I tell clients is that the regime closed to new applicants from 2024. If you move now, your foreign pension income is normally taxed at Portugal's progressive rates, which reach the high forties at the top. That doesn't make Portugal a bad choice. It means you need to run the numbers on today's rules, not on what a friend paid five years ago. "The second point is investments. Portugal taxes investment income and gains at a flat 28% for residents in most cases, but certain insurance-based investments held for longer periods can benefit from reduced effective rates on their gains. How your portfolio is structured before you arrive can make a meaningful difference to what you pay for the rest of your retirement. "Residence itself is straightforward for most retirees with a reliable pension income, through Portugal's passive income visa, and residents can register with the national health service. Most of my clients also keep private cover. The other thing to plan is currency: most British retirees in Portugal have sterling income and euro costs, and that exchange rate will matter for the rest of their lives. "The mistake I see most often is restructuring too late. People move, settle in and then look at their investments. By then, some of the best options have gone."
Spain Taylor Condon - Country Manager - Spain and Private Wealth Partner
"Spain is the most common answer I hear, and for good reason. But the first thing I raise is the UK pension lump sum. UK tax-free pension cash is subject to available allowances and protections; Spain does not automatically exempt it. Spanish residence normally applies for the whole calendar year, so a withdrawal before arrival may still be taxable. Check the relevant tax year and treaty position before acting. "The second is the region. Income tax, wealth tax and inheritance tax all have a regional element in Spain, so where you live in Spain matters almost as much as whether you live there. Two neighbouring regions can produce very different outcomes for your family. "Healthcare and residence come next. Before State Pension age, private health insurance is normally a condition of the non-lucrative visa. Eligible UK State Pension recipients can obtain a UK-issued S1 and register it in Spain. Confirm entitlement and registration before relying on this route in the healthcare budget. "The mistake I see most often is assuming UK arrangements carry across. ISAs, UK wills and UK investment funds were not designed for Spanish residents, and they don't always behave the way people expect."
What they agree on Three countries, three sets of rules, and the same conclusion. The decisions that shape a retirement abroad are made before the move, not after it: when to take pension lump sums, how to structure investments, when residence begins and which country's rules will govern the estate. None of the panel suggested choosing a destination for tax reasons alone. All of them suggested knowing the tax position before choosing. As Mike Coady puts it in "Built Across Borders” (page 26), you don't need to know exactly where you will retire. But planning around your two or three most likely options makes everything else easier. Ben Stockton advises Australian expats in the Gulf. Ryan Donaldson advises British expats in Portugal. Taylor Condon is Country Manager and a Private Wealth Partner at Skybound Wealth Management in Spain.
25
BUILT
ACROSS BORDERS
What Skybound's first Retirement Reality Check reveals about planning a retirement that crosses borders
Written by Mike Coady Chief Executive Officer
26
S
kybound's first annual research report asked internationally based professionals how ready they feel for retirement. The answers
describe a generation that has built real wealth across borders and, in most cases, has never seen it in one place. For most of the last century, retirement planning rested on an assumption so basic that nobody bothered to state it. You worked in one country, saved in one currency, answered to one tax authority and retired, more or less, where you had always lived. The plan could be built once and left alone, because the ground underneath it did not move. That assumption no longer describes the people who read this magazine. A typical internationally mobile professional has a pension started in one country and left behind, a workplace scheme picked up in a second, savings held in a third currency and a property in a home country they may or may not return to. It is a richer and more mobile life than any previous generation enjoyed. It is also a considerably harder one to retire from. This summer, Skybound set out to measure how that generation feels about the retirement ahead of it. The Retirement Reality Check, our first
Confident, But Not Sure Why Start with the headline question. Asked how confident they are that their plan will deliver the lifestyle they want in retirement, only 17% of respondents said they were fully confident. Just over half, 51%, described themselves as somewhat confident. A further 27% were unsure, and 5% said they were not confident at all. Read quickly, that looks reassuring: more than two thirds feel at least some confidence. Read slowly, it says something else. The unsure outnumber the fully confident. And somewhat confident is a revealing phrase. It is the answer people give when things feel broadly fine but they could not say exactly why. This is not a picture of pessimism. Very few respondents expect their retirement to go badly. It is a picture of uncertainty: a large group of capable, well-paid people who believe they are probably on track and have no firm way of checking.
The Number That Isn't There
annual research report, surveyed internationally based professionals between 16 June and 14 July 2026, with respondents across the United Kingdom, continental Europe, Switzerland, the Gulf, Africa and North America. The sample was self-selected, so the findings are indicative rather than statistically representative of every expat. But the patterns are consistent, and they point somewhere uncomfortable. The findings travelled beyond our own clients. When they were published in September, FT Adviser reported them under the headline "Two-thirds of cross-border investors unclear on financial position". Mike Coady, Chief Executive of Skybound Wealth Management Group, put the problem in a sentence:
The uncertainty sharpens when the questions become specific. We asked respondents whether they had worked out the income they will need in retirement. Just over half, 53%, said they had a defined figure. The remaining 47% are working from a rough idea, or from nothing at all. That single statistic explains much of what follows. It is difficult to feel genuinely confident about reaching a destination you have never defined. Without a number, there is no way to know whether current savings are enough, whether a pension transfer helps or hurts, or whether the property in the home country is part of the retirement plan or simply
"When your pension sits in one country, your home
a property.
in another and your tax residence somewhere else
Respondents seem to sense this. Asked what
again, no single adviser, employer or provider ever shows you the whole picture. Closing that gap is the most valuable thing our industry can do for internationally mobile clients."
would most increase their confidence, the most common answer was a clearer overall plan, chosen by 35%, followed by knowing their retirement number at 31% and tax planning at
The problem the survey uncovers has very little
28%. A pension review came next at 23%, with
to do with how much people earn, save or invest.
a clearer idea of where to retire and a stronger
It has everything to do with whether they can see
investment strategy each at 20%. Better
what they hold, know what they need and have a
protection for family was chosen by 12%.
plan that keeps pace with their lives.
27
Two Worries A Single-Country Plan Can't Answer When we asked what worries respondents most about retirement, two concerns stood clearly above the rest. Not saving enough was cited by 48%. Tax exposure was close behind at 45%. Healthcare costs followed at 29%, then market falls at 23%, currency movements at 22% and not knowing where they will live at 20%. Supporting family and access to pensions were each chosen by 17%, and property costs by 6%. The two leading worries have something in common. Both are questions that a conventional, single-country plan is poorly equipped to answer. Take adequacy first. Whether you have saved enough depends on what retirement will cost, and for an internationally mobile household that depends on where retirement happens, in what currency the bills arrive and how each pot is taxed when it is drawn. A plan built around one country's assumptions can give a confident answer to a question nobody is actually asking. Tax is harder still. The same pension can be taxed very differently depending on where its owner is resident when the benefits are taken, the source and nature of the income, the treaty between the countries involved and, in some jurisdictions, citizenship. Shil Shah, Group Head of Tax Planning at Skybound, puts it plainly: tax is often the least forgiving part of cross-border retirement planning, because the outcome can depend on more than one set of rules.
Currency adds a third layer that rarely gets the attention it deserves. A retirement earned in one currency and spent in another is exposed to exchange rates for the rest of the retiree's life. Left unmanaged, currency movements can erode a retirement income in much the same way that poor investment performance can, yet in our advisers' experience they are often left entirely unaddressed. Just over one in five respondents, 22%, already count it among their biggest worries.
“Closing that gap is the most valuable thing our industry can do for internationally mobile clients.”
"Small differences in where you are resident
Mike Coady, Chief Executive Officer
35% say they clearly understand how their
and when you act can create materially different outcomes," he says. "Tax outcomes are usually shaped before they are reported. By the time a liability arises, many of the decisions that determined it may have been made months or years earlier."
The Cross-Border Clarity Gap One finding captures the whole report better than any other. Of everyone we surveyed, 84% hold pensions or investments in more than one country. Among that group, only country of residence affects their pension, tax and investments. A further 47% say they understand it somewhat, and 18% say not really or not at all.
28
Put those figures together and roughly two in three people living a cross-border financial life do not clearly understand it. We call the distance
Rules That Move On More Than One Side
between how people live and how well they understand it the Cross-Border Clarity Gap.
If visibility is the first problem, change is the
It would be easy to read that as a failing. It isn't.
second. Anyone with cross-border affairs is
Carla Smart, Group Head of Pensions at
exposed to rule changes in more than one
Skybound, sees the gap every week and is
jurisdiction at once, and those rules move
clear about its cause.
independently of each other.
"The single most common thing I see is
The United Kingdom alone shows how quickly
fragmentation," she says. "People arrive with
the ground can shift. In the space of a few
pensions in two or three countries, an old
years, UK pension savers have seen the Lifetime
workplace scheme they have half-forgotten,
Allowance abolished and replaced with new
and no single view of what they actually hold.
lump-sum allowances, changes to the Overseas
Each piece may be perfectly sensible on its own.
Transfer Charge on certain transfers abroad, and
The problem is that nobody is looking at them
legislation that brings most unused pension funds
together, against a plan."
and pension death benefits into the estate for
"None of this is a failure of intelligence. These are capable people. It is usually a failure of visibility. Once someone can see the whole picture and how the parts interact, good decisions become far easier." Our advisers make a related observation: the clients with the most cross-border complexity are often the ones whose plans have never been fully mapped. Not through neglect, but because their situation resists an off-the-shelf answer, and so it never gets one. Closing that gap starts with something unglamorous: a single view. Every pension, in every country, with its value, its rules on access and any guarantees attached. Every investment account, with the currency it is held in and how it is taxed where you live now and where you might live next. Every property, with the role it is expected to play. Most of the people who answer somewhat when we ask about their clarity already hold all of that information. It simply sits in different places, in different formats, and has never been put on the same page.
inheritance tax purposes for deaths on or after 6 April 2027, subject to specified exclusions. The impact of that last change depends on individual circumstances, including whether an estate falls within the scope of UK inheritance tax and the type of pension benefit involved. But it is a clear example of how a plan built on the rules of five years ago can quietly fall out of date. There is a temptation, every time a Budget or a new piece of legislation arrives, to react to the headline. That is rarely the right response. The more useful question is not what changed this quarter, but whether your plan was built to absorb change in the first place. Plans that are diversified across assets, currencies and jurisdictions, and reviewed on a schedule, tend to bend when the rules move. Plans that were built once and left alone tend to break. Shil's view is that the answer lies in treating pensions and tax as one discussion, not two. "A pension decision that appears suitable in isolation may produce an unintended tax result, and vice versa," he says. "The strongest plans consider both from the outset."
29
The Cost Of Waiting Complexity has a predictable effect on people: it makes them wait. More than half of respondents, 54%, have at some point postponed a financial decision because of uncertainty around crossborder tax, residency or regulation. Around a third, 35%, have done so occasionally or more than once. The instinct is understandable. Nobody wants to make an irreversible decision about a pension or an investment when they are unsure of the rules. But in retirement planning, time is the one input that cannot be bought back. Contributions compound over decades. Many of the most valuable tax planning opportunities depend on acting before an
“Waiting for a certainty that never quite arrives is itself a decision. It is usually a costly one, and it rarely sends a bill.” Mike Coady, Chief Executive Officer
event, not after it. And the window to act ahead of a rule change closes before the change takes effect. Carla has seen what poor timing costs in practice. "A pension transfer can be the right move or an expensive mistake, and the difference often comes down to timing, tax residence and the client's wider objectives, rather than the product itself," she says. "I have seen people give up guarantees they did not know they had, and others pay charges they could have avoided by waiting a matter of months." Waiting for a certainty that never quite arrives is itself a decision. It is usually a costly one, and it rarely sends a bill.
Plans That Drift Even a good plan has a shelf life. We asked respondents when their retirement plan was last reviewed. A little over a third, 35%, had reviewed it in the past twelve months, and 27% within the past three years. But 12% last reviewed theirs more than three years ago, and 26% said they have no formal plan at all. Taken together, 38% of respondents either have no formal plan or are relying on one that predates some of the most significant pension and tax
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changes in recent memory. For people whose lives cross borders, that matters more than it would for most. A move, a new job, a marriage, a change in where the children are at school or a change in the law can each alter how an existing plan performs. A plan reviewed only when something goes wrong is a plan that is usually reviewed too late.
Where Will You Actually Retire? One question sits underneath many of the others. Where will you actually retire? One in five respondents, 20%, named not knowing where they will live as one of their biggest worries, and the same proportion said that clarity on where to retire would most increase their confidence. For internationally mobile people, that is not a lifestyle question. It is a financial one. The choice of retirement country shapes how pension income is taxed, what healthcare costs, how much currency exposure remains and how easily you can reach your own money.
Consider how differently the same retirement can
That is the prize, and it is more reachable
play out. A UK pension drawn by someone resident
than the survey's headline figures might
in one European country may be taxed in a way
suggest. The people who feel most in control
that bears little resemblance to the treatment the
of their retirement are rarely those with the
same pension receives in another, or in the Gulf.
most money. As Carla puts it, they are the
Access to state healthcare can depend on residence
ones whose plan is current, joined-up and
status and on agreements between countries.
actually understood.
The currency of the pension and the currency of
The rest of this issue takes the survey's
the weekly shop may be the same, or they may not. Each of those variables changes the number a retiree needs, which is why the question of where so often has to be answered, at least provisionally, before the question of how much.
questions one at a time. How much do you actually need? What do you hold, and should any of it move? Where will you be taxed, and when? What happens if the currency moves against you, or if something goes wrong? And
The good news is that it does not need a definitive
who can advise you once you have moved?
answer today. "You don't have to know exactly
Each answer starts in the same place: seeing
where you'll retire," Carla says. "But the moment
the whole picture clearly, and planning for the
you plan around your two or three most likely
life you are actually living rather than the one a
options, everything else gets easier."
single-country plan assumes.
What A Plan Built To Move Looks Like
About The Research The Retirement Reality Check is Skybound
If a domestic plan can assume the ground stays still, a cross-border plan has to be built to move with it. In our advisers' experience, the international retirement plans that hold up best share five traits. They are tax-aware across jurisdictions, structured around where you are tax resident, where your pension and investment income arises, where you are likely to retire and which double tax treaties apply, rather than simply where an account happens to be held. They are currency-resilient, with the currencies earned, held and spent considered together to reduce
Wealth's first annual study of how internationally based professionals feel about retirement. Responses were collected online between 16 June and 14 July 2026 from a self-selected sample of professionals living or working outside their home country, or otherwise managing money across borders. Findings are indicative rather than statistically representative. Where respondents could give more than one answer, percentages do not total 100%. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number. Answers on clarity are self-reported.
mismatches and manage exchange-rate risk. They are built around a defined number: the income you will actually need, so that every other
Disclaimer
decision has a reference point. They are portable,
This article is for information only and does
and consolidated only where it makes sense,
not constitute personal financial, tax or legal
structured to stay manageable if you move, with
advice. Rules referred to are subject to change
pensions and investments brought together only
and depend on individual circumstances.
after weighing tax, guarantees, benefits, charges and local regulation. And they are reviewed on purpose, at least once a year and after any significant change in your life or in the rules. None of those traits depends on wealth. They depend on visibility, a number and a habit of review.
The Clarity Dividend The clearest signal in the research has nothing to do with products. When respondents described in their own words what a good retirement would look like, they rarely mentioned returns or a target portfolio value. They talked about security, independence, freedom and peace of mind. One put it more simply than any of us could: "Peace of mind, knowing there is enough in the pot."
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How Much Do I Actually Need? Building a retirement number when your life spans more than one country
Written by Josh Clancey Regional Head of Technical and Private Wealth Manager
32
A
lmost half of the expats in Skybound's Retirement Reality Check have only
Why The Number Comes First
a rough idea of the income they will
need in retirement, or none at all. Josh Clancey,
A retirement income figure is the reference
Regional Head of Technical and Private Wealth
point for everything else. It tells you whether
Manager, considers the one figure every other
your current savings rate is enough, too little
decision depends on.
or more than you need. It tells you whether
Ask most internationally mobile professionals
a pension transfer, a property purchase or
how their retirement savings are doing and you will get an answer. Ask them how much income they will need once they stop working and the answer usually goes vague. A comfortable
an early retirement date fits the plan or pulls against it. It turns the most common retirement worry in the survey, not saving enough, which 48% of respondents chose, from an anxiety into
amount. Enough to travel. Something like what
a question with an answer.
we live on now.
Without it, people tend to fall back on one of two
That vagueness is common. In Skybound's
instincts. Some save as much as they can and
Retirement Reality Check, 47% of respondents said they had only a rough idea of the income they will need in retirement, or no figure at all. The same survey found that knowing their retirement number was the second most popular answer, chosen by 31%, when people were asked what would most increase their confidence. People know the number matters. Most simply have never sat down and built it. The preceding figure is 47%. In my experience, that is the single most useful hour anyone can spend on their retirement plan. Without a number, every other decision is made blind.
still worry, because they have no way of knowing when enough is enough. Others assume things will work out, because the pension statements look healthy and nothing has gone wrong yet. Neither is a plan.
Building A Number Across Borders For someone who has lived and worked in one country, a retirement number can be estimated from current spending with a few adjustments. For an internationally mobile household, it takes more thought, because the figure depends on three things that may all be uncertain: where you will live, what it will cost to live there and what currency the bills will arrive in. I usually start with the life, not the money. Where do you expect to spend most of the year? How often will you travel home, and how many people will be travelling? Will you be supporting children through university, or helping parents? Will you rent or own? Will you need private healthcare, and how will that cost change as you get older? Those answers produce a spending figure in a particular currency. Only then does it make sense to look at the money you hold, much of which may be in different currencies, held in different countries and taxed under different rules. Its tax treatment will depend on your residence, the pension’s source and type, and the relevant treaty.
“Without a number, every other decision is made blind.” Josh Clancey, Regional Head of Technical and Private Wealth Manager
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State Pensions From More Than One Country
The value of a model is not that it predicts the future. It doesn't, and any model that claims to should be treated with suspicion. Its value is that it shows the shape of the plan. It shows when
State pensions are often the foundation of a retirement income, and internationally mobile people frequently have entitlements in more than one country. Each system has its own qualifying rules, its own pension age and its own approach to people who have left. For the new UK State Pension, 35 qualifying years normally gives the full rate only if there is no pre-April 2016 National Insurance record. Earlier records and contracting-out can change the calculation. Ten years is normally the minimum, but relevant overseas contribution periods may help satisfy it. Gaps can sometimes be filled with voluntary contributions, but the rules for people living abroad changed from April 2026, and access is now more limited than it was. Anyone with gaps should check their forecast and their options before assuming they can still fill them. Where you retire matters too. A UK State Pension paid to someone living in the European
each source of income starts, when savings are drawn down and whether the money lasts. Most usefully, it lets you test the decisions in front of you. What happens if you retire at 60 instead of 65? If you move to a country with higher living costs? If returns are lower than expected for the first ten years? Consider an illustrative couple in their late forties, working in the Gulf, with UK pensions, an investment portfolio and a plan to retire to southern Europe. Their rough idea was that they would be fine. A model built around their actual spending showed they would be, on one condition: that they kept contributing at their current rate for another eight years rather than the five they had assumed. The plan didn't change much. Their confidence did, because they now knew why.
When The Number And The Assets Don't Match
Economic Area, Switzerland or a country with an agreement that provides for increases rises each year. In countries where uprating does not apply, annual increases generally stop. Over a long retirement, that difference can be significant, and it belongs in the number from the start.
Cashflow Modelling, In Plain Terms
Building the number is the first step. Comparing it with what you are likely to have is the second, and that is where the useful conversations start. If the two line up, the job becomes one of protecting the plan and keeping it current. If they don't, there are only a handful of levers, and it helps to see them clearly. You can save more, or save for longer. You can retire later, or phase retirement by working part-
Once the spending figure and the sources of income are clear, a cashflow model brings them together. At Skybound we use MoneyMap, which maps your income, assets and goals across your lifetime and lets you change an assumption and see what it does to the outcome.
time for a few years. You can adjust the life you are planning, whether that means a smaller home, fewer flights or a different retirement country with lower living costs. Or you can look at whether the money you already have is working as hard as it reasonably can, through the right investment mix, lower charges or a more efficient structure for tax.
“A shortfall identified at 45 gives you twenty years and a wide choice of levers. A shortfall discovered at 63 leaves very few.” Josh Clancey, Regional Head of Technical and Private Wealth Manager
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None of those levers is attractive in isolation, and most people end up using a little of several. The point is that a shortfall identified at 45 gives you twenty years and a wide choice of levers. A shortfall discovered at 63 leaves very few.
The Order You Draw It In For internationally mobile retirees, the number is not just about how much income you need. It is also about where that income comes from, and in what order. A pension, an investment portfolio, cash savings and rental income may each be taxed differently depending on where you live, and the sequence in which you draw them can change how much of your money you keep. Drawing from the wrong pot first can mean paying more tax than necessary in the early years of retirement, or leaving assets exposed to inheritance tax that could have been used instead. A good retirement plan sets out not only the income you need but which sources should fund it at each stage, and why.
Inflation And Longevity Two factors catch people out more than any other. The first is inflation. A retirement income that feels generous at 55 can feel tight at 75 if it has not kept pace with prices, and inflation in your retirement country may run differently from inflation where you earn today. The second is longevity. Many people plan for a retirement of 15 or 20 years. For a couple retiring in their early sixties, it is entirely possible that one of them will live well into their nineties. A number that only works until 85 is not really a retirement number. Both point to the same conclusion. The number is not set once. It should be revisited every year or two, and every time something significant changes: a move, a new job, a change in family circumstances or a change in the rules.
Where To Start If you have never worked out your retirement number, start simply. Write down what you spend now, adjust it for the life you expect in retirement, decide which currency it should be expressed in and add the costs that tend to rise with age, healthcare above all. Then list every source of income you expect, in every country, with the age at which each one starts. That alone puts you ahead of almost half of the people in our survey. Bring it to an adviser and it becomes the reference point for every decision that follows. Those who know their number do not necessarily have more money than those who don't. They simply know what it is for.
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WHAT DO I ACTUALLY HOLD? Written by Carla Smart Group Head of Pensions
A closer look at the pensions you own and the decisions to make before moving them
36
A
pension statement can tell you what an account is worth without telling you what you own. The balance may be clear. The
income it can provide, the guarantees attached to it and the conditions for taking your money can be much harder to see. Those details are where I would start, before discussing a transfer. An international career makes the exercise more demanding. Different employers use different arrangements. Providers merge, correspondence goes to an old address and a pension becomes a familiar name on an unfamiliar document. Moving country adds another question: will the arrangement still work when you need to draw from it? Skybound's Retirement Reality Check found that 84% of respondents held pensions or investments in more than one country. Among those cross-border holders, 35% said they clearly understood how residence affected their position. A pension review was among the
Keep pension rights distinct from ordinary investment accounts and employer benefits. A UK State Pension forecast belongs in the wider income plan, but it is not a pot you can consolidate into a personal pension. A Gulf end-of-service entitlement also needs its own entry, with the
confidence-building measures selected by 23%
employment terms that determine what is due.
of respondents. These are findings from a self-
The useful result is a record you can maintain.
selected survey, rather than a representative
Include a date beside every figure, flag information
measure of all expatriates. They nevertheless
still being obtained and retain the underlying
give this article a useful starting point: what
documents. An estimate from an old statement
would a proper review establish?
should not quietly become a confirmed retirement
I want it to answer two questions. What does
income in the plan.
each arrangement do for you today? And what, specifically, would improve if you changed it? The second question should remain open until the first has been answered.
Start With The Employers Rather Than The Balances
Find Out What The Scheme Promises A defined benefit pension usually promises an income calculated under the scheme's rules, commonly using salary and length of service. A defined contribution pension holds a pot whose
I would build a timeline of your working life, recording employers, countries and dates. Include
outcome depends on contributions, investment performance, charges and how benefits are taken.
short periods of employment and arrangements to
The distinction changes what a transfer means.
which you stopped contributing years ago. A small
With defined benefit rights, I would examine the
pension deserves a place on the list even if you
promised income at the normal retirement age,
expect a larger one to provide most of your income.
any increases before and after retirement, and
Old payslips, benefit statements, employment
benefits for a spouse or other dependant. Taking
contracts and emails can help connect an employer to a scheme. In the UK, the government's free Pension Tracing Service can provide contact details for workplace and personal pension schemes. It
benefits earlier may reduce the annual pension. Exchanging the promise for a transfer value shifts important investment and longevity risks to you. A large cash figure alone cannot tell you whether
does not confirm that you have a pension or tell
that is sensible.
you its value. You still need to contact the provider
Defined contribution arrangements also deserve
and establish your entitlement.
a close reading. An older policy may carry a
For each arrangement, record the provider and
guaranteed annuity rate, protected pension age
scheme name, policy or membership number, country, currency, current status and contact details. Ask for a current benefit statement, the rules on taking benefits and the complete schedule
or protected tax-free cash. Different protections have different transfer conditions. Some can survive a qualifying transfer; others can be lost. Ask for a written explanation of the actual benefit
of charges. Record any beneficiaries or expression
and the effect of the proposed transaction.
of wishes, while recognising that these do not
The UK advice requirement is often reduced to an
necessarily bind the scheme or replace a will.
unhelpful slogan about pensions above £30,000.
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More precisely, where safeguarded benefits worth more than £30,000 are being transferred or converted into flexible benefits, appropriate independent advice is generally required from an adviser with the relevant UK regulatory permission. Nor does falling below the threshold make a transfer suitable. The Financial Conduct Authority's starting position is that most people are best advised to keep a defined benefit pension. Some schemes also restrict transfers, and most unfunded public service schemes cannot transfer into a defined contribution arrangement. Establish what is possible before comparing destinations.
Make Consolidation Earn Its Place Consolidation can make administration easier. It may reduce duplicated charges, improve investment oversight or provide withdrawal facilities that an older scheme does not offer. These can be worthwhile benefits, but it's important to establish whether they would genuinely improve your existing arrangements. I would compare the total cost of staying with the total cost of moving. That includes advice, administration, investments, platform or custody fees, dealing, currency conversion and eventual withdrawals. An apparently modest headline charge can sit above several other layers. Exit penalties, market value reductions and time out of the market may also affect the result.
38
“You can have a coordinated plan without putting every pension into one contract.”
the services available where you live and all charges. Establish who regulates each provider and adviser, and what complaints and compensation arrangements apply. A qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme, or QROPS, is different: it is an overseas scheme that meets relevant UK requirements. HMRC's published list consists of schemes that have notified HMRC that they meet the conditions and have asked to be listed. Inclusion is not an endorsement or a guarantee that a transfer will be free of UK tax. The Overseas Transfer Charge is central to the comparison. For transfers requested from 30 October 2024, the former broad exemption for transfers to schemes in the European Economic Area or Gibraltar was removed. For most individuals, a transfer to a QROPS will now only be exempt from the Overseas Transfer Charge if they are tax resident in the same country as the receiving scheme, subject to certain exceptions.
Service matters too. Can the provider deal with your present address and likely future residence? Can you make withdrawals in the way you need? What happens if you move again? A pension that accepts an overseas address may still
“The most useful pension review may leave much of what you own exactly where it is.”
place restrictions on contributions, investment changes or new business. Obtain the provider's answer for the country concerned. There may be a good reason to combine two straightforward defined contribution pots while leaving a third arrangement untouched. You can have a coordinated plan without putting every pension into one contract. The decision should explain why each retained scheme deserves its place just as clearly as it explains each transfer.
An exclusion can still apply where you are tax resident in the country in which the QROPS is established, or where specified employmentrelated conditions are met. These conditions must be checked precisely. Even where an exclusion applies, the amount within your available overseas transfer allowance matters. The standard allowance is £1,073,100, but
I would be cautious about any recommendation
previous transfers and individual protections
that treats tidiness as a financial benefit in
can change the available amount. Where an
itself. Fewer statements are convenient. Giving
exemption from the Overseas Transfer Charge
up a valuable income promise to achieve that
applies, a 25% charge may still arise on any
convenience needs a much stronger justification.
amount exceeding your available overseas transfer allowance. Where no exemption
Moving Abroad Does Not Automatically Mean Moving The Pension
applies, the 25% charge will generally apply to the full amount transferred. There is a continuing test too. A change of residence during the Overseas Transfer Charge monitoring period can change the charge
A UK pension can often remain in the UK when its member lives overseas, subject to the provider's terms. Residence abroad does not, by itself, create a requirement to transfer it. The tax treatment of payments is a separate question, explored in Shil's feature in this issue. A self-invested personal pension, or SIPP, remains a UK pension even when marketed as an international SIPP. The label describes a proposition for overseas clients, rather than a passport into another country's pension system. Check the legal provider,
position. That period can extend to the end of the fifth full UK tax year following the transfer. An initially charge-free transfer can later become chargeable, and some changes can give rise to a refund. The reporting requirements need to be understood before the transfer takes place. That is why I would ask about the next move as well as the immediate one. A transfer suitable for someone settling permanently in one country may work very differently for someone expecting another international posting.
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Give Non-UK Arrangements Their Own Review A pension inventory needs to respect the rules of each system. Similar-looking balances are not automatically interchangeable, and withdrawing money to invest it elsewhere is not necessarily a pension transfer. Australian superannuation is generally preserved until a condition of release is met. Moving abroad does not normally give an Australian citizen or permanent resident immediate access. Eligible former temporary residents may instead qualify for a departing Australia superannuation payment, subject to its conditions and tax. Those are different routes. Check which applies before including the balance as available cash. For a U.S. 401(k), distinguish pre-tax money, after-tax contributions and designated Roth amounts. Their distribution treatment can differ. A rollover to another eligible U.S. retirement arrangement is different from taking cash and sending it overseas. Early distributions can carry an additional U.S. tax, with exceptions; moving country alone is not a general exemption. The plan's rules, your age and your U.S. and overseas tax position all matter. South African retirement annuities have their own access rules. After contributions have stopped, one route to a pre-retirement withdrawal generally requires at least three uninterrupted years of non-residence for South African tax purposes. The two-pot system also separates components with different access conditions. Emigration paperwork, an overseas address
They initially want one pension statement. A review
and tax non-residence are not interchangeable
instead asks for the promised income and survivor
evidence. Ask the fund which components can be
benefits from the defined benefit scheme, checks
accessed and what tax process applies.
whether the older policy has a guaranteed annuity rate,
Across the Gulf, establish the particular
and compares the two ordinary pots on charges and
employment and savings arrangement rather than
withdrawal facilities. The review also asks when each
assuming a standard regional pension. In the UAE,
proposed change would actually take effect.
an expatriate employee may have a statutory end-
Suppose the older policy does have a valuable
of-service gratuity or an applicable funded savings
guarantee. The outcome might be to retain it, keep
arrangement. The employment jurisdiction and
the defined benefit pension and consider combining
scheme rules matter. A projected gratuity is an
only the two ordinary pots. Alternatively, the existing
employer-related entitlement, not automatically
providers might already offer everything required at a
an invested pension pot with the same protections
competitive cost. Either can be a sensible conclusion.
or withdrawal rules as your UK scheme.
This example illustrates the questions, not a
I would keep these arrangements visible in one
recommendation or a prediction of savings.
plan while leaving their legal identities clear. That
Now add an overseas transfer. The relevant
allows you to coordinate future income without
residence, scheme location, available allowance and
pretending that the contracts can all be moved or
possible later move must be checked against the
accessed in the same way.
intended transfer date. The date an application is signed is not necessarily the date the money moves.
Put The Dates Beside The Decision Consider an illustrative couple, Maya and Daniel, who expect to retire overseas in eighteen months. They have two ordinary UK defined contribution pots, an older personal pension and a deferred defined benefit pension. Their preferred retirement country is reasonably clear, but a final overseas work contract could postpone the move.
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A timetable should allow for advice, information gathering and the transferring scheme's checks, rather than assume a convenient completion date. Retirement dates deserve the same attention. From 6 April 2028, the UK's normal minimum pension age generally rises from 55 to 57, with exceptions including certain protected pension ages and illhealth cases. If access around that date matters to your plan, obtain confirmation of your own position. A transfer can affect protections, so this belongs in the review before documents are signed.
Review The Purpose Before Changing The Structure For deaths from 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits come within UK inheritancetax scope, subject to exclusions, exemptions and reliefs. Relevant benefits in UK-established schemes can remain in scope even after the member is no longer a long-term UK resident: ending the residence tail does not by itself remove that exposure. Schemes established outside the UK are treated differently. The estate’s circumstances also matter. This is a reason to review, not automatically to withdraw or transfer. A withdrawal may create income tax and move money into another asset that is itself within the estate. My starting point would be to understand the role each pension plays in your overall retirement plan. Which will provide a dependable income? Which offers flexibility? What would a partner receive? Can the arrangements be administered from the countries where you are likely to live? The answers should determine the structure. At the end of a review, I would want a written decision for every arrangement: retain it, change how it is used, investigate a specific issue or transfer for a stated reason. Record what could change that decision and when it should be revisited. You should be able to explain the plan without relying on a product name or a promise of simplification. The most useful pension review may leave much of what you own exactly where it is. Its value is that you know why it belongs there, what it can provide and which decisions still need to be made before retirement begins. Information checked on 6 October 2026. General information only, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Rules and individual circumstances can change the outcome.
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Location, Location, Taxation Why the country you retire to can matter as much as the pension you retire with Written by Shil Shah Group Head of Tax Planning
42
T
ax exposure is one of the biggest worries
In practice, that means our retiree can apply
expats have about retirement. Shil Shah,
to HMRC for her pension provider to pay her
Group Head of Tax Planning, follows one
without deducting UK tax, and the pension
pension into three countries to show why the answer
is then taxed where she lives. Until that
depends less on what you hold than on where, and
authorisation is in place, UK tax may be deducted
when, you draw it.
at source and has to be reclaimed. Pensions from
Of all the parts of a cross-border retirement,
UK government service, such as those of civil
tax is the one that punishes assumptions most. The outcome rarely depends on a single
servants, teachers in state schools or the armed forces, are usually treated differently and can
country's rules. Where you live, where the
remain taxable in the UK.
income comes from, how long you have lived
That is the foundation. What happens next
where, and in some countries your nationality,
depends on the country.
all play a part, along with whatever treaty sits between the countries involved. Two people with identical pensions can pay very different
Country A: Cyprus
amounts simply because one moved a few months earlier than the other. It is no surprise that tax exposure sits near the top of the list when we ask expats what worries them about retirement, second only to not saving enough. Most people with a cross-border financial life know that tax matters. Very few have seen, in concrete terms, how much it can vary. So rather than describe the rules in the abstract, I want to follow one illustrative pension into three countries.
The Illustration
Cyprus is popular with British retirees for reasons that go beyond the weather. A Cyprus tax resident can elect to have foreign pension income taxed at a flat rate of 5% on amounts above €5,000 a year, in place of the normal progressive rates. For someone drawing a substantial UK private pension, the difference can be considerable. Cyprus also offers non-domiciled residents an exemption from its special defence contribution on dividends and interest for up to 17 of the first 20 years of residence, which matters for anyone drawing income from an investment portfolio. And Cyprus has no inheritance tax, though that
Our illustrative retiree is British, in her late fifties
does not remove exposure to UK inheritance tax
and has spent most of the past fifteen years
for someone who remains within its scope.
working in the Gulf. She holds a UK defined
Alongside its 183-day test, Cyprus offers another
contribution pension, a UK State Pension
route. The 60-day route requires at least 60 days
entitlement that will start in a few years and
in Cyprus, no more than 183 days in any other
an investment portfolio held offshore. She
country, an owned or rented permanent home in
has narrowed her retirement plans to three
Cyprus, and qualifying business, employment or
countries: Cyprus, Spain and Portugal.
office-holding ties that are not terminated during
Same person, same pension, same portfolio. The
the year. All conditions must be met. Residence
only variable is where she lives when she starts to draw on them. The treatment described below
elsewhere is no longer disqualifying, but dual residence may require treaty analysis.
is simplified and the rules are summarised, but the differences they illustrate are real.
First Principles: Residence And Source Two questions decide how almost any retirement income is taxed. Where are you resident? And where does the income come from? Most countries tax their residents on their worldwide income. Most also tax income that arises within their borders, even when the person receiving it lives elsewhere. Without some way of resolving the overlap, a UK pension paid to a resident of Spain could be taxed in full by both countries. Double tax treaties exist to prevent that, by allocating taxing rights between the two countries for each type of income. For UK private pensions, the treaties the UK has with Cyprus, Spain and Portugal normally give the right to tax to the country of residence.
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“Two people with identical pensions can pay very different amounts simply because one moved a few months earlier than the other.” Shil Shah, Group Head of Tax Planning
Its inheritance and gift tax is set largely by region, with very generous reliefs in some and much less generous ones in others. Spain is a wonderful place to retire, and many of our clients have done so very successfully. But the order of events matters more there than almost anywhere else in Europe.
Country C: Portugal For a decade, Portugal's non-habitual resident regime made it one of the most attractive destinations in Europe for retirees with foreign pensions. The regime closed to new applicants from 2024, and the special treatment for those already in it runs only for the ten years from when they joined. For someone moving to Portugal now, foreign pension income is normally taxed at Portugal's progressive income tax rates, which reach the high forties at the top. The successor incentive regime introduced for new arrivals is aimed at people working in specific sectors and does not extend the old pension treatment. That doesn't make Portugal a poor choice. It means the decision has to be made on today's
Country B: Spain Spain taxes its residents on their worldwide income at progressive rates, with a national and a regional element. The combined top rate varies by region and can exceed 45% on general income.
rules, not on the reputation the country earned under the old ones. Several of our clients who moved under the old regime are now planning for the point at which their ten-year window closes.
The Same Pension, Three Outcomes
Pension income drawn from a UK defined contribution pension is normally treated as general income, so a sizeable annual drawdown can reach the higher bands quickly. UK pensions can usually provide up to 25% tax-free cash, subject to the available lump-sum allowance and any protections. Spain does not automatically recognise that exemption. Its residence rules normally apply for the whole calendar year, so withdrawing before physical arrival may still create Spanish tax. Establish the tax-year and treaty position first. Spain also expects residents to report foreign assets above certain thresholds and, depending on the region and the size of the estate, can levy wealth tax and a solidarity tax on larger fortunes.
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Put the three side by side and the pattern is clear. In Cyprus, our retiree's pension income may be taxed at a flat rate well below anything she would pay in the UK. In Spain, the same income could be taxed at progressive rates that reach well above it, and her tax-free lump sum may not be tax-free at all. In Portugal, a regime that would once have produced a very low rate is no longer available to her. None of that makes any country right or wrong. Tax is one factor among many, alongside healthcare, family, cost of living, language and climate. But it is a large factor, and it is one that can be planned for in advance. The worst outcome is choosing a retirement country for every other reason and discovering the tax position afterwards.
The State Pension And The Portfolio The UK State Pension follows its own path. It is paid without UK tax being deducted, and under most of the UK's treaties it is taxed in the country of residence. In Spain and Portugal, that means it is added to other income and taxed at progressive rates. In Cyprus, it can usually fall within the flat-rate election for foreign pensions. Whether it rises each year depends on where you live: it is uprated for residents of the European Economic Area, so in all three of our countries it keeps pace with UK increases. The investment portfolio is a different question. Its tax treatment depends on the type of investment, the wrapper it sits in and the rules of the country of residence. An offshore investment bond, for example, can defer tax until money is withdrawn, and the UK rules include time-apportionment relief for periods of non-residence. But a wrapper that works well under one country's rules may be treated quite differently under another's. Spain and Portugal each have their own approach to foreign insurance-based investments, and Cyprus treats dividends and interest differently again for nondomiciled residents. This is where the portfolio and the pension have to be planned together. The order in which income is drawn from each, and the country in which it is drawn, will affect how much tax our retiree pays across her whole retirement, not just
The second is reporting. Moving to a new country usually brings new obligations to declare foreign assets, foreign accounts and foreign income, sometimes with significant penalties for getting it wrong even where no tax is due. Those obligations start from the point of residence, so they belong in the plan before the move, not after the first tax return arrives.
The UK Side Doesn't Stop When You Leave Leaving the UK does not end your relationship with HMRC, and the UK rules deserve as much attention as the rules of the destination country. UK tax residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, which looks at the days you spend in the UK and the ties you keep, such as family, accommodation and work. In the year you leave or arrive, split-year treatment can sometimes divide the tax year into a resident and a non-resident part, but only if specific conditions are met. There is also a rule that surprises many people. If you are non-resident for five years or fewer, certain income and gains realised during the time away, including some flexible pension withdrawals, can be brought back into UK tax when you return. A short spell abroad is not a reliable way to draw a pension free of UK tax. Inheritance tax follows a different logic again. Since April 2025, exposure to UK inheritance tax on worldwide assets depends on long-term residence: broadly, whether you have been UK resident for
in a single year.
at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years. Someone
Currency And Reporting
remain within scope for up to ten years afterwards.
who leaves after a long period of UK residence can For deaths from 6 April 2027, relevant benefits in UK-established pension schemes can remain
Two practical points complete the picture. The
within inheritance-tax scope even after the long-
first is currency. Tax is assessed in the currency
term residence tail ends, subject to exclusions,
of the country of residence, so a pension paid
exemptions and reliefs.
in sterling to someone living in the euro area is converted for tax purposes, and exchange-rate movements can change both the income received and the tax due on it.
“The worst outcome is choosing a retirement country for every other reason and discovering the tax position afterwards.” Shil Shah, Group Head of Tax Planning
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Coming Back Since April 2025, eligible new UK residents after at least ten consecutive tax years of nonresidence can claim relief on qualifying foreign income and gains for their first four tax years, including a partial arrival year. Claims are annual and involve losing the Personal Allowance and Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount. The timing of a return and overseas transactions therefore matters. Gains on investments held abroad are a good example. Realising a gain as a non-resident, and outside the temporary non-residence rules, can be very different from realising it after you have become UK resident again.
Timing Is The Plan By the time a tax bill arrives, the decisions that shaped it were usually made long before. Many of the most valuable cross-border planning opportunities depend on acting in advance: before a move, a withdrawal, a transfer, a sale or a change in the law. Once the event has happened, the options narrow quickly. For our illustrative retiree, the practical questions are about sequence. Should she take her tax-free lump sum before she leaves the Gulf? Should she realise gains on her portfolio at a point when she is not resident anywhere that taxes them? Should her pension income be paid to her in sterling or in euros, and from which account? Which country's rules will apply to her estate, and has her will been written with them in mind? That is why pensions and tax cannot be planned separately. A pension decision that looks sensible on its own can create a tax problem nobody saw coming, and a tax-efficient move can undermine a pension plan. The plans that work look at both together, from the start, and they are revisited whenever a move, a withdrawal or a change in the rules comes into view.
Shil Shah is Group Head of Tax Planning at Skybound Wealth Management and a Chartered Accountant. He specialises in cross-border and residence-based taxation, treaty planning and inheritance tax. Disclaimer This article is for information only and does not constitute personal financial, tax or legal advice. The illustration is simplified and hypothetical. Tax rules in every country referred to may change, and their effect depends on individual circumstances.
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RETURNING HOME STARTS WITH A PLAN, NOT A PLANE TICKET. Returning to the UK is more than just a change of address. It’s a financial event with far-reaching implications, from tax rules to pension planning, investment structure, and more. But don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through it.
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WHO CAN ADVISE ME ONCE I'M THERE?
M
ost expats choose an adviser for where they live today. Very few ask what happens when they move. Mike Coady, CEO of Skybound
Wealth, on why regulation is local, why that matters to anyone who expects to change country, and what to check before you need to. Every year, thousands of internationally mobile professionals move country. They change jobs, follow a partner, return home or retire somewhere new. They arrange the removals, the schools and the visas. Very few stop to ask whether the person advising them on their pensions, investments and tax can still advise them once they have moved. It is a more important question than it sounds. Financial advice is regulated country by country. An adviser who is properly authorised to advise you in one country may have
Financial advice is regulated country by country. Here's what that means when you move Written by Mike Coady Chief Executive Officer
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no permission to advise you in the next. And the moment you move is often the moment you most need advice: when pensions might need restructuring, when investments need reviewing for a new tax system and when the order of decisions can make a material difference. Many internationally based professionals hold pensions or investments in more than one country, and will postpone a financial decision because of uncertainty about crossborder tax, residency or regulation. A plan built to move with you needs advice that can move with you too.
Regulation Is Local
Finding a new adviser after a move is possible, of course. But a new adviser starts with no history, no knowledge of why earlier decisions were made
Each country decides who may give financial advice
and, often, no time to do anything before the next
to its residents, and on what terms. In the UK, the
tax year begins. Clients end up repeating fact-finds,
Financial Conduct Authority authorises firms and
re-explaining their circumstances and making
sets the standards they must meet. In the UAE,
decisions on a compressed timetable, which is
the regulator depends on the activity, entity and
rarely where good decisions come from.
location: the Capital Market Authority (formerly the Securities and Commodities Authority), the Central Bank of the UAE, the Dubai Financial Services Authority or the Financial Services Regulatory Authority in Abu Dhabi may be involved. Across the European Union, firms are authorised by their home regulator and may be able to provide certain services in other member states under specific rules. Switzerland, the United States and other jurisdictions each have their own regimes. Regulation is not a technicality. It determines which rules an adviser must follow, what protections you have as a client and where you can turn if something goes wrong. It also determines whether the adviser can lawfully continue to advise you once you change country.
What Happens When You Move For a client who stays in one place, a change in regulatory jurisdiction may never arise. For a client who moves, it can matter a great deal. An adviser authorised only in the country you are leaving may not be permitted to continue advising you once you have become resident somewhere else. In practice, that can mean the relationship quietly ends just as the decisions get harder. Or, worse, it can mean advice continues from someone who is not authorised to give it, leaving you without the protections
How We Have Built Skybound We built Skybound around the reality that our clients move. Our advisers work from eight offices across the UK, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus and the UAE: London, Poole, Geneva, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Malaga, Barcelona and Nicosia, with Skybound Wealth USA serving clients in the United States. What that means for a client is continuity. A client who moves from Dubai to Spain, or from Geneva back to London, can often stay with Skybound and keep the same people who know their plan, with advice provided through the entity authorised for where they now live.
What Regulation Actually Protects When something goes wrong with financial advice, the protections you have depend on where the advice was given and who gave it. In the UK, clients of authorised firms can usually take an unresolved complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and certain investments and advice may be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if a firm fails. Other countries have their own complaint and compensation arrangements, some more extensive than others, and some with
you assume you have.
very little at all.
The common result is a gap. The client
Those protections attach to the regulated
moves, the adviser can no longer act, and the pension review, the investment restructuring and the tax planning that should have happened around the move simply don't happen. Plans drift, and the drift is rarely noticed until it is expensive.
activity, not to the person. If you are advised by someone who is not authorised to advise you where you live, you may find that none of them apply. That is not a theoretical risk. It is one of the most common reasons expats end up with unsuitable products and nowhere to turn.
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An Illustration: Dubai to Spain Consider an illustrative client: a British couple in
Spanish property and Spanish succession rules.
their fifties, living in Dubai, with UK pensions, an
When they arrive, advice continues through the
offshore investment portfolio and a plan to retire
part of the firm authorised to advise Spanish
to Spain in two years.
residents, with the same plan, the same history
Planned well, the move starts with a review
and no gap.
before they leave Dubai. Their pensions are
Planned badly, the same couple arrive in Spain,
assessed against Spanish tax rules, including
discover that their Dubai adviser can no longer
how Spain would treat a UK tax-free lump sum.
act, and start again with someone new, after
Their portfolio is reviewed against Spanish tax
the most valuable decisions have already
rules, and restructuring is timed after checking
passed. The difference between those two
residence for the relevant calendar year and
outcomes is rarely the quality of the advice. It is
the treaty position. Their wills are updated for
whether the advice could follow them.
“An adviser who is properly authorised to advise you in one country may have no permission to advise you in the next.” Mike Coady, Chief Executive Officer
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Advice That Sees The Whole Picture Licences are only part of it. Cross-border clients need advisers who can see the whole picture: pensions in one country, investments in another, property in a third, and a retirement that may happen somewhere else again. That is why our pensions and tax planning teams work on
“Your plan should be built to move with you. So should the people helping you with it.”
the same plans as our advisers, and why our planning tools, including MoneyMap, are built
Mike Coady, Chief Executive Officer
around clients whose lives cross borders. It is also why qualifications matter. Crossborder advice draws on several sets of rules at once, and the advisers best placed to give it are those who have the qualifications and experience to work across them.
Questions To Ask Any Adviser
Plan The Move With Your Adviser, Not After It
Whoever advises you, a few questions are worth asking before you need the answers. Who regulates you, and for which activities? Are you authorised to advise residents of the country where I live now? If I move to another country, can you, or another part of your firm, continue to advise me there? What protections would I have if something went wrong, and where would I complain? And how are you paid? A good adviser will answer all of those clearly and without hesitation. An adviser who can't, or who suggests the questions don't matter, has told you
The best time to involve your adviser in a move is months before it, not after you have arrived. That is when the most valuable decisions can still be made: what to do with pensions before residence changes, which investments to sell or restructure under the old rules rather than the new, and how to set up advice in the new country so that nothing falls through the gap. Your plan should be built to move with you. So should the people helping you with it.
something important.
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What Happens If the Currency Moves Against You? Earn it here, hold it there, spend it somewhere else: why exchange rates belong in your retirement plan
Written by Joselyn Pfeil Private Wealth Adviser
M
ost expats earn in one currency, save in another and retire in a third. Joselyn Pfeil explains why exchange rates deserve a place in the plan, and
how to stop them deciding your retirement for you. Most of the people I work with are paid in one currency, save in a second and plan to spend their retirement in a third. One item that quietly skips the plan altogether is the role currency can play in their lives. When I ask them how much their retirement income would change if their home currency fell 15% against the one they will spend, I see “the look” on their faces. This is the look that says, “Wow, I had never considered that!” Sometimes that look is fear; sometimes it is concern. Most often, it says, “I am so glad you asked!” Currency risk is the risk that rarely makes it into the plan, because it never sends a statement.
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Three Currencies, One Life A useful way to think about currency is to separate the three roles money plays. There is the currency you earn in, the currency you hold your savings and pensions in (usually set up by default), and there is the currency you will spend in retirement, which depends on where you end up living. Matching income and assets to spending can reduce currency risk, although inflation and underlying investment exposures still matter. When currencies differ, exchange-rate movements change purchasing power. A dollar pension buys fewer euros if the dollar weakens against the euro.
Why It Gets Left Out
“Currency risk is the risk that rarely makes it into the plan, because it never sends a statement.” Joselyn Pfeil, Private Wealth Adviser
Currency risk can be easy to miss on a statement. A dollar portfolio’s reported balance may be unchanged while its purchasing power in euros
Matching Assets To Spending
or sterling falls. That exposure exists before conversion; exchanging the money fixes the rate for that transaction.
Over time, consider aligning the currency exposure of assets funding retirement with
There is also a behavioural element. Globally paid
expected spending, particularly for cash and
professionals often anchor their sense of wealth to
bonds. For a retirement in Spain, that may mean
the currency they earn in. Someone paid in dirhams
increasing euro exposure. Changing an account’s
who plans to retire in Europe can feel comfortably
display currency alone does not change the
off for years, and only discover the true size of their
underlying investments’ currency risk.
retirement pot when it is converted. I have seen the
That doesn't mean converting everything at
same pattern in spending: people living in a strongcurrency economy can build a lifestyle that their eventual retirement currency won't support.
Pegged Isn't The Same As Protected Many Gulf-based clients feel insulated from
once, or years too early. People who are unsure where they will retire can reasonably hold a mix that reflects their two or three most likely destinations. But a portfolio held entirely in one currency because that was the default when the account was opened is a decision made by accident.
currency risk because the dirham, the riyal and several other Gulf currencies are pegged to the U.S. dollar. Against the dollar, that peg has held for decades and removes most day-to-day volatility. Against sterling, the euro or the Australian dollar, the currencies most of them will spend in retirement, it offers no protection at all. A dirham salary is, for planning purposes, a dollar salary, and a dollar salary funding a European retirement carries full exposure to the dollar-euro rate. A simple illustration shows the scale. Someone planning a retirement income equivalent to €100,000 a year, funded from dollar assets, needs a materially larger pot if the dollar weakens by 10% against the euro over the years before they retire, and a materially smaller one if it strengthens. Neither outcome is predictable. Both are significant enough to belong in the plan.
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Converting Without Gambling
swings at a cost. Whether that makes sense depends on the type of asset, the time horizon and the currency you will spend.
Most expats will need to move significant sums between currencies at some point: a gratuity, a property purchase, a pension lump sum, a regular income in retirement. How those conversions are made matters as much as when.
Bonds and cash are where currency matters most, because their returns are lower and more predictable, so an exchange-rate movement can easily outweigh them. For the parts of a portfolio meant to provide stability in retirement, holding
Converting a large sum on a single day exposes
them in the currency you will spend usually
the whole amount to that day's rate. Spreading
makes the most sense.
conversions over a period smooths the outcome. For known future payments, such as a property completion, forward contracts can fix an exchange rate in advance, removing the uncertainty in exchange for giving up any favourable movement. Regular income can be converted on a schedule rather than whenever the account runs low. Cost is the other factor. Some banks build a significant margin into the exchange rate they offer, and on large or regular transfers that margin adds up. Specialist currency providers typically offer tighter pricing, and it is worth comparing before any significant transfer.
Put It In The Plan Currency doesn't need to dominate a retirement plan, but it does need a place in it. A good plan sets out which currency you expect to spend, how much of your wealth is already held in it, how that will change as retirement approaches and how conversions will be handled when the time comes. Exchange rates will move. The aim is to reduce avoidable currency mismatches and manage their effect on retirement income, rather than predict movements or eliminate risk.
Inside The Portfolio DISCLAIMER Currency risk also sits inside investments
This article is for information only and
themselves. A global equity fund priced in
does not constitute financial advice.
sterling still owns companies earning in dollars,
Currency hedging and forward contracts
euros and yen, and its value moves with those
carry costs and risks. Exchange rates
currencies. Some funds offer share classes that
can move significantly, and the value of
hedge currency exposure back to the investor's
investments can fall or rise.
base currency, which reduces exchange-rate
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Healthcare, Income, Wills And Trusts: The Part Of A Cross-Border Plan Most Families Leave Until Last Written by Kieran Tween Private Wealth Manager
56
P
rotection planning is where a cross-border plan proves whether it can cope with the bad days, not just the good
Healthcare That Moves With You
ones. For internationally mobile families, it is also the part
most often left until last.
For many expats, health insurance arrives with the job. In
Most retirement plans are built for the expected. Salaries
the UAE, for example, employers in the main emirates are
rise, investments grow, a move goes smoothly and retirement arrives on schedule. Most expats know that life doesn't always cooperate. The cost of healthcare in later life and the need to support family come up again and again when we talk to clients about the future. Yet it is rarely the first thing they ask about. Protection is the part of a plan nobody wants to think about, because it means thinking about illness, injury and death. For internationally mobile families, it is also the part most likely to have been left behind in the last move.
required to provide health cover for their employees, and many international employers elsewhere offer generous group schemes. The difficulty is that employer cover usually ends when the employment does. Leave the job, retire or move, and the policy that has quietly protected you for years may simply stop. Buying international private medical insurance as an individual is a different experience. Premiums rise with age, often sharply after 60. Insurers will ask about your medical history, and conditions you already have may be excluded,
57
either permanently or for an initial period.
one of the least commonly held. Expats often
The practical lesson is that cover is easier and
assume their employer's sick pay will be enough,
cheaper to arrange when you are younger and
without checking how long it lasts. Many group
healthier, and well before you need to rely on it.
schemes cover a few months at most.
Where you retire also changes the picture. Some
Life cover and critical illness cover complete the
countries offer access to state healthcare for
picture. Life cover pays a lump sum or an income
residents, sometimes after a waiting period or
to your family if you die. Critical illness cover
on payment of contributions. UK State Pension
pays out on diagnosis of a specified serious
recipients who live in an EU country can often
condition. For families with children, a mortgage
register for healthcare there through the S1
or a single main earner, the question is not
arrangement, with the cost met by the UK. Other
whether cover is needed, but how much and for
destinations offer no meaningful public option
how long. Policies arranged in one country may
for new arrivals, and private cover becomes
not follow you to another, so every move is a
a condition of the residence visa itself. Any
reason to check what still applies.
retirement plan that includes a move abroad should cost healthcare for the full length of retirement, not just the first few years.
Protecting The Income For people still working, the most valuable asset is usually their ability to earn. If illness or injury stopped you working for a year, what would happen to the mortgage, the school fees and the pension contributions? Income protection insurance pays a regular benefit, typically a proportion of your earnings, if you cannot work because of illness or injury. It is one of the most useful forms of cover and
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Wills That Work In More Than One Country A will is often the most important protection document a family has, and for internationally mobile families it is also the one most likely to be out of date or ineffective. Succession law varies between countries. In participating EU states, the EU Succession Regulation generally applies the law of habitual residence, but allows a valid choice of the law of nationality. Ireland and Denmark do not participate. This can help British nationals address forced-heirship rules, but the choice
must be made correctly and exceptions may
inheritance-tax scope. Relevant benefits in UK-
apply. Choosing succession law does not
established schemes can remain in scope after
determine inheritance tax, which must be
the long-term residence tail ends, subject to
considered separately.
exclusions, exemptions and reliefs.
In the UAE, the default rules for non-Muslims
Whether a trust helps depends on the type of
who die without a valid registered will may not
assets, where the family lives, the applicable
reflect their wishes, which is why many British
UK inheritance-tax rules, including scheme
expats register a will through the DIFC Courts
location and long-term residence and what the
or the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. A UK
family wants to achieve. Trusts can be valuable,
will alone may not be enough to deal with
but they are not simple, and an arrangement
assets held there.
set up under one set of rules should be
For most internationally mobile families, the
reviewed when the rules change.
answer is a set of wills that work together: one for each country where significant assets are held, drafted so that they don't accidentally revoke each other. Powers of attorney need the same attention. A lasting power of attorney made in England may not be recognised in the country where you live, and arranging something that will be recognised is far easier when you are well.
Plan For The Bad Day Protection planning is not about expecting the worst. It is about making sure that if the worst happens, the plan still holds. A family that has its healthcare costed, its income protected, its wills aligned across countries and its estate structured for current rules can get on with the business of living abroad, knowing the hard
Trusts After April 2027
questions have been answered. Most of those answers are cheaper and easier
Trusts have long been part of estate planning
to arrange today than they will be later. That
for wealthier families, and the changes to UK
alone is a good reason not to leave them to the
inheritance tax make them worth revisiting. For
last move.
deaths from 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits enter UK
“Most of those answers are cheaper and easier to arrange today than they will be later.” Kieran Tween, Private Wealth Manager
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DON'T LET THE DEAL RUN OUT Written by Kieron Franklin Group Head of Property & Finance
60
Why refinancing a UK mortgage from abroad takes longer than you think, and how to get ahead of it
W
hichever way rates move next, many expat borrowers are approaching the end of fixed-rate deals. Kieron
Why Expat Refinancing Takes Longer
Franklin, Group Head of Property & Finance at Skybound, discusses why refinancing from overseas takes longer than people expect, and how to get ahead of it.
A UK-resident homeowner with a straightforward case can often move from application to completion fairly quickly. For an expat, the same
For most of the past few years, expat borrowers
process usually takes considerably longer. The
have had good reason to keep their heads down.
reasons are practical rather than mysterious.
Rates rose sharply, fixed deals taken out before the rise looked like bargains and the sensible move was usually to sit tight. Now the question of where rates go next is back in the headlines, and for anyone whose fixed rate is ending soon, it is time to look again.
Income is in a foreign currency, so lenders discount it before they use it, a process known as a currency haircut. Residence is overseas, so the lender has to check that it lends to people in that country at all. Documents come in foreign formats and sometimes need
Refinancing a UK mortgage from abroad is not
translation or certification. And the pool of
the same as refinancing from a desk in the UK.
lenders willing to lend to expats is much smaller
It takes longer, the lender market is smaller and
than the mainstream UK market, so there is less
the criteria are stricter. Borrowers who start
competition for your business.
early tend to get good outcomes. Borrowers who leave it until their deal has ended often find themselves paying the lender's standard variable rate for months as they assemble paperwork from another time zone.
None of that makes refinancing difficult for a well-prepared borrower. It does make it slow for an unprepared one.
Start Early The single most useful rule I give clients is to
“What borrowers can control is how prepared they are when their deal ends.”
count back from the end of the fixed rate and start the process well before it: months, not weeks. That allows time to review the options, gather documents, secure an offer and line up completion with the end of the current deal, so that there is no expensive gap on the standard variable rate and no early repayment charge for leaving too soon. Most mortgage offers are valid for several months, so securing one early does not usually commit you to a rate you can't change if the market moves in your favour before completion. It gives you a position to improve on, rather than a deadline to rush towards.
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Product Transfer Or Remortgage? There are two broad routes when a fixed rate ends. A product transfer means taking a new deal with your existing lender. It is usually quicker and simpler, often involves no new affordability assessment and can be the right answer for someone whose circumstances have changed in a way that would make a new application harder. A remortgage means moving to a new lender. It involves a full application, but it opens up the whole expat market, which can mean a better rate, a different product type or the ability to raise additional borrowing. For borrowers whose income, currency or country of residence has improved their position since they last borrowed, a remortgage can be worth the extra effort. The right choice depends on the comparison. Expat borrowers sometimes accept a product transfer by default because it is easy, without checking what else is available. Sometimes that is the right decision. Often it is only the convenient one.
What Lenders Look At Now Lenders assess expat applications through a few consistent lenses. The first is currency. Income in the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Swiss franc or the yen typically attracts a modest haircut. Income in dollar-pegged currencies such as the UAE dirham is often treated favourably. Income in less stable currencies attracts larger discounts or may not be accepted at all. The second is country. Each lender keeps a list of countries it will lend to, and those lists change. Some lenders have recently restricted lending to borrowers resident in parts of the EU in response to European banking rules, so a lender that suited you last time may not be available today.
Two Situations Worth Planning For
The third is loan-to-value. Expat pricing improves as the loan falls as a proportion of the property's value, with the best rates reserved for borrowers with the most equity. Many borrowers who bought with a modest deposit have seen their loan-to-value fall through repayments and price growth, and may now qualify for noticeably better pricing.
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Two situations come up again and again. The first is the borrower who is coming home. Consider an illustrative client returning to the UK after many years abroad, with a house in the north of England that has been let to tenants on an expat buy-to-let mortgage. When she moves back in, the property changes from an investment to
For buy-to-let properties, the rent also has to
her home, and the mortgage usually needs to
cover the mortgage interest by a set margin,
change with it. The best outcome comes from
tested at a rate above the one you will actually
recognising that early, timing the new mortgage
pay, and the margin is usually higher for higher-
to take over as the old fixed rate ends and
rate taxpayers. A property that passed the test
building the application around her new status as
comfortably last time may need a closer look.
a returning UK resident.
“Expat borrowers sometimes accept a product transfer by default because it is easy, without checking what else is available.” Kieron Franklin, Group Head of Property & Finance
Choosing The Right Deal, Not Just The Right Rate A refinance is also a chance to revisit the shape of the borrowing, not just its price. The headline rate is only part of the comparison. Arrangement fees can outweigh a slightly lower rate, particularly on smaller loans. A short fix and a long fix are not like-for-like, and the right length depends on how long you expect to keep the property and how much certainty you want. Early repayment charges matter if there is any chance you will sell, move home or restructure during the deal. There is also the choice between fixed and variable rates. When rate expectations are shifting, some borrowers prefer the certainty of
The second is the portfolio landlord. Consider
a fix and others prefer a tracker that follows Bank
an illustrative client in the UAE with a portfolio
Rate, perhaps with the option to switch later.
of UK buy-to-let properties and several fixed
Neither is right for everyone, and neither should
rates ending within a similar window. Treating
be chosen on a forecast alone.
each refinance separately risks a rush of
For buy-to-let landlords, the question of whether
applications, inconsistent outcomes and missed deadlines. Treating the portfolio as one programme, with each refinance scheduled to the end of its existing deal and each property's rental cover tested in advance, usually produces a calmer and cheaper result.
property should be held personally or through a limited company often comes up at refinance. That is a tax decision first and a lending decision second, and it should be made with a tax adviser. Company borrowing is widely available to expats, but it is priced and assessed differently.
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Using Savings To Improve The Terms Some expat borrowers have built significant savings during their time abroad and wonder whether to use part of them to reduce the mortgage at refinance. Bringing the loan-to-value down into a lower pricing tier can noticeably improve the rate available, and reducing the debt lowers the currency exposure of a sterling liability funded by foreign-currency income. Against that, money used to pay down a mortgage is no longer available for anything else, and it may be earning more elsewhere or be needed for other goals. It is a judgement that belongs in the wider financial plan rather than in the mortgage application alone.
Getting The Paperwork Right The fastest expat applications are the ones where the document pack is complete before the application is submitted. Lenders typically want recent payslips and an employment contract, bank statements showing salary credits, overseas tax returns or certificates, proof of identity and residence including a current visa, a UK credit report and, for buy-tolet, details of the tenancy and rent received. Most delays come from documents that arrive piecemeal or are out of date by the time the underwriter reviews them. A borrower who prepares the full pack before applying, and responds quickly to every query, can take weeks off the process.
The Mortgage Is Part Of A Wider Plan A UK mortgage is rarely just a mortgage for an expat. It connects to the currency your income is paid in, the tax you pay on rental income, your plans to return and the estate you will eventually leave. A refinance is a natural moment to look at all of that together: whether the property still fits the plan, whether the borrowing is structured in the right name, and whether the currency used to pay the mortgage is being converted efficiently. Rate cycles come and go, and nobody can call them reliably. What borrowers can control is how prepared they are when their deal ends. Start early, compare properly and treat the refinance as part of the bigger picture. Whichever way rates move next, that preparation is what makes the difference.
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UK Expat Mortgages Explained
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Is Financial Advice Really for the Rest of Us? WHY MOST PEOPLE RULE THEMSELVES OUT OF ADVICE, AND WHAT THAT QUIETLY COSTS THEM Written by Peter Gollogly Regional Director and Private Wealth Partner
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P
eter Gollogly advises clients earning well into the millions. He also knows plenty of people who assume advice isn't meant for
them. He explains why the second group is wrong, and what ruling yourself out really costs. Let me start with something I believe quite strongly. Most people don't decide they don't need a financial adviser. They decide they're not the kind of person an adviser is for. Those are two completely different things, but they end up in the same place, which is doing nothing at all. I work with people who earn a great deal of money. Some of my clients earn well into the millions, and that is a fortunate position to be in. It almost always comes with complexity: restructuring, tax, trusts, pensions, succession planning and wealth spread across several countries that needs organising properly. That is the client most people picture when they hear the words wealth management. The private office, the big numbers, the closed door. But it isn't the whole picture. It isn't even most of it.
Two Worlds, Side By Side My wife is a qualified teacher at an international school, and through her I know a great many teachers. They are good people earning a good living, but nothing like a private-sector executive. And they have just as much going on. School fees. A mortgage. Income in a different currency from where they will eventually live. Pensions in more than one country. A family to protect. And the monthly puzzle of what to do with whatever is left over. The advice those two groups need may look completely different. The solutions may be different, and the complexity almost certainly is. But the value of having a plan doesn't change at all. It is exactly the same.
“It was never about how much you have. It is about having a plan for what you have” Peter Gollogly, Regional Director and Private Wealth Partner
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Why People Rule Themselves Out The mistake I see again and again is people ruling themselves out before they even ask. I don't earn enough. I haven't saved enough. I'm probably too late. So they quietly carry on without a plan, which is usually the most expensive decision they can make. They just never get a bill for it. I understand why people feel that way. Rightly or wrongly, our industry has often projected the idea that advice is only for the wealthy. The minimums, the jargon and the slightly intimidating language all reinforce it. People worry they'll be judged, either for what they don't know or for not having enough. So they put it off, and the longer they put it off, the bigger the whole thing feels. Skybound's Retirement Reality Check suggests this is far from unusual. Only 17% of the people we surveyed felt fully confident their retirement plan would deliver the life they want, and 26% had no formal plan at all.
The Cost You Never See I think about the hidden cost of doing nothing a great deal, because it is completely invisible. Nobody sends you an invoice for the pension you didn't start at 35, or for the protection you never put in place because you were fortunate enough never to need it, until the day you did. Or for the ten years your savings sat in cash earning very little, because you weren't sure what to do and doing nothing felt safer. There is no dramatic moment. There is just a slow drift, a quiet gap opening up between where you are and where you could have been. And the cruel part is that by the time the gap is visible, it is usually much harder and more expensive to close. That is the part that motivates me as an adviser, because most of that drift is avoidable. It doesn't take a fortune and it doesn't take a finance degree. It takes a plan: a handful of sensible decisions made early enough, and
secret only the wealthy get access to. In reality, far more of the value is about behaviour and discipline. Building good habits. Protecting the downside. Staying the course when markets get noisy and every instinct is telling you to do
then left alone to do their work. The decisions
something rash.
people make in their thirties and forties about
It is about having someone in your corner
saving, pensions and protecting their family
who can see the whole picture, not just one
are the ones that compound. Get them roughly
piece of it. Honestly, a lot of what I do is simply
right early on and they work quietly for you for
taking the anxiety out of money. Money is one
the rest of your life.
of the most stressful things in most people's lives, and much of that stress comes from
What Advice Is Really About
uncertainty: not knowing whether you're getting it right, and having nobody to ask. A good adviser lifts that weight. You stop carrying
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There is another myth I'd like to challenge,
every decision on your own, and that relief is
which is that advice is mostly about products.
worth a great deal, to a teacher as much as to a
Clever funds, complicated structures, some
chief executive.
She is now a client, with a financial planner and me alongside her. But the part I remember most is what she said about the conversation itself: that it was one less thing she had to carry. On paper, she was exactly the kind of person who assumes advice isn't for them. In reality, a few well-timed decisions made a lasting difference.
What A First Conversation Looks Like If you've never spoken to an adviser, let me take some of the mystery out of it. A first conversation with a good adviser is not a sales pitch and it is not an exam. There is no minimum you need to qualify. It starts with you: your circumstances, your worries and what you want your money to do for you and your family. You don't need to arrive with all the answers. That's my job. And there is no obligation. If it's done properly, you should walk out clearer than you walked in. That holds if you decide to do nothing for now, too. I would much rather someone left a meeting thinking they finally understood their options than feeling they'd been sold something.
Meeting People Where They Are When people ask whether they are wealthy enough for advice, I think it is the wrong question. It was never about how much you have. It is about having a plan for what you have, when you have it, and for where you want it to take you and your family. A good adviser doesn't hand everyone the same solution off a shelf. The job is to understand each person's circumstances and match the right guidance to them, whether that is complex cross-
A Conversation That Mattered
border structuring for an executive or helping a young family make the most of what they have. A good firm should be able to do both, and take both
One example stays with me. I was introduced, through a client referral, to a woman who had recently lost her husband. Along with everything else she was dealing with, she had inherited a
equally seriously. We work with clients who have money and clients who want to have money. Both need an adviser, and both deserve one.
pension from him, and the paperwork was alien to her. A lot of numbers, and a lot of questions she didn't know how to answer. Should she take the income? The lump sum? She was still working, and that turned out to
Disclaimer
matter. Under this particular scheme’s rules, my
This article is for information only and does
team and I arranged with the trustees for her
not constitute financial advice. The client
income to be deferred, with an increase for taking
example has been anonymised and is shared
it later. Survivor benefits and deferral options vary
to illustrate the planning process; outcomes
by scheme. That meant her pension income didn't
depend on individual circumstances. The
sit on top of her salary and push more of her
value of investments can fall or rise.
earnings into a higher tax band, and it means she will receive a larger income in later retirement.
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THE BILL THAT NEVER ARRIVES Written by Craig Stokes Managing Director (UK) and Private Wealth Adviser
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M
ore than half of the expats in Skybound's Retirement Reality Check have put off a decision because the rules felt too uncertain. Craig Stokes, Managing Director and Private Wealth Adviser at Skybound Wealth UK, on the cost that never shows up on a statement.
Most people fully intend to take their pension seriously. They mean to increase their contributions soon, to review things once life is a little less busy, to catch up later. None of that is irresponsible. It is simply how almost everyone behaves, because delaying a pension contribution is the rare decision that produces no visible consequence at all. Skip a gym session and you feel it. Miss a bill and you hear about it. Put off your pension for another year and nothing happens. The statement looks much the same, life carries on and the cost stays hidden. For people living abroad, the pull towards waiting is stronger still. In Skybound's Retirement Reality Check, 54% of respondents said they had postponed a financial decision at some point because of uncertainty about crossborder tax, residency or regulation, and 35% had done so occasionally or more than once. When the rules feel complicated, waiting until they are clearer seems like the sensible option. It rarely is.
Why Waiting Feels Free
What Ten Years Is Worth
The reason delay feels costless is that the cost
An illustration makes the point, provided it is
lands somewhere you can't see it: in the future, and
read as an illustration rather than a promise.
in growth that never happened.
Take two savers, each paying £500 a month into
When you delay a pension contribution, you are
a pension, and assume for simplicity a steady
not just postponing the contribution. You are
growth rate of 5% a year, before charges. The
postponing every year of growth it would have
first starts at 25. The second waits until 35. Both
earned. A pound not invested at 30 is not simply
contribute until 65.
a pound you can invest at 40 instead. It is a pound
By 65, the first saver has paid in £240,000 and,
that has lost ten years of compounding, and those years cannot be recovered.
on these assumptions, has a pot of around £763,000. The second has paid in £180,000
We are good at recognising direct costs, the
and has around £416,000. The extra £60,000
price on the label. We are poor at recognising
contributed by the early starter has produced
opportunity costs, the value of something that
a difference of roughly £347,000, because that
never had the chance to happen. A pension delay
early money had the longest to grow.
is almost entirely an opportunity cost. There is no
For the late starter to reach the same figure by
bill, no penalty and no letter. There is only a final pot, decades from now, that is quietly smaller than it could have been.
65, they would need to contribute around £917 a month for thirty years, almost double. Even then, they are relying on the same steady returns.
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“Nothing happens when you delay a pension. That is precisely the problem.”
Real returns are not steady. They vary from year to year, they can be negative and charges reduce
Why People Wait, And How To Stop
them. The value of investments can fall or rise. But the direction of the effect doesn't change.
If the maths is so clear, why do so many people
Starting earlier gives contributions more time to
still wait? The answer is behavioural, not financial.
compound and can reduce the amount needed
Retirement feels abstract when it is decades away.
later, and that is one of the most dependable
The subject feels complex, and complexity invites
patterns in long-term saving.
postponement. There is always a more pressing use for the money this month. And deciding to
Three Things You Give Up A delay costs more than the growth on your own money. It can cost tax relief. Contributions to a UK pension attract relief, which in effect adds to what you pay in. For people who have moved abroad, the position is more limited: relief is normally restricted to contributions of up to £3,600 gross a year for up to five tax years after leaving the UK, subject to conditions. That window closes whether or not you use it. It can cost employer contributions. Employees in the UK are usually enrolled in a workplace pension that their employer pays into, and many employers will pay more if you do. Overseas employers often offer their own arrangements, from local pension schemes to workplace
deal with it later feels productive, even though nothing has been decided. The way through is structure, not willpower. Contributions that happen automatically, before the money is ever felt as spendable, remove the monthly decision entirely. A fixed annual review puts the subject in the diary so it cannot quietly slip. Start with a contribution you barely notice and increase it each time your income rises. A sustainable contribution started today beats an ideal one that never begins.
From Intending To Doing The cost of waiting is invisible right up until it isn't. It is not a reason for guilt about the past, and it is never a reason to conclude that a late start isn't worth making. It is a reason to replace
savings plans. Contributing below the level your
an intention with an action.
employer will match is close to turning down part
Nothing happens when you delay a pension.
of your pay.
That is precisely the problem. The people who
And it costs time, which is the one thing
retire comfortably are rarely those who found
compounding cannot do without. You can add more money later. You cannot add more years.
the perfect moment to begin. They are those who began, and then kept going.
It Is Never Too Late To Start None of this is a reason for anyone who started
Disclaimer
late to give up. The same logic that makes
This article is for information only and
early contributions valuable means that today
does not constitute financial advice. The
is always the earliest you can still act. The
illustration assumes a constant growth
contribution you make this year has every year
rate and is not a projection or guarantee.
between now and retirement to grow. It won't have
The value of investments can fall or rise,
as long as one made a decade ago, but it will have
and you may get back less than you
far longer than one made a decade from now.
invest. Tax and pension rules may change
For someone starting later, the practical reality
and depend on individual circumstances.
is that they usually need to contribute more, because time is no longer doing as much of the work. That is a real adjustment. But a later start that actually happens will always beat an earlier start that was only ever intended.
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Skybound Wealth UK is a trading style of Skybound Wealth Management Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
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74
BRAND DEALS DON'T BUILD WEALTH. PLANS DO. What a £20,000 brand deal leaves behind when the deals stop Written by Emmanuel Asuquo Private Wealth Adviser
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C
reator income can be extraordinary one
taxed in arrears: the money arrives now, and the
quarter and gone the next. Emmanuel
bill arrives later, often much later.
Asuquo, Private Wealth Adviser at
Each of those characteristics is manageable on
Skybound Wealth UK, on turning the good months into something that lasts.
bank account can look very different from your
A £20,000 brand deal can make you feel rich. The
actual financial position.
money lands, the account looks healthy, and for a
The lifestyle problem
few weeks everything feels possible. Then comes the question most creators would rather not ask: if the deals stopped next month, what would you actually own? I work with athletes, creators and high-networth clients, and that question sits underneath almost every conversation I have with people who earn from an audience. The income can be remarkable. It can also be inconsistent, concentrated and fragile in ways a salaried professional rarely has to think about. The creators who get into difficulty are seldom the ones who earned too little. They are the ones who built a lifestyle around their best months and assumed the next one would be just as good. I see creators earning serious money from sponsorships and brand partnerships who invest only a small fraction of it. Some have no pension at all. At the same time, they are spending thousands each month on watches, cars,
The most common pattern I see is simple. A creator has a strong run of deals and spending rises to match: a bigger flat, a car on finance, a new watch, more travel. None of those decisions feels reckless at the time, because the income supports them. The trouble is that most of those commitments are fixed and the income is not. A twelve-month tenancy does not shrink in a quiet quarter. Car finance does not pause because a brand cut its marketing budget. Spending ratchets upwards with the best months and very rarely comes back down with the worst. A useful test is to look at your lowest-earning quarter of the past two years, not your highest, and ask whether your fixed costs fit inside it. If they don't, your lifestyle is being funded by your best months, and that position stays fragile no matter how good the current run feels.
holidays and expensive rented apartments. I
The tax bill that arrives late
have no objection to enjoying money. That is part
For UK-based creators trading as sole traders,
of the point of earning it. But earning a lot and
tax is usually paid through Self Assessment,
building wealth are two different things, and the
and the timing catches people out. The tax
gap between them is where most of the risk sits.
on a strong year is not due until well into the
Why creator income behaves differently
following year. And once the bill reaches a
A salary is predictable. It arrives on the same day each month, tax has already been taken, a pension contribution is usually made on your behalf and, if you fall ill, there is often sick pay to fall back on. Very little of that applies to a creator. Creator income tends to share four characteristics. It is lumpy: a single campaign can be worth more than the previous three months combined, and a quiet quarter can follow a record one. It is concentrated: much of it depends on one or two platforms, a handful of brand relationships and an algorithm nobody outside the platform controls. It is unprotected: there is no employer paying into a pension, no automatic enrolment and no sick pay. And it is
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its own. Together, they mean the number in your
certain size, HMRC will normally also ask for advance payments towards the next year's tax, known as payments on account. In practice, the January after your best year can bring the bill for that year plus the first advance payment on the next. If the money has already been spent, that is where creators find themselves borrowing, agreeing payment plans or selling investments at the wrong moment. Other thresholds are worth watching. Once VAT-taxable turnover exceeds the registration threshold, registration is normally compulsory, and plenty of creators cross that line in a single strong campaign without noticing. HMRC is also moving self-employed people with higher
The pension most creators don't have When you're employed, a pension happens to you.
“Earning a lot and building wealth are two different things” Emmanuel Asuquo, Private Wealth Adviser
Automatic enrolment means your employer sets one up and pays into it, and most people never think about it. When you're a creator, nothing happens until you make it happen. That is why so many creators in their late twenties and thirties have earned substantial sums and have little or nothing in a pension. It is a missed opportunity, because pensions can suit uneven income well. Personal contributions receive tax relief, up to the level of your relevant UK earnings and within an annual allowance. Unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years
incomes onto Making Tax Digital for Income
may be carried forward only if the individual was
Tax, which requires digital records and
a member of a registered pension scheme in the
quarterly updates to HMRC. Knowing where
relevant year. Personal tax relief still depends on
you sit against each threshold is part of the job.
current-year relevant UK earnings, and carry-
The simplest discipline I recommend is a
forward cannot increase the MPAA.
separate tax account. Every time a payment
For creators who trade through a limited company,
lands, a fixed percentage goes there before
employer pension contributions paid by the
anything else happens. The right percentage
company can be an efficient way to take profit out of
depends on your income and structure, and it
the business, because they can usually be deducted
is worth agreeing it with your accountant, but
from company profits, subject to the normal rules.
the principle holds for everyone: money set
The trade-off is access. Money in a pension is
aside for tax is not your money, so it should never sit in the account you spend from. Build a floor before you build anything else Creators with irregular income benefit from separating what they earn from what they live on. One practical way to do that is to pay
normally locked away until a minimum pension age set by the government, which is due to rise. For most creators, that is exactly the point. It is money set aside for a version of yourself who may no longer want to be filming, posting or negotiating with brands.
all income into a holding account and pay
Don't invest in the thing you already own
yourself a fixed monthly amount from it, as if
Beyond the pension, the next layer is investing. For
you were your own employer. Good months top the holding account up. Quiet months draw it down. Your spending stays steady either way. Alongside that, you need a cash reserve, and it should be larger than the usual guidance for employees. Three months of expenses is a common rule of thumb for someone on a salary. For someone whose income can drop sharply without notice, six to twelve months is a more realistic buffer.
UK residents, the first stop is usually a Stocks and Shares ISA, which lets you invest a set amount each tax year with no tax on growth or withdrawals. The point I make most often to creators is about concentration. Your income already depends on one industry, a small number of platforms and the advertising budgets of a handful of brands. If your savings are tied to the same economy, through friends' start-ups, platform-related shares or a single property bought at the top
It is not exciting money. It earns little and does
of a good year, then everything you have rises
nothing visible. Its job is to buy you time, so
and falls together. Good investing for a creator
that a quiet quarter is an inconvenience rather
usually means owning things that have nothing to
than a crisis, and so you never have to accept a
do with the creator economy: broad, diversified,
deal you don't want because you need the cash.
unglamorous and long-term.
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“Money set aside for tax is not your money, so it should never sit in the account you spend from.” Emmanuel Asuquo, Private Wealth Adviser
It also means accepting that investing is slow. The
timing of a move, relative to the tax year and to
returns from a diversified portfolio will rarely
large payments, can make a real difference. Anyone
match the thrill of a big deal. They are not supposed
considering a relocation should take advice well
to. They are supposed to keep working in the
before the move, not after it.
months when the deals don't.
A simple structure for every deal
Protect the person who earns the money
None of this needs to be complicated. The
Most creators insure their equipment before they
creators who build lasting wealth tend to do the
insure themselves, yet the asset that generates the
same thing every time money lands: they divide it
income is the person. If illness or injury stopped
before they spend it.
you from creating for six months, what would
A share goes straight to the tax account. A share
happen to your income, your fixed costs and your brand relationships?
tops up the reserve until it reaches its target. A share goes to the future, whether that is a pension
Income protection insurance pays a regular benefit
contribution or an investment account. What
if you cannot work because of illness or injury. For
remains is genuinely yours to spend, and you can
self-employed people it can be harder to arrange
spend it without guilt, because everything else has
than for employees, because insurers look at past
already been taken care of.
earnings to set the level of cover, and irregular
The exact proportions will differ from person to
income needs careful evidence. That is one more reason to keep clean records. Depending on your circumstances, life cover and critical illness cover may also be worth reviewing, particularly if anyone depends on your income. Moving abroad is not a plan by itself A growing number of UK creators are considering the UAE. Wages and personal investment income are outside UAE corporate tax, but self-employed creators can have business tax obligations. A change of address is not a financial plan, and leaving the UK does not automatically end UK tax obligations. UK tax residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, which looks at the days you spend in the UK and the ties you keep here, such as family, accommodation and work. Income with a UK source, such as rent from UK property, can remain taxable in the UK after you leave. And the
person. What matters is that the decision is made once, in advance, rather than renegotiated every time a payment arrives and the temptation to spend is at its strongest. Earning versus owning The goal is not to earn £100,000 through brand deals and watch it slide out of your account. The goal is to make sure that £100,000 builds something that is still there when the deals slow down. Creators are already entrepreneurs. They manage a brand, negotiate contracts and build an audience from nothing. The same discipline, applied to the money, is what turns a strong few years into security that lasts well beyond them. If your income depends on your audience, an algorithm or brands continuing to choose you, the time to be most deliberate with your money is as it comes in.
Disclaimer This article is for information only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. Tax rules and allowances may change. The value of investments can fall or rise, and you may get back less than you invest. Skybound Wealth UK is a trading style of Skybound Wealth Management Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
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Inheritance in your seventies, and why when family wealth arrives can matter as much as how much Written by William Bailey Group Head of Global Partners and Private Wealth Manager
S
omething rather peculiar keeps cropping
If an investment provider couldn't tell you when
up in conversations I've been having with
your money would be available, how much you'd
clients recently. We'll spend considerable
receive or whether anything would remain at
time examining retirement projections, investment
maturity, I suspect you'd have a few questions. Yet
returns, inflation, pension contributions and
an anticipated inheritance can sometimes provide
the prospect of funding another thirty years
a remarkable degree of reassurance despite
without employment income. Every assumption
offering precisely none of those guarantees.
is questioned, every percentage scrutinised. Then,
And medical science, rather inconveniently, is
almost as an afterthought, someone mentions that they'll probably inherit their parents' house. A property they don't own, can't sell and have no idea when they'll receive suddenly becomes part of
making the situation worse.
Our Parents Are Living Longer
their financial future. I've always found this a curious exception to the discipline we otherwise apply to financial planning.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies projects that the average age at which somebody loses their last surviving parent will rise from 58 for people born in the 1960s to 64 for those born in the 1980s. For roughly a third of the latter generation, their last
“There is something faintly absurd about an adult child's retirement security being improved by their parents choosing not to enjoy theirs.” William Bailey, Group Head of Global Partners and Private Wealth Manager
surviving parent won't die until they're at least 70. Someone could spend 45 years working, accumulate a pension, purchase a home, raise children, retire and begin spending their retirement savings before receiving the inheritance they've spent much of their adult life expecting. It's rather like your parents offering to pay your university fees, only for the cheque to arrive when you're 70. Tremendously generous, but unless you've suddenly developed ambitions of becoming a neurosurgeon, the timing is unfortunate.
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The financial services industry is enormously enthusiastic about the Great Wealth Transfer. I'm increasingly inclined to call it the Great Wealth Traffic Jam. There may be plenty of money coming down the road, but that isn't much consolation when you're already past the junction where you needed to turn off. And there's a complication which I think gets overlooked whenever we discuss this enormous impending transfer of wealth. We talk as though parents are accumulating money primarily to maximise the financial prospects of their children. But what if they're not? What if the principal objective of an elderly parent with a substantial investment portfolio isn't to maximise the eventual inheritance, but to make sure they never have to ask their children for financial help? Those are two perfectly reasonable objectives. They can also be spectacularly incompatible. It's worth keeping that conflict in mind, because the more closely I've looked at the research surrounding inheritance, the less convinced I've become that this is simply a question of how much money people will eventually receive.
When Expectation Changes Behaviour The expectation alone can have consequences long before anybody inherits a penny. Economists have a theory known as the lifecycle consumption hypothesis, which suggests that people organise spending and saving around the resources they expect throughout their lives, rather than simply their current income. If you're reasonably confident you'll inherit £500,000 in twenty years, there's an argument that you shouldn't need to accumulate quite as much yourself. That's not necessarily foolish. In some circumstances, it's perfectly rational. But there's an enormous difference between incorporating a reasonably probable future resource into your decisions and constructing a retirement plan that depends upon it arriving. Richard Thaler's work on mental accounting offers an interesting explanation for why that distinction can become blurred. We don't treat every pound as interchangeable. We mentally allocate money to different purposes, allowing those categories to influence what we're comfortable spending. An anticipated inheritance can become a rather convenient mental account. It has no reliable value, no maturity date and may never arrive,
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An Asset With No Maturity Date I've become particularly wary of inheritance assumptions that creep into retirement discussions without being subjected to the same scrutiny as other assets. If a client has £500,000 invested, we can analyse its value, liquidity, charges and potential future performance. If they're expecting £500,000 from their parents, we're dealing with an entirely different proposition. Their parents may live to 100, require expensive care or decide that, after decades of accumulating money, they'd rather spend some of it. but it's already been allocated a purpose. The comfort is real, even if the money isn't. The IFS found that 81% of people born in the 1980s expected to receive an inheritance, compared with 72% of those born in the
None of which represents a failure of the parents' financial planning. Quite the opposite. There is something faintly absurd about an adult child's retirement security being improved by their parents choosing not to enjoy theirs.
1960s. Its economic modelling suggested that anticipating an inheritance could leave the younger generation holding approximately 9%, or £16,000, less wealth at age 45 than they otherwise would. There is a particularly interesting contradiction here. The households most confident in their future family wealth may have perfectly good reasons to reduce their own saving. But they're also the households for whom inherited wealth can begin influencing financial behaviour years before a transfer takes place. Research by Ignacio Belloc and José Alberto Molina, published in the Review of Income and Wealth, examined Japanese household data between 2003 and 2019 and found that husbands expecting an inheritance reduced their private savings by approximately 5%. The researchers found no statistically significant equivalent effect among wives, and some responses were more pronounced among higher-income and bettereducated households. A July 2026 Bank of Italy study identified higher consumption, lower saving rates and less willingness to work among households anticipating inheritance, alongside a greater likelihood of borrowing for consumption. The Italian findings establish associations, rather than proving that inheritance expectations independently caused each difference. The broader behavioural implication is striking. People can begin changing their lives because of money they haven't received.
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Where Advantage Begins But inheritance isn't simply a retirement planning problem. It also raises some uncomfortable questions about how wealth is created in the first place. We like to believe financial success is principally the result of education, ambition, hard work and sensible decisions. Those things clearly matter, but family wealth can alter the opportunities available long before individual effort has much chance to make itself felt. Pierre Bourdieu's work on social reproduction explored how families transmit advantages across generations. Not merely financial assets, but education, connections, cultural knowledge and familiarity with the institutions through which wealth and influence are accumulated. Consider two equally capable 30-year-olds earning identical salaries. Both work hard, save responsibly and want to buy their first home. One receives £60,000 from their parents towards a deposit. The other receives nothing. The first purchases a property, begins accumulating equity and potentially benefits from house-price appreciation. The second continues renting and saving, as property prices and rental costs may keep moving the goalposts. And the age at which people manage to buy their first home is already moving. According to the 2024–25 English Housing Survey, the average first-time buyer in England was 34, up from 32 in 2019–20. In London, the average was 35, compared with 33 a decade earlier. Two years might not sound particularly significant. But two additional years of renting, delaying mortgage repayment and postponing the accumulation of property equity can influence the financial decisions that follow. And there's something rather revealing about a society in which the average person purchases their first home at 34, yet an increasingly substantial inheritance may not materialise until they're approaching 70. We've managed to arrange for two major financial events to occur roughly 35 years apart, despite one potentially being rather useful for financing the other.
“After all, you can leave somebody an enormous amount of capital. What you cannot leave them is the thirty years during which they might have made the greatest use of it.” William Bailey, Group Head of Global Partners and Private Wealth Manager
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Ten years after our two hypothetical buyers
buys a home, relocates for a better career, starts
begin their careers, the homeowner may have
a business or accepts a period of lower earnings in
accumulated considerably more wealth. We might
exchange for greater long-term prospects.
attribute that difference to sensible financial
A January 2026 IFS working paper examining
decisions, and perhaps those decisions were sensible. But one person was able to make a decision that simply wasn't available to the other.
Britain's historic house-price boom found that higher property prices had increased the persistence of housing wealth across
Psychologists describe the just-world belief, our
generations. The researchers identified how
tendency to regard outcomes as broadly deserved.
parental housing wealth helped younger adults
It's comforting to think financial success reflects
access expensive, potentially higher-earning
good judgement and hard work, because it
locations such as London.
suggests the world rewards the right behaviour.
We usually assume that successful careers create
The trouble is that inherited advantage can
wealth. Increasingly, parental wealth can also
become almost indistinguishable from personal
influence which careers are financially accessible.
achievement once enough time has passed. That £60,000 might itself represent decades of sacrifice by parents who worked extraordinarily hard to give their children opportunities they never enjoyed. There is nothing objectionable about that. Indeed, it's one of the principal reasons people work to build wealth. But recognising the effort of one generation shouldn't require us to overlook the advantage enjoyed by the next. The IFS's 2023 research on lifetime wealth transfers found that children of university-educated homeowners received around six times more in financial gifts and loans during their twenties and early thirties than children of renters. Young adults in the highest-income fifth were more than three times as likely to receive a substantial transfer as those in the lowest-income fifth. The amounts received were 26 times greater. That's not a marginal advantage. It's an entirely different set of financial possibilities. Family capital can influence whether someone
The Advantage Of Timing And wealthy families have another advantage which receives surprisingly little attention. They can provide financial assistance at the point when it is most useful. They don't necessarily have to wait until somebody dies. Parents with substantial assets can retain enough to finance their own retirement and still help their children with deposits, education or investments. Families with less capital may have no choice but to retain everything until the older generation dies. The IFS projects that people born in the 1980s with parents in the wealthiest fifth could inherit amounts averaging 29% of their lifetime noninheritance income, compared with just 5% for those whose parents are in the poorest fifth. Longer life expectancy adds another dimension. Wealthy parents may have more years for their
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investments to compound, and still have enough capital to support their children during adulthood. Less wealthy parents may need every penny for their own retirement. It's entirely possible that increasing longevity will make the timing of financial assistance another important dividing line between wealthy families and everyone else. I find the economics of that timing particularly interesting. We spend enormous effort trying to maximise the amount of wealth transferred between generations, yet the usefulness of money depends at least partly on when it arrives. Consider somebody inheriting £200,000 at 35. Invested at a hypothetical annual return of 5%, with growth reinvested and no withdrawals, it could become approximately £1.10 million by age 70. Someone inheriting the same £200,000 at 65 would have approximately £255,000 by 70 on identical assumptions. These are nominal illustrations before inflation, taxation and fees, not investment forecasts. Nor can everyone receiving an inheritance at 35 afford to leave it untouched. But the point isn't really the investment return. It's the opportunities created by having access to capital decades earlier. At 35, that money might remove expensive borrowing, make homeownership possible or allow somebody to establish a business. At 65, it may simply supplement retirement assets they've spent their entire career accumulating. Economists describe marginal utility as the additional benefit received from an extra unit of a resource. The same £100,000 can have radically different consequences depending on the recipient's circumstances. For a young family, it might fundamentally change their financial trajectory. For a financially comfortable 70-year-old, a much larger inheritance might barely alter their lifestyle. Yet the IFS estimates that annual lifetime gifts amount to only around one-fifth of the annual value of nonspousal inheritances.
What The Money Means To Each Generation There's an obvious economic argument for considering earlier transfers. But the older generation has a rather compelling objection, and it brings us back to the contradiction I mentioned earlier. Their wealth isn't necessarily sitting there waiting to be inherited. It's performing an entirely different function. To somebody approaching 80, an investment portfolio may represent far more than its monetary value. It represents independence, dignity, control and the knowledge that whatever happens, they won't have to ask their children for financial assistance. Kahneman and Tversky's research on loss aversion provides one possible explanation for the discomfort associated with surrendering accumulated wealth. But there's nothing irrational about the underlying concern.
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Nobody knows whether they'll live another five
Everybody can behave perfectly rationally, yet the
years or twenty-five. Nobody knows precisely
family's collective financial outcome may still be
what medical care might cost, whether they'll need
less beneficial than it could have been.
long-term assistance or how financial markets will
A family isn't a company with one investment
perform throughout retirement.
committee and a consolidated balance sheet. It's a
A parent might fully appreciate that £100,000 gifted
group of individuals whose objectives occasionally
to their 30-year-old child could transform their
align and occasionally conflict.
circumstances, and still be unwilling to relinquish
And perhaps the most valuable thing accumulated
the security that capital provides.
wealth provides isn't a particular standard of living,
We sometimes talk as though parents ought
but the ability to choose.
to be optimising their children's financial
For an elderly parent, retaining wealth preserves
outcomes. But parents are individuals with their own lives, aspirations and perfectly legitimate financial interests.
the choice to travel, secure private care, remain independent or change plans without asking anybody's permission. For an adult child, receiving
The money may represent very different things to
capital earlier might create the choice to purchase
each generation.
a home, start a business or pursue opportunities
The parents want enough to make sure they never
otherwise beyond their financial reach.
become dependent on their children. The children
Both generations are placing a different value on
would quite like enough to stop being dependent
the freedom represented by the same money.
on the bank. And the grandchildren, who might ultimately benefit most from an early investment, haven't been consulted at all.
The Conversation Families Avoid Unfortunately, discussing this requires families to confront subjects they would often rather avoid. We'll happily talk about property prices, investment performance and pension contributions, but conversations about inheritance inevitably involve discussing the mortality of people we love. Nobody particularly wants to look as though they're calculating the financial benefit of losing a parent. So these conversations are postponed, often until the decisions have effectively been made by circumstance. Consider a 70-year-old inheriting a £600,000 property from a parent who dies at 95. The recipient may already own their home, possess an established portfolio and enjoy a comfortable retirement. Their own children, meanwhile, could be approaching 40, managing mortgages, childcare expenses and the challenge of accumulating sufficient savings. The family might have considerable wealth, but that wealth isn't necessarily held by the people who could make the most productive use of it. Of course, the 70-year-old might have substantial financial needs of their own. That's precisely why blanket recommendations to transfer money earlier are unhelpful.
One Plan, Several Generations What strikes me is that retirement planning and estate planning are still too frequently treated as separate exercises. We work out how much someone needs during their lifetime, then decide what happens to whatever remains when they die. With longer lifespans, those questions are increasingly connected.
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necessarily done is reconsider how wealth should move through families whose members may now spend several decades in retirement. What do we want the money to make possible? The Great Wealth Transfer may indeed prove enormous. But its size tells us surprisingly little about how much difference it will make to the people receiving it. A family might transfer £1 million at the end of a parent's life and consider that a remarkable financial legacy. And perhaps it is. But if the recipient is already financially independent, the transfer may produce comparatively little change in their circumstances. A much smaller amount, provided decades earlier, might have changed where they lived, the career they pursued, the risks they could afford to take and the financial opportunities available to their own children. That doesn't make the earlier transfer automatically preferable. The parents' security matters just as much as the children's opportunity. But it does expose a weakness in measuring the success of generational wealth purely by the amount eventually inherited. Financial planning has traditionally been remarkably good at assigning value to money over time. We calculate compound returns, discount future cash flows, model retirement spending and examine how long capital might last. Yet the same financial sum can mean vastly different things to somebody at 30 and somebody at 70, even before a calculator enters the discussion. Because what people are ultimately trying to purchase with wealth is often time, security For some families, lifetime gifting, support with property purchases or investing for grandchildren may be appropriate. For others, retaining capital throughout retirement will remain the sensible choice. And I would be deeply uncomfortable with any retirement strategy that relies on a prospective inheritance arriving at precisely the right moment. The more interesting task is working out how a family's wealth can serve several generations with different needs, without leaving one financially exposed to benefit another. That requires more than mathematics. It requires knowing how people value independence, how they respond to uncertainty and how their financial expectations are shaped by the circumstances in which they've lived. We are, after all, becoming extraordinarily good at keeping people alive. What we haven't
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and the freedom to make decisions. And those things have a habit of becoming less interchangeable as we get older. Leaving somebody wealthy and helping them become financially independent are not necessarily the same achievement. Nor is the best financial outcome for a family always the one that produces the largest estate. Perhaps we ought to spend rather less time asking how much money the next generation will eventually receive and considerably more asking what we actually want that money to make possible. After all, you can leave somebody an enormous amount of capital. What you cannot leave them is the thirty years during which they might have made the greatest use of it.
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trong incomes, low taxes and a growing list of accounts can look a lot like financial success. Will Spires, Private Wealth Adviser at Skybound, on why so many successful expats have products
rather than a plan, and what it takes to turn one into the other. Over the past year, I have found myself having a particular type of conversation with expats far more often than before. These are rarely with people in financial difficulty. In many cases, they are successful professionals, executives and business owners who, from the outside, seem to be doing very well: strong incomes, often in a low-tax environment, property back home, pensions from previous employers, investment accounts, old offshore policies arranged years earlier. Yet when we map everything out properly, a different picture often emerges. The issue is rarely that these individuals have done nothing. More often, what they have done has been fragmented, built in pieces through isolated decisions made at different stages of their career, in different countries, with advice from different people.
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When Financial Products Don’t Add Up To A Plan They have a collection of financial policies and accounts, and the difference matters more than ever
Written by Will Spires Private Wealth Adviser
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Products Are Not A Plan
Recent regional instability and sharp moves in Gulf markets during periods of escalation have made the point more visible: good
This is one of the most important distinctions
financial planning should never depend on the
in expat financial planning: having financial
assumption that life will remain stable. The
products is not the same as having a financial
people who feel most comfortable in uncertain
plan. A pension, a bank account, an insurance
periods are the ones who already have a liquidity
policy, an investment bond and a property may
reserve, a diversified strategy and a framework
each be sensible in isolation. The problem is
for deciding calmly, not those trying to predict
that they rarely work together as a coherent
every event correctly.
structure, linked to defined goals, stress-tested against relocation and tax change, or coordinated across currencies and jurisdictions. For internationally mobile professionals, this matters enormously. A British expat in Dubai does not have the same financial planning profile as someone who lives, works, retires and dies in one country. The question is rarely just, "Where should I invest?" The better question is, "How does everything I own, earn, owe and intend to build fit together into one long-term plan?" Opportunity is not the same as wealth
The Real Mistake Is Delay The biggest financial mistake expats make is often delaying structure, not overspending. Many know, at some level, that they should review pensions, update a Will or consider tax residency, but postpone the work because it feels non-urgent against work, family and the pace of life in the Gulf. The problem is that expat life rarely becomes simpler with time. Careers become more senior, families grow, and
The UAE creates a genuine financial opportunity,
decisions made casually in one phase become
but only if it is used deliberately. Higher
constraints in another, until a few disconnected
disposable income and favourable tax conditions
accounts become a web of pensions, investments
combine into an exceptional platform for wealth
and currencies that nobody has ever properly
creation, but opportunity does not automatically
coordinated. This is where many successful
become wealth. A high salary is not the same as
expats find themselves: not starting from zero,
financial security; tax-free income is not the same
but from disorder. They have financial activity,
as financial freedom. Many expats quietly fall
but not financial clarity. Products, but not a plan.
behind their own potential this way: surplus cash accumulates because no one has decided what it is for, pensions are left untouched because they are out of sight, estate planning is delayed
What A Plan Should Be Able To Answer
because it feels uncomfortable. A proper plan should be able to answer what you are actually trying to achieve, which assets are for short-term liquidity versus long-term growth,
“Many expats are not short of assets. They are short of structure.”
what happens if income stops for six months,
Will Spires, Private Wealth Adviser
It should begin with objectives, constraints and
and what happens to your estate if you die when living outside your home country. These are not theoretical questions; they determine whether a financial life is genuinely sound or merely appears successful during stable periods. That is why planning should not begin with products. priorities, with the product coming later.
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Where Advice Fits A good adviser's job is to understand the full complexity of a client's life, not simply to recommend an investment, and to help decide what to prioritise first. Most expats do not
One Structure, Not Five Decisions
avoid this because they are irresponsible. They delay because they are busy or unsure who to trust, which is often exactly when advice is
In practice, this means treating cash, investments, protection, retirement and estate planning as one coordinated structure rather than five separate decisions. A liquidity strategy that gives each pot of money
most valuable: bringing order, identifying gaps, and making sure income earned today properly supports the life a client wants tomorrow.
Do Your Finances Work Together?
a defined job, so money needed for school fees next year is not treated the same as money intended for retirement in twenty-five.
If you are an expat, the question is not simply whether you have investments, pensions,
An investment approach built around what the
insurance or savings. It is whether they all work
money needs to do within the plan, not what
together. If they do not, you may have a collection
happens to be on offer that year, since a portfolio
of financial products rather than a financial
can look diversified on paper and still have every
plan, and in a world where careers, markets and
holding driven by the same underlying risk.
currencies can change quickly, that is no longer
Protection reviewed against the family's actual
enough. For expats serious about long-term
circumstances, not left as it was arranged before
wealth, now is the time to move from scattered
marriage or children, when the amount, term and
products to coordinated planning. That is where
beneficiary arrangements may no longer fit.
the real value lies.
Retirement planning aimed at freedom of choice rather than a fixed date, since the real aim for many expats is not retirement in the traditional sense but the option to change location, reduce
Disclaimer
work, or return home without financial pressure.
This article is for information only
Estate planning that accounts for where assets
and does not constitute financial
are held, where someone is domiciled, and
advice. The value of investments can
whether Wills and nominations are current
fall or rise, and you may get back less
across more than one country, because
than you invest.
international lives create legal complexity that is easy to underestimate until it matters.
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CROSS bORDER DESK Country by Country. Rule by Rule.
Before You Book the Flight Home Returning to the UK from the UAE, and why the order of events decides how much of your savings comes home with you
R
eturning to the UK after years in the UAE is rarely just a move. It is the point at which working life in the UAE meets one of the most detailed tax systems in the world. Christopher Ellis, Private Wealth Partner, on why the
order of events decides how much of your Gulf savings comes home intact. Most people plan the logistics of leaving the UAE carefully: the school places, the shipping, the notice period, the flat in the UK. Far fewer plan the money with the same care, and that is where the expensive mistakes tend to happen. In the UAE, wages and personal investment income are outside corporate tax, but business income can be taxable. On becoming UK resident again, worldwide income and gains can fall within UK tax, subject to applicable reliefs. Years in the Gulf can build substantial savings; planning the tax position around a return helps protect them. Know When You Become UK Resident UK tax residence is determined for each tax year under the Statutory Residence Test, which considers days in the UK and relevant ties, including home, family and work. Residence can bring worldwide income and gains within UK tax. In the year of return, split-year treatment applies only if specific conditions are met. It can keep certain foreign income and gains arising in the qualifying overseas part outside UK tax. UK-source income and gains, and the temporary non-residence rules, need separate consideration. Without split-year treatment, a resident year is generally treated as resident throughout. Establish the tax position before arranging transactions around the move.
Written by Christopher Ellis Private Wealth Partner
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Your end-of-service gratuity
Crystallise gains before you come back
For many UAE employees, the end-of-service gratuity is
If you have built an investment portfolio in the UAE, you
one of the largest single sums they will receive. Under
may be sitting on gains that are not taxed where you
the UAE's private-sector labour law, it is calculated on
live today but would be taxed in the UK once you return.
basic salary, typically 21 days' basic wage for each of
Realising some or all of those gains before you become UK
the first five years of service and 30 days for each year
resident, and rebuilding the portfolio afterwards, can reset
after that, subject to a cap. Employees in the DIFC and
the base cost on which future UK tax is calculated.
some other employers instead build up benefits in a
There is an important catch. If you have been non-resident
workplace savings scheme.
for five years or fewer, the UK's temporary non-residence
The UK treatment depends on the payment’s legal
rules can bring certain gains and income realised during
nature, your residence in the tax year employment
your time abroad back into UK tax when you return. For
ends, any available foreign-service relief and the
people who have been away longer than that, the planning
relevant treaty. Receipt before travelling, or into a
is often far more straightforward.
UAE account, does not by itself establish exemption.
The foreign income and gains regime
Nor is every UAE gratuity taxable on return. Check the position before arranging payment or the move.
Since April 2025, eligible UK arrivals after at least ten consecutive tax years of non-residence can claim relief on qualifying foreign income and gains for their first four tax years, including a partial arrival year. For a long-term Gulf resident, that can be valuable: overseas investment income and gains may be sheltered from UK tax during those first four years, provided the regime is claimed correctly each year.
“Coming home should feel like the reward for the years away. With the sequence right, it can be.” Christopher Ellis, Private Wealth Partner
It is not automatic, it has consequences such as the loss of certain allowances, and it does not cover UK-source income. But for anyone returning after a decade or more abroad, it belongs in the plan. Wrappers, pensions and property Different savings behave differently on return. Offshore investment bonds can defer tax until money is withdrawn, and the UK rules include time-apportionment relief that can reduce the taxable gain to reflect the years you were not UK resident. UK ISAs can be kept during your time abroad but not added to; once you are resident again, you can subscribe in full.
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UK pensions stay where they are, but your residence will decide how withdrawals are taxed. If you have taken flexible withdrawals during your time abroad, the temporary non-residence
UK inheritance tax now depends on longterm residence rather than domicile.
rules may apply to them as well. And if you own UK property you have been letting, your return may change how it is taxed, how it is mortgaged and whether you are still paying non-resident rates. Many expat mortgages need refinancing when the owner comes home. Currency and banking Most UAE savings are held in dirhams or U.S. dollars, and the dirham is pegged to the dollar. Coming home turns that into a sterling question. Converting everything on a single day exposes the whole sum to one exchange rate; converting in stages, or holding some assets in the currency you will eventually spend, spreads that risk. Bank spreads on large transfers can also be significant, so the method matters as much as the timing. It is worth reopening or reactivating UK bank accounts and checking your UK credit file well before you return. A thin or dormant UK footprint can slow everything from renting a home to arranging a mortgage. Inheritance tax doesn't wait for you to land UK inheritance tax now depends on long-term residence rather than domicile. Broadly, if you have been UK resident for at least ten of the previous twenty tax years, your worldwide assets are within scope. Someone who has spent fifteen years in Dubai may currently sit outside it, and a return starts the clock again. From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits also fall into the estate, subject to specified exclusions. A will written in the UAE, and one written in the UK, need to work together. Start a year out The best time to plan a return is twelve months before it, not twelve weeks. That leaves time to decide what to do with the gratuity, to realise gains in the right tax year, to review wrappers and pensions, to line up a mortgage and to choose a return date that works for split-year treatment. Coming home should feel like the reward for the years away. With the sequence right, it can be.
Disclaimer This article is for information only and does not constitute personal financial, tax or legal advice. Tax rules may change and depend on individual circumstances. The value of investments can fall or rise.
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CROSS bORDER DESK Country by Country. Rule by Rule.
Retiring to Spain
The First Year and the Next Thirty Why the order of decisions matters more in Spain than almost anywhere else in Europe
Written by Peter Smith Private Wealth Manager
S
pain is home to the largest British community
number of people who have made the move before them
in Europe, and for many expats it is the obvious
all point the same way. When our clients narrow down
retirement destination. It is also a country where the
where they might retire, Spain is very often one of the two
order of decisions matters more than almost anywhere else.
or three answers on the table.
Peter Smith, Private Wealth Manager, on getting a Spanish
Spain can be a wonderful place to retire. In our
retirement right from the start.
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experience, the people who do it well are rarely the ones
For many British expats, Spain has been the retirement
with the most money. They are the ones who understood
plan for years. The climate, the cost of living outside
the rules before they arrived, rather than after their first
the major cities, the healthcare, the food and the sheer
Spanish tax return.
Getting There Since the UK left the European Union, British nationals no longer have an automatic right to live in Spain. For retirees who don't intend to work, the usual route is the non-lucrative visa, which requires evidence of sufficient regular income or savings, set as a multiple of a Spanish benchmark index, and private health insurance with a Spanish-authorised provider. The visa is applied for from outside Spain and renewed in stages before longer-term residence becomes available. The financial requirements are not usually the hard part for our clients. The paperwork, the timing and the knock-on effect on tax residence are what need planning.
“Spain rewards preparation. It is much less forgiving of assumptions.” Peter Smith, Private Wealth Manager
When Spain Starts To Tax You
asset, through an information return known as Modelo
Spanish tax residence normally applies for the whole
720. Failing to file can bring penalties even where no
calendar year. Tests include spending more than 183 days in Spain or having the main centre of economic
tax is due. Depending on the region and the size of the estate, wealth tax and a solidarity tax on larger fortunes
interests there. Residence is also presumed, unless
may also apply.
rebutted, where a spouse from whom you are not legally
Inheritance and gift tax is levied on the person receiving
separated and dependent minor children habitually live
the assets, and much of it is set regionally. Some regions
in Spain. Dual residence may require treaty analysis.
offer very generous reliefs for spouses and children;
Once resident, you are taxed in Spain on your worldwide
others are far less generous. Where you live in Spain can
income. General income, which includes most pension
make a real difference to what your family receives.
income, is taxed at progressive rates made up of a
Many British retirees hold a UK will and assume it covers
national and a regional element, so the total varies
Spanish assets. A separate Spanish will dealing with
depending on where you live. Savings income, such as
Spanish property is usually far simpler for the family to
interest, dividends and gains, is taxed on a separate
administer. British nationals can also choose for the law
scale that currently runs from 19% to 30%.
of their nationality to govern their succession, which
Under the UK and Spain double tax treaty, UK private
avoids Spain's forced heirship rules, but the choice needs
pensions and the UK State Pension are normally taxed in
to be made clearly in the will.
Spain, not the UK, once you are resident. UK government
Investments That Travel Badly
service pensions are the main exception and usually
Investments that work well in the UK do not always work
remain taxable in the UK.
well in Spain. ISAs are a good example: their tax-free
The Lump Sum Problem
status is a UK benefit, and Spain taxes the income and
UK pensions can usually provide up to 25% tax-free cash,
gains inside them as if the wrapper didn't exist. Some UK
subject to the available lump-sum allowance and any protections. Spain does not automatically recognise that
and offshore funds can also be treated less favourably than Spanish-compliant alternatives, and the reporting
exemption, so a lump sum may be taxable there.
on them can be more onerous.
Taking it before the flight is not sufficient by itself. Spanish
Spanish-compliant investment bonds are often used
residence normally applies for the whole calendar year, so even a pre-arrival withdrawal may fall within Spanish tax. Establish the calendar-year residence and treaty position before deciding when and how to withdraw. Reporting, Wealth And Inheritance Spain expects residents to declare foreign assets above certain thresholds, broadly €50,000 per category of
by British residents in Spain because withdrawals are taxed only on the growth element, and they can simplify both reporting and succession. They are not right for everyone, but they are worth knowing about before deciding what to keep, what to sell and what to restructure. Before restructuring, establish the Spanish tax-residence position for the whole calendar year and the treaty treatment of any gains.
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Healthcare Eligible UK State Pension recipients can obtain a UK-issued S1 and register it in Spain for access to state healthcare funded by the UK. Before State Pension age, the picture is different: private health insurance is normally required for the visa, and access to the public system may come later through a payment-based scheme. As with anywhere, premiums for private cover rise with age, and pre-existing conditions may be excluded. The First Year Rarely Matches The Plan The pattern we see most often is not a single large mistake but a series of small assumptions. That the UK lump sum will still be tax-free. That a UK ISA will still be tax-free. That a UK will is enough. That the first year in Spain will cost what the holiday budget suggested. Each assumption is reasonable on its own, and together they can quietly unpick a well-funded retirement. The fix is not complicated. It is to make the Spanish plan before the move: decide when to take pension lump sums, review investments for how Spain will tax them, choose a region with the tax and inheritance consequences in view, put Spanish and UK wills in place and arrange healthcare that will last. Spain rewards preparation. It is much less forgiving of assumptions, and the people who enjoy it most are usually the ones who did the paperwork first.
Disclaimer This material is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute personalised financial, tax, or legal advice. Rules and outcomes vary by jurisdiction and individual circumstances. Past performance does not predict future results. Skybound Insurance Brokers Ltd, Sucursal en España is registered with the Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones (DGSFP) with its registered address at Edificio Comercial Urbanoria, Oficinas 6 y 7, Calle de la Noria 1 La Cala de Mijas, 29649 and operates as a branch of Skybound Insurance Brokers Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Insurance Companies Control Service of Cyprus (ICCS) (Licence No. 6940).
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CROSS bORDER DESK Country by Country. Rule by Rule.
Retiring to Cyprus
Sun, Simplicity and Small Print Why the island appears on more British retirement shortlists every year, and what to check before you go
Written by Robert De Angeli Private Wealth Manager
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yprus appears on more British retirement shortlists every year, and not only for the weather. Robert De
Angeli, Private Wealth Manager in Skybound's Nicosia office, on what makes the island attractive, and what to check before you go. When clients narrow their retirement plans to two or three countries, Cyprus comes up more and more often. English is widely spoken, the legal system has its roots in
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English law, driving is on the left, there is a long-established British community and the climate needs no introduction. For many people, it feels like the least foreign of the foreign options. The tax rules are a large part of the appeal. But a good retirement in Cyprus depends on getting the details right, and on remembering that the UK doesn't entirely let go just because you have left.
Becoming Resident
No Inheritance Tax, With One Large Caveat
Since the UK left the EU, British nationals moving
Cyprus has no inheritance tax. For many clients,
to Cyprus generally need residence permission.
that is one of the most attractive features of all.
Retirees typically apply for a residence permit
But it does not remove UK inheritance tax for
based on independent income or, for those buying
people who remain within its scope.
property, one of the routes linked to property
Since April 2025, long-term UK residence broadly
investment. The requirements are usually achievable for people with a reasonable pension income, but the process takes time and should be started well before the move.
means UK residence in at least ten of the previous twenty tax years. Worldwide-asset exposure can continue for up to ten years after leaving. Separately, for deaths from 6 April 2027, relevant
Tax residence is separate from immigration status.
benefits in UK-established pension schemes can
Spending more than 183 days in Cyprus in a tax
remain within UK inheritance-tax scope even after
year qualifies under the standard test. The 60-day
that residence tail ends, subject to exclusions,
route requires at least 60 days in Cyprus, no more
exemptions and reliefs. Moving to Cyprus does not
than 183 days in any other country, an owned or
by itself remove UK inheritance-tax exposure.
rented permanent home in Cyprus, and qualifying
Healthcare
business, employment or office-holding ties that are not terminated during the year. All conditions must be met. Residence elsewhere is no longer disqualifying, but dual residence may require treaty analysis. How Pensions Are Taxed
Eligibility for Cyprus’s GESY health system and any healthcare contributions should be checked separately from pension income tax. Eligible UK State Pension recipients can obtain a UK-issued S1 and register it in Cyprus for UK-funded state healthcare; confirm the contribution treatment
This is where Cyprus stands out. A Cyprus tax
that applies. Many British residents also hold
resident can elect to have foreign pension income
private health insurance, both to cover the period
taxed at a flat 5% on amounts above €5,000 a
before State Pension age and to give more choice
year, in place of the normal progressive income
over treatment. As anywhere, premiums rise with
tax rates. The election can be made year by year,
age, and arranging cover before retirement is
so it can be used in the years when it produces
usually easier than after it.
the better result. Under the UK and Cyprus double tax treaty, UK private pensions are normally taxed in Cyprus, not the UK, once you are resident there, and HMRC can authorise your provider to pay without UK tax. UK government service pensions, such as those for civil servants and state school teachers, usually remain taxable in the UK. Investments And The Non-Dom Advantage Cyprus offers a non-domicile status to many new residents, which exempts them from the island's special defence contribution on dividends and interest for up to 17 of the first 20 years of residence. Combined with the absence of capital gains tax on most financial investments, that can make Cyprus an efficient place to draw income from an investment portfolio. The treatment of property is different. Cyprus capital gains tax applies to gains on property in Cyprus, so anyone planning to buy, sell or hold property on the island should understand how that will be taxed.
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Living Costs And Lifestyle Cyprus is not the cheapest place in Europe to retire, but for many British retirees it offers good value, particularly outside the busiest coastal areas. Utilities can be higher than people expect, air conditioning is a necessity rather than a luxury for much of the year and a car is hard to do without
summer months before committing, and renting before
“Moving to Cyprus does not by itself remove UK inheritance-tax exposure.”
buying. Many of the clients who are happiest in Cyprus
Robert De Angeli, Private Wealth Manager
for most retirees outside the main towns. Property prices vary sharply between Limassol, Paphos, Larnaca and Nicosia, and the rental market in the most popular areas can be tight. It is worth spending time on the island outside the
spent a winter there first. Bringing It Together With The Rest Of The Plan A Cyprus retirement doesn't sit in isolation. For most of our clients, it is the final chapter of a career spent across two or three countries, with pensions, investments and property scattered along the way. The flat-rate pension election, the non-dom status and the absence of inheritance tax are valuable, but only if the rest of the plan is built to take advantage of them. That means looking at the whole picture together: which pensions to draw first, which investments to hold and in what wrapper, which currency to hold them in and how the estate will pass on, under both Cypriot and UK rules. Done well, Cyprus can turn a fragmented set of savings into one of the more efficient retirements available to British expats. What To Check Before You Go The people who retire to Cyprus most successfully tend to do three things before the move. They work out how each of their pensions and investments will be taxed once they are resident, including whether the flat-rate pension election works in their favour. They plan the timing of any pension lump sums and
investment disposals around the date residence begins. And they review their wills and estate plan with UK inheritance tax in mind, not just Cypriot rules. They also think about currency. Most British retirees in Cyprus have income in sterling and costs in euros, and a plan for managing that exchange over a long retirement is as important as any tax election. Cyprus can offer a retirement that is warm, familiar and genuinely efficient. It rewards those who arrive with a plan rather than looking for one afterwards.
Disclaimer This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute tax, legal or financial advice. UK inheritance tax, Cyprus succession law and cross-border probate treatment depend on factors including tax residence history, nationality, habitual residence, asset situs, ownership arrangements, intended beneficiaries, elections, trust or policy terms and the exemptions and reliefs available. Readers should obtain coordinated advice from appropriately qualified UK and Cyprus tax, legal and financial professionals before taking or refraining from action. Tax and legal rules may change over time. Skybound Wealth Management is a group of companies operating across multiple jurisdictions through various regulated entities. Any regulated services are provided solely by the appropriately authorised and regulated entity within the Group in accordance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.
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CROSS bORDER DESK Country by Country. Rule by Rule.
Retiring to America
Read the Treaty First What changes when the United States becomes home, and why savings built elsewhere can become expensive
Written by Tom Pewtress Head of USA and Private Wealth Partner
F
or British expats with family, careers or history in the
expensive and administratively demanding once their owner
United States, retiring there can feel natural. The U.S.
is a U.S. tax resident. The time to find that out is before the
tax system sees things very differently. A view from Tom
move, when there are still choices to make, rather than after
Pewtress, Private Wealth Partner at Skybound Wealth USA, on
it, when most of the choices have been made for you.
what changes when America becomes home.
Getting There
Every year, a number of our clients decide that retirement
The U.S. has no dedicated retirement visa. For British
will be in the United States. Some have children who have settled there. Some spent part of their career there and want to go back. Others simply fell in love with a particular corner of a very large country.
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nationals without U.S. citizenship, the realistic routes into permanent residence are usually through family, such as a U.S. citizen child or spouse, or through substantial investment. Long stays on visitor status are limited and
What surprises almost all of them is how differently the
do not lead to residence. For many people, immigration
U.S. treats savings that were built elsewhere. Assets that
is the first constraint on the whole plan, and it is worth
are perfectly efficient in the UK, or in the Gulf, can become
confirming the route before any financial decision is made.
If You're Already A U.S. Citizen Some readers will already hold U.S. citizenship, perhaps through a parent or from birth in the U.S., without ever having lived there as an adult. For them, the picture is different again. The U.S. taxes its citizens on their worldwide income wherever they live, so U.S. filing and reporting obligations already apply today, whether or not they have been met. For dual nationals planning a move to the U.S., the first step is often to make sure their U.S. tax affairs are in order before anything else. Catching up on past filings is far easier to manage as part of a planned move than as a surprise once you have arrived.
“If you wait until after the move, some advantageous planning options may no longer be available.” Tom Pewtress, Head of USA and Private Wealth Partner
Worldwide Income, From Day One
UK Pensions Under The Treaty
Once you are a U.S. tax resident, whether through a green
The UK and U.S. double tax treaty contains specific
card or by spending enough days in the country under
provisions for pensions, and they matter a great deal. In
the substantial presence test, the U.S. taxes you on your
broad terms, a UK pension paid to a U.S. resident is taxed
worldwide income and gains. Federal tax is only part of
in the U.S. The treaty also contains a provision that can
the picture: most states levy their own income tax, and the
allow the UK tax-free lump sum to keep its tax-free status
choice of state can make a significant difference.
in the U.S. in certain circumstances, but the analysis is
The U.S. also expects detailed reporting of foreign accounts
technical and depends on the scheme and the timing.
and assets. Bank and investment accounts held outside the
Contributions to UK pensions after becoming U.S.
U.S., foreign pensions and certain foreign entities can all
resident, transfers between schemes and the treatment
trigger reporting obligations, with penalties for failing to file
of growth inside the pension all need specialist advice.
that can be severe even where no tax is owed.
Decisions that are routine for a UK resident can have
Choosing The State
unexpected U.S. consequences.
U.S. retirement planning involves federal tax and
Timing The Move
potentially state and local taxes. Alongside federal tax,
Much of the most valuable planning for a U.S. retirement
most states levy their own income tax, and the differences
happens before you become a U.S. tax resident, and the
between them are substantial. Some, including Florida
window closes on the day residence begins.
and Texas, have no state income tax on individuals. Others
Investments are the clearest example. The U.S. normally
tax income at rates that add significantly to the federal bill. States also differ in how they treat retirement income, including foreign pensions, and in whether they levy their own estate or inheritance taxes.
calculates gains on what you originally paid for an asset, in dollar terms, not on its value when you arrived. A portfolio with large unrealised gains built up over years abroad can bring those gains into U.S. tax when it is
For many retirees, the state is chosen for family, climate
eventually sold. Selling and repurchasing before you
or cost of living, and that is entirely reasonable. But it
become resident can reset the starting point, often with
is worth knowing the tax consequences of that choice
little or no tax in the country you are leaving, depending
before it is made. Two retirees with identical incomes can
on your circumstances there.
face very different total bills depending on which side of a
Pension lump sums deserve the same attention. Whether
state line they settle on.
to take a UK tax-free lump sum before the move, and how
It is also worth remembering that leaving a high-tax state
that interacts with UK and U.S. rules, is a decision to make
is not always straightforward. Some states look closely at
in advance with specialist advice, not one to discover in
whether someone has genuinely moved away, so the paper
your first U.S. tax year.
trail matters as much as the change of address.
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The year of arrival itself can also be complicated.
Healthcare is a major practical difference retirees should
Depending on the date you arrive and how you become
consider. Medicare, the federal health programme for
resident, part of the year may be treated as resident and
people aged 65 and over, is available to people who have
part as non-resident, with elections available that change
worked and paid U.S. taxes for long enough, or to lawful
the outcome. It is one more reason to plan the date of the
permanent residents after five years of residence, on
move, not just the move.
payment of premiums. Before then, or for those who don't
The Investments That Don't Travel
qualify, private health insurance has to be budgeted for
This is where many British retirees get caught out. ISAs are tax-free in the UK only. The U.S. taxes the income and gains inside them as if the wrapper didn't exist. More significantly, many non-U.S. investment funds, including most UK and offshore funds, are treated by the U.S. as passive foreign investment companies. The tax treatment of those funds for U.S. residents can be punitive, with gains taxed at high rates, interest charges added and complex annual reporting required. Offshore investment bonds that hold such funds can raise similar issues. For most people planning a U.S. retirement, the portfolio needs to be restructured, ideally before they become U.S. resident, so that gains are realised and assets repositioned on the right side of the line. Keeping A Home In The UK Many people retiring to the U.S. keep a property in the UK, either to let or to return to. That is often a sensible decision, but it brings both countries' rules into play. Rental income from a UK property is normally taxable in the UK, as UK-source income, and also reportable in the U.S., with relief for UK tax paid. When the property is eventually sold, the U.S. calculates the gain in dollars. Exchange-rate movements between purchase and sale can create a gain in U.S. terms that bears little resemblance to the gain in sterling, and a UK mortgage repaid after a movement in the exchange rate can create a currency gain of its own. None of this is a reason not to keep the property. It is a reason to understand how it will be taxed before deciding whether to keep it, sell it or restructure it. State Pensions And Healthcare The UK and U.S. have a social security agreement, which helps people with contribution records in both countries and means the UK State Pension paid to a U.S. resident is increased each year. U.S. Social Security has its own qualifying rules, and years of work in the U.S. may count towards it.
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carefully, and it can be very expensive. Healthcare costs should sit at the centre of any U.S. retirement plan, not at the edge of it. Even with Medicare, healthcare in retirement is rarely free. Many retirees add supplementary cover to fill the gaps in what Medicare pays, and long-term care, if it is ever needed, is largely outside it. These costs rise with age and vary widely by state. A U.S. retirement budget that treats healthcare as a single line, rather than as a cost that grows over time, is likely to underestimate it. Family, Gifts And The Next Generation Retiring to the U.S. often means being closer to children or grandchildren who already live there. That brings its own planning questions. Large gifts or inheritances received by U.S. residents from family outside the U.S. may need to be reported, even where no U.S. tax is due. Money passed between generations in different countries can have different consequences depending on which side of the border the giver and the recipient sit. For families with members in both countries, it is worth thinking about how wealth will eventually pass on as part of the move, not as an afterthought. A plan that suits a family where everyone lives in the UK may produce awkward results when some of them live in the U.S. Banking And Currency Becoming a U.S. resident can make banking outside the U.S. harder. Because of U.S. reporting rules, some non-U.S. banks and investment platforms restrict or close accounts held by U.S. residents, and some will not open new ones. Discovering that after the move, with a pension paying into a UK account and a portfolio on a platform that no longer wants your business, is a stressful way to start retirement. Currency is the other practical question. A retirement funded in sterling and spent in dollars is exposed to the exchange rate for its whole length. Deciding which assets should be held in dollars, which can stay in sterling and
how income will be converted over time is part of the plan, and it is much easier to do when the investment portfolio is being restructured anyway.
rules for non-citizens differ, particularly for gifts and
“Two retirees with identical incomes can face very different total bills depending on which side of a state line they settle on.”
bequests to a non-citizen spouse, and the UK's own
Tom Pewtress, Head of USA and Private Wealth Partner
Estate Tax The U.S. levies a federal estate tax, and several states levy their own estate or inheritance taxes. For people domiciled in the U.S., a large federal exemption applies, so many estates fall below the threshold. But the
inheritance tax may continue to apply to those who remain within its scope. A cross-border estate plan should be in place before the move. The documents matter as much as the tax. Estate planning in the U.S. often relies on structures, such as revocable living trusts, that work differently from the arrangements most British families are used to, and a UK will may not deal efficiently with U.S. assets. For couples with a mix of nationalities, the structure of wills and any trusts should be agreed with advisers in both countries, so that the two plans work together rather than against each other.
In practice, that usually means starting a year or more before the move. The first months go on the questions that shape everything else: the immigration route, the likely state, and where the investments, pensions and property sit today. The months before departure are for acting on the answers: restructuring the portfolio,
Plan The Move, Then Make It
deciding on pension lump sums, putting wills and estate
A U.S. retirement can work very well. The common thread
arrangements in place for both countries, arranging U.S.
among those who make it work is that they plan the move
banking and healthcare, and making sure the first U.S. tax
as a financial event, not just a relocation. They confirm
year has been thought about before it begins.
the immigration route, choose the state with tax in mind,
Do those things first and America can be a very good
restructure investments before becoming resident,
place to grow old. If you wait until after the move, some
take advice on UK pensions under the treaty and cost
advantageous planning options may no longer
healthcare for the full length of retirement.
be available.
Disclaimer This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other professional advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security or investment product. The information is general in nature and may not be applicable to your individual circumstances. U.S. federal and state tax laws and UK/U.S. tax treaty provisions are complex, subject to change and may be interpreted differently depending on individual circumstances. Readers should consult their own qualified investment, tax and legal advisers before making financial or tax-planning decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Skybound Wealth Management USA, LLC is an SEC-registered investment adviser; registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training.
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The Third Country Dilemma Retiring somewhere that is neither home nor where you live now, and the three sets of rules that come with it
Written by Michael Hanlon Private Wealth Adviser
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CROSS bORDER DESK Country by Country. Rule by Rule.
P
lenty of expats will not retire where they
State Pensions That Stop Growing
work now, or where they started. They will
State pensions are often assumed to follow you
choose somewhere new entirely. Michael
Hanlon, Private Wealth Adviser, on what changes when retirement means a third country.
anywhere, and in a sense they do. But whether they keep pace with inflation depends on where you live. The UK State Pension, for example, is increased
Most retirement conversations assume one of two
each year for people living in the European
endings. Either you stay where you are, or you go
Economic Area, Switzerland and countries with an
home. For a growing number of internationally
agreement that provides for increases. In countries
mobile professionals, neither is the plan. A British
where uprating does not apply, annual increases
couple working in Dubai who intend to retire to
generally stop. Over twenty or thirty years of
Portugal. An Australian in Saudi Arabia with an eye
retirement, the difference can be substantial.
on Indonesia. A South African in Thailand planning
Other countries have their own rules, and some
a retirement in Mauritius.
state pensions are affected by residence in ways
Not knowing where you will retire is one of the
their recipients don't expect. Each entitlement
most common uncertainties our clients raise. For
should be checked against the specific destination
some, the choice is between staying and returning.
before the decision is made.
For many, it includes a third option, and that option
Visas, Healthcare And Banking
brings a third set of rules into the plan. Three Sets Of Rules, Not Two
Many popular retirement destinations offer residence routes for retirees, usually based on
A retirement in a third country typically involves at
proof of a minimum income or savings and private
least three jurisdictions: the country where most of
health cover. The requirements change, and they
your pensions and savings were built, the country
can tighten with little notice. A plan that depends
where you live and work today, and the country
on a particular visa should have a fallback.
where you intend to retire. Each has its own rules
Healthcare is often the largest cost that changes
on tax, pensions, inheritance and what happens when you leave.
with the move. Some countries give residents access to public healthcare; others expect retirees
The obvious questions concern the destination:
to hold private insurance for life. Premiums rise
how pension income will be taxed there, what the
with age, and pre-existing conditions may be
visa requires and what healthcare costs. The less
excluded, so the cover available at 70 may be very
obvious ones concern the other two countries. Will
different from the cover available at 60.
your home country continue to tax you on certain
Banking is the practical detail that catches people
income? Does the country you are leaving charge an exit tax on unrealised gains? Is there a double tax treaty between the country your pension comes from and the country you are moving to, and what does it say about pensions?
out. Some banks restrict accounts for people who no longer live in the country where the account is held. Moving pensions and investments into a structure that can be managed from the destination, in a currency that matches your
Leaving Has A Price In Some Countries
spending, is part of the preparation.
Some countries tax you on the way out. Australia,
Currency For The Long Haul
for example, treats many assets as sold at market
A third-country retirement often means three
value when you cease to be resident, subject to an election to defer, which can create a capital gains tax liability on investments you haven't sold. South Africa has its own rules on ceasing residence, and its retirement annuities can usually only be accessed early once you have been non-resident for at least three years. The UK doesn't impose a general exit tax, but it does have temporary non-residence rules that can tax certain gains and income on return if you are away for five years or fewer, and its inheritance tax rules now follow long-term residence, which can keep you within scope for up to ten years after you leave. A third-country retirement needs to take account of the country you are leaving, not just the one you are joining.
currencies too: the currency your pensions pay in, the currency you hold your savings in and the currency you will spend. A sterling pension spent in Malaysian ringgit, or a South African portfolio funding a life in euros, is exposed to exchange rates for the whole of retirement. That doesn't mean every asset should be converted on arrival. It means deciding deliberately how much of your wealth should sit in the currency you will spend, how much can stay where it is and how income will be converted over time. Without a decision, the default is usually to convert in large, irregular amounts at whatever rate happens to apply on the day.
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Sequence Matters In a third-country retirement, the order of events can decide how much tax is paid, and
These are not decisions to make in the removal van. They belong in a plan drawn up a year or more before the move, with all three countries in view.
where. Taking a pension lump sum before
Your Estate In A New Legal System
leaving your current country may produce
Moving to a third country can change how your estate is
a very different result from taking it after
handled on death. Many countries apply forced heirship
arriving in the new one. Selling investments
rules that reserve part of an estate for children, and assets
before ceasing residence somewhere with no
are often governed by the law of the place where they sit.
capital gains tax may avoid a tax charge in the
A will written for your home country may not work in your
destination. Becoming resident in the new
retirement country, and may not reflect what you want to
country partway through its tax year may bring
happen there.
income into its tax net that would otherwise have stayed outside it.
Wills, powers of attorney and any trust arrangements should be reviewed with the destination's rules in mind, ideally by advisers who can see all three countries at once. Try It Before You Commit The most useful advice I give clients considering a thirdcountry retirement is practical rather than technical. Spend
“These are not decisions to make in the removal van.” Michael Hanlon, Private Wealth Adviser
real time there before committing, outside the holiday season. Rent before you buy. Talk to people who have made the same move. And keep your options open for the first few years, so that a change of heart doesn't come with an expensive bill. You don't need to know exactly where you will retire. But planning around your two or three most likely destinations, including any that are neither home nor here, makes almost every other decision easier.
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Your Inheritance, Your Legacy Unlock the full potential of your wealth with tailored strategies for expats.
Scan the QR code or click here to find out more.
Or contact your Skybound Wealth Financial Adviser today for more information.
113
INSIDE SKYBOUND Our People, From The Inside.
Skybound Giving
400km. Four Runners. One Reason. Four of our team are running 100km each through the mountains of Hatta to support children caught in Nepal's floods
S
kybound Giving brings our people together
This quarter, it means four colleagues, four 100km
to support causes close to their hearts.
races and a lot of early mornings in the heat.
This quarter, four colleagues are taking on
On Saturday 28 November, Joshua Burton, Tom
100km each in Hatta, with a target of £4,000 for children affected by Nepal’s floods.
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Pewtress, William Bailey and Sydney Compton will each run 100km at Ultra-Trail Dubai, through
Skybound Giving is where our people come
the mountains of Hatta. That is 400km between
together to highlight and support the causes that
them, on trails that climb, drop and climb again.
matter most to them. Sometimes that means a
By the time you read this, training will be well
quiet donation or a team fundraiser in the office.
under way.
“Many of the children affected were walking to school when the water came.”
Why Nepal In August, a glacier collapsed on the Nepal–Tibet border and sent a surge of water, rock and ice through the valleys of northern Nepal. Villages in Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading were swept away. More than a thousand people have died, and thousands are still missing. Many of the children affected were walking to school when the water came. Now they need somewhere safe to sleep, clean water and someone looking out for them.
Where The Money Goes Every penny raised goes to Save the Children International's Nepal floods appeal. Its teams are on the ground providing shelter, clean water and care, and helping to reunite children with their families. The team's target is £4,000, which works out at £10 for every kilometre they run. Whether it's £5, £20 or more, every donation gets them closer to the finish line, and gets help to the children who need it.
How You Can Help You can sponsor the team at https://www.justgiving. com/page/skyboundgiving, or by scanning the QR code on this page. We'll be sharing regular training updates between now and race day, so follow Skybound Wealth on social media to see how the four of them are getting on, and to cheer them over the line on 28 November.
Scan the QR code or click here to find out more about Hatta to the Himalayas.
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INSIDE SKYBOUND Our People, From The Inside.
Appointments & Expansion
The People Who Know Us Best Why almost half our new joiners came through referrals
Written by Josh Watson Group Head of People
116
T
here's a simple test of what a firm is really like to work for. Would the people who know it best recommend it to someone they respect?
Last quarter, 48% of the people who joined Skybound came to us that way. Some were recommended by colleagues already here. Others were introduced by people elsewhere in the industry: former colleagues, peers and professionals who have worked alongside us or watched how we operate. In financial services, recommendations aren't given lightly. When an adviser puts a former colleague forward, they're putting their own name on the line. When someone outside the firm points a talented person in our direction, they're telling us how Skybound is seen from the outside. Neither happens by accident. A judgement made with full information A job advert can tell a candidate what a firm wants them to hear. A friend already inside the firm tells them what it's actually like: how decisions get made, how people are supported, and what happens when things get difficult. A referral is a recommendation made with the full picture. That's what makes it meaningful. It changes how people start, too. New joiners who arrive through a referral often know someone from their first day. They come in with a clearer sense of the culture and a reason to want to live up to the person who recommended them. The same reason clients come to us The pattern will be familiar to many of our clients. Most people find their adviser the same way: through a friend, a colleague or a family member who trusts them. The qualities that lead someone to recommend Skybound to a client are the same ones that lead them to recommend it as a place to work. People who do what they say, take the long view and look after each other. Quieter than an award, and harder to earn Being named Company of the Year (Advisers) at the Investment International Awards was a proud moment for everyone here. It's recognition from the industry, judged by people who see a great many firms. Referrals are a different kind of measure. An award recognises a moment. A recommendation puts someone’s reputation behind us. Building for the long term We want to attract people who want to build careers, not just change jobs. That's why we invest in programmes like The Academy at Skybound, and why we pay close attention to how people talk about us when we're not in the room. When the people who know us best keep recommending us to the people they rate most, it tells us more about our culture than anything we could say ourselves.
“An award is given once. A recommendation is given every time someone decides to put their own reputation behind ours.”
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INSIDE SKYBOUND Our People, From The Inside.
Barcelona Open, The Algarve Next: Skybound Grows Its European Footprint A second Spanish office and a forthcoming Algarve base bring Skybound closer to clients whose financial lives span more than one country.
118
S
kybound’s new Barcelona office opened its doors in October, giving the Group a second
“Barcelona is not simply a second office in Spain. It is a second pillar”
base in Spain alongside Mijas on the Costa
del Sol. Next comes the Algarve, where its first Portuguese office is expected to open to clients in December, subject to completion of the remaining requirements. For many clients who have made Spain or Portugal their home, pensions, property and savings remain spread across other countries. Having an adviser nearby who understands
Peter Gollogly, Regional Director
those connections makes it easier to discuss what a move, retirement or change in family circumstances means for their financial plans. The new offices bring that local relationship together with the expertise and resources of Skybound’s wider international network. A Second Pillar In Spain
“We’re seeing growing demand from people who
The Spanish business has developed quickly.
already live here, as well as those planning a move,
Skybound announced its entry into the country
who need clear guidance that takes account of
in December 2025, appointed Taylor Condon as
more than one country,” she says.
Country Manager for Spain in January 2026 and
Barcelona’s international community, business
opened Mijas in May. The Barcelona opening in
connections and fast rail links to Madrid give the
October gives the team a base in Catalonia and
team opportunities to reach clients beyond the
north-eastern Spain, complementing its presence
city itself. Taylor sees the two Spanish offices
on the Costa del Sol and across Andalusia.
working together to support that wider reach.
“Barcelona is not simply a second office in Spain.
“With Mijas supporting clients across the south and
It is a second pillar,” says Peter Gollogly, Regional
Barcelona strengthening our presence in the north,
Director. “In less than a year, we have gone from
we’re putting the foundations in place to support
announcing our entry into Spain to serving clients
clients much more effectively across Spain.”
from two locations, each with local leadership
Based at Plaça Catalunya in the heart of
and the full backing of the Group.”
Barcelona, the new office will host a programme
Taylor has led the work on the ground, from
of client and partner events in the months ahead
establishing Mijas to shaping the Barcelona team.
to mark the launch.
She began advising clients in the UK and spent six years in Switzerland before taking on Spain,
Taylor Condon
bringing experience of working with clients across
Country Manager – Spain
different countries to the role.
DEC 2025
Skybound Expands into Spain
JAN 2026
Taylor Condon appointed Country Manager for Spain
MAY 2026
Mijas opens
OCT 2026
DEC 2026
Barcelona opens
Algarve expected to open subject to completion of the remaining requirements
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INSIDE SKYBOUND Our People, From The Inside.
Peter sees those international connections reflected in the clients Skybound already supports in Portugal.
“I know how many questions arrive with the boxes”
“Our clients in Portugal are rarely dealing with one
Mark Kinally, Private Wealth Adviser
Details of the local team and a programme of client and
country. Their pensions sit in the UK, their families are spread across Europe and beyond, and their plans need to work across all of it.” The branch is expected to open to clients in December once the remaining requirements have been completed. partner events will be announced at the opening. Mark Kinally
Preparing For The Algarve In Portugal, the new office will give Skybound’s growing client base a permanent local home for the first time. The Algarve is already home to an established international community, including many British and northern European residents with financial commitments elsewhere. Mark Kinally, Private Wealth Adviser, is based in the Algarve and will be part of the team. Having moved there with his own family, he has experienced the practical questions that come with settling in another country. He also brings 20 years’ experience in wealth management, with previous roles at St. James’s Place, RBC Wealth Management, Merrill Lynch and Barclays Wealth International. “I know how many questions arrive with the boxes,” he says. “What happens to my UK pension? Where am I tax resident this year? How do I make sure my family is protected across two countries? People here want those answers from someone who understands both sides.” For Mark, a local team offers an opportunity to help residents review arrangements that may have been put in place before their move. “For a long time many people in the Algarve have had to rely on arrangements set up back home or on providers a long way away. A regulated local presence, with the Group’s resources behind it, changes that.”
Private Wealth Adviser - The Algarve
What Clients Can Expect Clients in Spain can speak to their local team about retirement and pension planning, including UK and international pensions, as well as savings and investment planning through insurance-based investment products. Life insurance and protection for individuals and families are also available. The Algarve office will provide a local point of contact for these services once it opens. Planning also brings together considerations around tax residence, estate and succession, property and currency. Where regulated tax or legal advice is needed, it is provided by appropriately qualified external specialists. Local advisers are supported by the Group’s central compliance, operations and technology teams. That support allows them to focus on clients while working within a regulated, planning-led framework. Skybound’s proprietary Plume Wealth Tech platform, including MoneyMap and the Skybound client app, gives clients a clear view of their financial plan wherever they are. It supports the relationship with their adviser as their circumstances change or they spend time in different countries. To speak to the Barcelona team, or register interest in the forthcoming Algarve office, visit www. skyboundwealth.com. Barcelona gives Skybound’s clients another local address in Spain. For those in Portugal, the planned Algarve opening will bring the Group they already know closer to home.
Disclaimer Skybound Wealth Management is a group of companies operating across multiple jurisdictions through various regulated entities. Any regulated services are provided solely by the appropriately authorised and regulated entity within the Group in accordance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements. Services in Spain are provided by Skybound Insurance Brokers Ltd, Sucursal en España, the Spanish branch of Skybound Insurance Brokers Ltd, licensed by the Insurance Companies Control Service (ICCS), Cyprus, and supervised in Spain by the Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones (DGSFP). The Portuguese branch of Skybound Insurance Brokers Ltd is registered with the Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões (ASF) and is expected to open to clients in December 2026, subject to completion of the remaining requirements.
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Jamie Proctor Takes The Lead W
hen Jamie Proctor joined Skybound in September 2025, he was the first adviser in a newly launched division. Just over a year later, he has been
appointed Head of Athletes & Creators, leading the team that has grown around him. Jamie spent nearly two decades as a professional footballer in the English leagues before moving into financial services. A qualified financial planner, he holds
“We have built a team that can deal with the technical detail and understand the person behind the earnings.” Jamie Proctor, Head of Athletes & Creators
the CII Level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. His experience of professional sport informs the conversations he now has with clients about uncertain earnings, career changes and life after competition.
organisations across sport and digital media. He
He joined with a clear aim: to offer the kind of practical
will work with Skybound’s leadership and specialist
advice he would have valued as a player, looking beyond
teams to develop the service available to clients, while
the next contract to the whole career. That perspective
continuing to advise clients directly.
remains central as the division grows to support more athletes, creators and their families.
The next stage will also include expanding support for creators, whose earnings can fluctuate across
The advisory team includes former Scotland international
platforms and commercial partnerships. For Jamie,
footballer Christophe Berra and Team GB Olympic boxer
building the team means bringing together people who
Delicious Orie, both qualified financial advisers. It also
can understand those careers and work through the
draws on the expertise of Emmanuel Asuquo, whose
financial detail with clients.
work in financial advice, broadcasting, publishing and financial education brings a further connection with the creator community. Behind the advisers sit Skybound’s tax specialists, dedicated Cross-Border Support Desk and Plume technology, including MoneyMap. Together, they help the team consider how a change in income, residency or career plans could affect a client’s longer-term finances. Jamie’s new responsibilities include developing the advisory team, supporting recruitment and strengthening relationships with clubs, agencies and
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INSIDE SKYBOUND Our People, From The Inside.
Grad Life
Risk and Compliance Aren’t Synonyms: What My First Rotation Taught Me Jacob Mangoro joined The Academy at Skybound thinking a degree in Finance, Investment & Risk and a credit risk internship had prepared him for Compliance. His first rotation proved otherwise.
Written by Jacob Mangoro Graduate Associate
I
’ve completed my first rotation at Skybound Wealth Management. But what did a full rotation in Compliance actually look like? I was excited going into this rotation because I thought my
degree in Finance, Investment & Risk and internship in Credit Risk at an investment bank had given me a thorough understanding of risk and compliance. I mean, they’re practically synonyms, right? As it turns out, no. They aren’t synonyms. During my degree I learned about the various risks associated with the financial and banking industry, as well as personal and institutional investing. I became familiar with risks such as foreign exchange risk, liquidity risk and market risk. Similarly, my internship in Credit Risk at Morgan Stanley gave me an insight into how counterparty credit risk, the risk that a counterparty fails to fulfil its contractual obligations, is actively managed within a global financial institution. I assumed Compliance at Skybound would involve something similar: analysing clients’ investments, monitoring market and currency movements, and making sure the business was financially strong enough to withstand unforeseen events. Boy, was I wrong. In reality, Compliance is about much more than financial risk. The team makes sure Skybound operates within the relevant laws and regulations, while also embedding good compliance practices and thinking across the business.
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In practice, this means increasing controls where the risk is
“A successful control can be invisible precisely because it worked.” Jacob Mangoro, Graduate Associate
higher and reducing them where it is lower. For example, a politically exposed person (PEP) may require enhanced due diligence and additional controls. Conversely, where a client presents a lower level of compliance risk due to their circumstances and the regulatory environment in which they operate, fewer controls may be appropriate. The objective is not to have more controls for the sake of having more controls, but to apply the right level of control to the level of risk.
One of my key tasks was reviewing the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) position on vulnerable customers and evaluating Skybound’s approach. This was particularly
The Key Takeaway From Compliance?
interesting because, while the FCA expects firms to “act with an appropriate level of care”, I was able to go a step further
Just because there was no negative outcome, it doesn’t mean
and consider how colleagues across the business, from
a control was unnecessary.
advisers and associates to paraplanners, should be able to
This was probably the biggest shift in my thinking during
recognise potential vulnerability from the point of initial client contact and throughout the onboarding process.
the rotation. Compliance can sometimes appear overly cautious from the outside, particularly when a control creates
Another interesting task was a detailed review of three of
additional work or friction without an obvious benefit. But the
Skybound’s key regulators. With eight offices across multiple
reality is that we rarely get to see the negative outcome that
jurisdictions, Skybound must meet regulatory expectations
a control may have prevented. A successful control can be
in each of them. Unsurprisingly, the requirements and
invisible precisely because it worked.
considerations involved in onboarding clients can vary
So, after two weeks of learning that risk and compliance
significantly between them.
are far from synonyms, I’m now moving into my next
My final project was to create and present a PowerPoint
rotation: Marketing.
on how Compliance should balance regulatory protection,
Here, I’ll be looking at how Skybound builds its brand,
proportionality and commercial reality without becoming too conservative or too permissive.
So, What Happens At Either Extreme?
communicates with its markets and attracts prospective clients, and, perhaps most importantly, discovering where all the cool people hang out.
Overly conservative Compliance can create unnecessary friction, lengthen the onboarding process and make inefficient use of compliance resources. From a client’s perspective, picture providing all the necessary information, only to face weeks of additional checks and requests for documentation despite presenting a relatively low level of risk. The controls may be well intentioned, but an unnecessarily difficult experience could cause a prospective client to look elsewhere. On the other hand, overly permissive Compliance can lead to regulatory breaches, weak or indefensible evidence, or residual risk exceeding the firm’s risk appetite. If the FCA were to review a compliance decision and Skybound could not provide sufficient evidence to explain why that decision had been made, the firm could face questions about the adequacy of its systems and controls, potentially leading to further supervisory or enforcement action. My main conclusion was that Compliance needs to be proportionate.
“The objective is not to have more controls for the sake of having more controls, but to apply the right level of control to the level of risk.” Jacob Mangoro, Graduate Associate
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INSIDE SKYBOUND Our People, From The Inside.
Product Spotlight
ONE YEAR ON How a picture of your plan turns a rough idea into a number
A
Written by Husain Rangwalla
Anil turned the sketches into visuals a client can
Chief Technology Officer
read at a glance, which is harder than it sounds when a plan spans several countries and more
year ago, Skybound launched MoneyMap, a cashflow planning tool built to make a financial plan simple to see without losing
the detail that makes every life different. Husain Rangwalla, Chief Technology Officer, looks back on its first year. 110 Skybound colleagues have created a MoneyMap for themselves.
than one currency. Getting there took countless accuracy checks, feedback sessions, sketches and visualisations. At every stage, we kept asking the same thing: could someone look at the picture, change an assumption and see what it meant for their future?
Why It Matters Now
Of all the numbers from its first year, that is the one I keep coming back to. These are people who
As our Retirement Reality Check shows, almost
use the tool with clients every day. They have
half of internationally based professionals
also chosen to use it to think through their own
have only a rough idea of the income they will
financial lives. There is no stronger endorsement
need in retirement, or none at all, and a clearer
of a planning tool than the people who build
overall plan was the most commonly selected
plans for a living deciding to use it on their own.
answer for what would increase confidence.
The Question We Started With MoneyMap started with an idea from colleagues, and a difficult question. How do you make a cashflow plan simple to understand and still account for the details that make every client's life different? Cashflow planning is not new. Advisers have
That is precisely the gap MoneyMap was built to close. It turns a client's income, assets, goals and timing into a single visual plan, and lets them test the questions that matter. What happens if I retire at 60? If I move to a country with higher living costs? If returns are lower than I'd hoped for the first ten years? The point is not to predict the future. It is to make the shape of the plan visible, so that decisions can be made with the consequences in view.
modelled income, spending and assets over a lifetime for decades. But too often the result is a dense report that makes sense to the person who
A Year In Numbers
built it and very little sense to the person it was
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built for. For internationally mobile clients, with
Today, MoneyMap is a fundamental part of
pensions in several countries, income in more than
financial planning at Skybound. It connects to
one currency and a retirement that may happen
the Discovery that clients complete and keep
somewhere they don't yet live, the risk of an
updated in our app, so the plan reflects their
unreadable plan is even greater.
circumstances as they change rather than as
Rachana Pillamari and Siddharth Jha took on the
they were on the day of the first meeting.
hardest part: building what sits underneath the
Across our jurisdictions, 87 advisers have used
picture, so that every figure a client sees is accurate
it, and 21,465 MoneyMaps have been created in
and connected to their real circumstances. Nihara
its first year.
People keep coming back, too. Clients have an
probably be fine. In the meeting, their adviser
average of 2.67 MoneyMaps each. They are
maps their pensions, savings and expected
exploring another scenario, revisiting a goal or
spending, then tests the questions they care
seeing what a change in their life could mean.
about: stopping work two years earlier, a weaker
That is exactly how a plan should be used: not
exchange rate, lower returns in the first decade
as a document produced once and filed, but as
of retirement.
something revisited whenever life moves.
Each change shows up on the picture straight
The tool has kept moving with them. Our
away. By the end of the conversation, they can
technology and design teams have delivered
see which decisions make a real difference to
11 releases of new features and improvements
their plan, and which barely move it.
in 12 months. Most of them began as a comment from an adviser or a client who used MoneyMap, questioned it and told us what
One Year On
would make it better. One year on, the number I return to is still 110.
In Practice
It tells me MoneyMap has earned a place in the financial conversations we have with clients, and in the plans our own people make for their lives.
Consider a hypothetical couple in their fifties, working in Dubai and planning to retire to Spain. They arrive with a general sense that they will
If you haven't yet seen your own plan mapped out, ask your adviser. It is often the conversation where a rough idea finally becomes a number.
“There is no stronger endorsement of a planning tool than the people who build plans for a living deciding to use it on their own.” Husain Rangwalla, Chief Technology Officer
Scan the QR code or click here to find out more about MoneyMap.
125
HOW ADVICE WORKS Advice, explained. No jargon.
From the Trading Floor to the Family Table Alexandra Merz on a career that ran from Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank to advising international families at Skybound
Alexandra Merz spent more than a decade in senior banking roles in London, New York and Chicago before moving into private client advice. Now a Private Wealth Adviser in Skybound's London team, working with the group's UK and U.S. businesses, she talks markets, families and why advice across borders
You Spent Years In Energy And Fixed Income Markets. What Did That Teach You That You Still Use Today? "Markets teach you humility quickly. You learn that nobody reliably predicts what happens next, and that the people who do well over time are the ones who understand their risks and plan for more than one outcome. That is exactly how I think about a family's finances now. The question is never what the market will do this year. It is whether the plan still works if things
needs more than one pair of hands.
don't go the way we hoped.
Alexandra Merz joined Skybound Wealth in
"The other lesson is about structure. In corporate
September as a Private Wealth Adviser based in London. Her career began as an analyst in Merrill Lynch's investment banking division and went on to include six years as a Director at Deutsche Bank, four as a Managing Director at J.P. Morgan and two as a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where she led European corporate energy sales. She then spent almost a decade advising private clients at Vie
energy sales and structuring, the work was always about matching a solution to a client's real exposure, not selling a product. Private clients deserve the same discipline."
What Made You Move From Institutional Markets To Advising Individuals And Families?
International before joining Skybound. "In banking, your clients are institutions. The decisions are large, but they are a step removed from people's lives. I wanted to work on decisions that
“When a client's financial life spans countries, having the right people working together makes a real difference.” Alexandra Merz, Private Wealth Adviser
126
matter to people directly: how they will retire, how they will support their children, how they will protect the people they care about. Moving into private client advice let me use what I had learned about markets in a way that has a much more personal effect."
What's The Biggest Difference Between Advising A Corporation And Advising A Family? "With a corporation, the objectives are usually written down. With a family, they often aren't, and part of the job is helping people say what they actually want. Two clients with similar wealth can need completely different plans because their priorities, their family responsibilities and the countries in their lives are different. Listening matters far more than it did on a trading floor."
Your Banking Career Took You To London, New York And Chicago. Has That Shaped How You See Your Clients?
Many Of Your Clients Are American Or Have Ties To Both The U.S. And The UK. What Do Those Families Tend To Underestimate? "How closely their two financial lives are connected. A decision that makes perfect sense in one country can have consequences in the other, and arrangements that work well for a UK resident do not always work the same way for an American. Pensions, investments, children's savings and estate planning all need to be looked at with both countries in mind. "That is also where working with appropriately qualified tax advisers matters. My role is to bring the investment and planning side together with that specialist input, so the family has one plan rather than two that pull in different directions."
"Very much. Working in more than one country, you learn quickly that systems which feel natural in one place can look very different in another, from how people save to how they think about retirement. Many of my clients are living that experience now. They have built careers across borders and want their finances to keep up with their lives. Having worked across those systems myself helps me see the questions they are facing, sometimes before they have asked them."
127
HOW ADVICE WORKS Advice, explained. No jargon.
You've Also Supported Clients Through Separation, Divorce And Remarriage. Why Does Financial Planning Matter So Much At Those Moments? "Because those are the moments when a plan built for one set of circumstances suddenly has to serve another. Priorities change overnight. Protection may no longer cover the right people, investments may need to support a different household and longterm goals may need to be rethought entirely. "When the family spans the U.S. and UK, there is often an extra layer of planning. The legal side is always handled by appropriately qualified legal professionals. My part is helping clients work out how their investments, savings and protection should support the next stage of their lives, calmly and without rushing."
Why Skybound? "I was drawn to Skybound by the opportunity to combine my experience with a wider international team. When a client's financial life spans countries, having the right people working together makes a real difference. I am looking forward to being part of that." Mike Coady, CEO of Skybound Wealth Management Group, said Alexandra's banking background would understandably attract attention, but that what mattered to him was the combination of that financial markets experience with the years she has spent helping private clients make decisions about their retirement, investments and families' futures.
What Does A Good First Conversation With A New Client Look Like? "It starts with their life, not their portfolio. Where they live now, where they might live later, who depends on them and what they are worried about. Once I understand that, the numbers make much more sense. A good first conversation should leave someone clearer about where they stand, whether or not they decide to do anything straight away."
U.S. investment advisory services are provided by Skybound Wealth Management USA, LLC d/b/a Skybound Wealth USA, an investment adviser
What Would You Say To Someone Whose Financial Life Spans More Than One Country But Who Has Never Had It Looked At As A Whole?
registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Alexandra Merz (CRD 2869622) is an Investment Adviser Representative of Skybound Wealth Management USA, LLC. Registration does not constitute regulatory endorsement or imply a particular level of skill or training. UK regulated financial advice is provided through Skybound Wealth Management Ltd, trading as Skybound Wealth UK, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 217994).
128
"That they are far from alone, and that it is rarely as complicated to bring together as it feels. Most people in that position have done sensible things at different stages of their lives. They have simply never had someone look at all of it in one place. That is usually the most valuable starting point, and the earlier it happens, the more options you keep."
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HOW ADVICE WORKS Advice, explained. No jargon.
"I took a small withdrawal from my pension last year. Someone told me I can now only pay in £10,000 a year. Is that right?" Possibly. A taxable flexible withdrawal from a defined contribution pension can trigger the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA). The £10,000 figure is a tax allowance, not an absolute contribution cap: gross personal and employer contributions above it can attract an annual allowance tax charge. How the withdrawal was made matters. Taking only tax-free cash normally does not trigger the MPA A, nor does a payment meeting the formal small-pot rules. A small taxable flexible withdrawal can trigger it: “small” alone is not enough. Once triggered, the MPA A normally continues to apply. Check how your payment was classified before making further contributions. — Arun Sahota, Private Wealth Partner
"I'm moving back to the UK from Dubai next summer. When do I start paying UK tax?" UK tax residence is assessed for each tax year under the Statutory Residence Test. If you qualify for split-year treatment, certain foreign income and gains arising in the overseas part may stay outside UK tax. UK-source income and gains, and temporary non-residence rules, need separate consideration. Split-year treatment depends on specific conditions. After at least ten consecutive non-resident tax years, eligible arrivals may claim relief on qualifying foreign income and gains for four tax years, including a partial arrival year. Claims are annual and involve losing tax allowances. Plan the return and any investment sales in advance. — Shil Shah, Group Head of Tax Planning
"I've lived abroad for years. Will my UK pension count for inheritance tax?" For deaths from 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits fall within UK inheritance-tax scope, subject to exclusions, exemptions and reliefs. Relevant benefits in a UK-established pension scheme can remain in scope even after you cease to be a long-term UK resident. Ending the residence tail does not by itself remove that pension exposure. Ask the provider where the scheme is established and how the rules apply to it. Your wider estate and who inherits also matter. Spouse or civil-partner exemptions may apply, subject to conditions. Review beneficiary nominations and the overall estate plan before the changes take effect. — Carla Smart, Group Head of Pensions
Have a question for Mailbox? Email us at getintouch@skyboundwealth.com and your question could appear in a future issue.
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HOW ADVICE WORKS Advice, explained. No jargon.
The Short List 5 Traits of a Plan Built to Move With You From Skybound's Retirement Reality Check: the features our advisers see in international retirement plans that hold up when life, and the rules, change.
01
TAX-AWARE ACROSS JURISDICTIONS Structured around where you are tax resident, where your pension and investment income or gains arise, where you are likely to retire and which double tax treaties apply, rather than simply where an account or platform is located.
02
CURRENCY-RESILIENT Deliberate about the currencies you earn, hold and will ultimately spend, to reduce mismatches and manage the effect of exchange-rate movements on your income.
03
BUILT AROUND A DEFINED NUMBER Anchored to the income you will actually need, so that every other decision has a clear reference point. Almost half of the people we surveyed don't yet have one.
04
PORTABLE, AND CONSOLIDATED WHERE SENSIBLE Structured to stay manageable if you move, with pensions and investments brought together only where suitable after weighing tax, guarantees, benefits, charges and local regulation.
05
REVIEWED ON PURPOSE Revisited at least once a year and after any major change in your life or in the rules, so that it doesn't fall quietly out of date. 38% of the people we surveyed either have no formal plan or haven't reviewed theirs in more than three years.
Source: Skybound Retirement Reality Check, 2026.
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Leadership Team Introducing The Skybound Wealth Brand Family
To learn more about our Leadership Team, please use the QR or click here to visit our website.
Mike Coady
Husain Rangwalla
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Technology Officer
Josh Burton
Peter Gollogly
Chief Financial Officer
Regional Director
Carlo Casaleggio
Tom Pewtress
Group Head of Compliance
Group Head of Proposition
Bryan Bann
Craig Stokes
Regional Manager
Managing Director - UK
Paul Pavli
William Bailey
Executive Director - Cyprus
Group Head of Global Partners
Josh Watson
Dmitriy Ermakov
Group Head of People
Group Head of Marketing
Adeeb Khan
Carla Smart
Team Lead - Technology
Group Head of Pensions
Kieron Franklin
Shil Shah
Group Head of Property & Finance
Group Head of Tax Planning
Veronica O’Brien
Taylor Condon
Group Head of Corporate Affairs
Country Manager - Spain
Ashley Eyre
Jaya Prakash Goulikar
Head of Compliance ‑ UK
Head of Compliance – Middle East
Elyka Ygnacio
Maria Darmanin Demajo
Operational Finance Manager
Operations Manager – Cyprus
Jenna Cochrane Administration and Operations Manager - USA
Maria Nikolaou Executive Director - Cyprus
Mohammed Kamil Khan
Rishikesh Mishra
Product Lead - Salesforce
Team Leader
Jamie Proctor Head of Athletes & Creators
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