US / UK cross border financial planning

The US / UK cross border service is primarily financial planning. This includes pension, investment and protection planning. There are tax and legal implications of being a US connected individual, therefore all of our recommendations are sensitive to this. We regularly work with cross border tax and legal specialists who can also assist you with your planning.

Our financial planning service is aimed at two main groups. These are British expats who live, work and who are retired in the US. The second group is Americans who live and work in the UK.

British expatriates in the US

Investment Planning

British expats generally leave assets behind invested in the UK. These can be pensions or investments where the financial planning options available to them are restricted.  An important issue to consider if assets are left invested within the UK is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The UK is a signatory of FATCA therefore any assets not excluded in FATCA reporting must be structured carefully to be compliant. If deemed non-compliant the tax penalties can be significant. An example of a toxic investment that is commonly held is a collective investment within an ISA. They are great if you are a non-US tax filing UK resident however for a US connected individual they can be very tax inefficient. We can provide US compliant Great British Pound (GBP) or US Dollar denominated solutions to enable you to manage currency risk and invest your funds in a tax compliant structure.

Pension Planning

At-retirement planning for a British expat is very challenging. Virtually 99% of the pension provider market in the UK will not want to deal with you because of your US residency. Now that the UK operates fully flexible pension withdrawal, structuring pensions for retirement with a lack of pension providers willing to deal with you can be challenging. At Cross Border we can provide retirement solutions that allow you to access fully flexible drawdown. We can also assist you with any Defined Benefit / Final Salary pension schemes.

Our pension planning solutions carry the option of moving the funds held within the pension to US Dollars at an advantageous time for you. This will allow you to mitigate currency risk by having your pension benefits paid in US Dollars in retirement.

American expatriates in the UK

Investment planning

Americans living and working in the UK need to take care on how they structure their financial planning as they nearly all have a continued US tax filing requirement. As the UK is a signatory of FATCA, any investments held outside of the US must be tax compliant or there could be significant tax penalties. Cross Border can assist Americans living in the UK to structure their investment planning so that any investments held outside the US in either GBP or US$ can be held in a compliant and tax efficient manner.

Pension Planning

There will be many Americans who are accruing or have accrued pension funds in the UK.  Due to their US citizenship many UK pension providers will not want to deal with them at retirement. This makes accessing benefits very challenging. Cross Border can assist you with your at-retirement pension planning by providing fully flexible and Defined Benefit / Final Salary pension advice to you in the UK or after your return to the US. We can also deliver currency solutions within UK pension schemes where the underlying funds can be held and invested in US$, GBP or Euro. You can transfer to any of these currencies at a time of your choosing and therefore you have the potential to mitigate currency risk.