INTERMEDIARY PROFILE CHRISTCHURCH INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT
Tower
Hard times in Expatland have
forced many Brits to throw in
Christchurch
the beach towel on their Eldorado
outside
dreams. But as executives at
Shah
Christchurch report, such expats
Tony and
still need specialist financial
advice with an offshore focus
Walters
– some now more than ever Anthony
The return of the ex-pat
BY HELEN BURGGRAF
‘Once an expat, always
an expat’ has long been
a saying among financial
advisers specialising in the
expatriate market, even
before a recent survey
revealed that 88% of expats
said they intend to retire
abroad.
“Once people get
through the initial pain
of living overseas, if they
come back to the UK they
are often not here very long
before they say ‘I have got
to get away again’,” says
Tony Shah, who heads up
the international division
of Christchurch Investment
Management. He has been
involved in advising expats
on their financial affairs for
more than 30 years.
According to Shah,
these expat Brits are
natural potential clients
of Christchurch because
people who criss-cross the
globe typically need a lot
of advice in order to avoid
such common pitfalls as
being over-taxed, and otherwise
failing to arrange
their investments to their
best advantage.
What is more, Shah
notes, the importance for
expats of obtaining expert
advice has grown as the
UK and other major developed
countries have begun
to crack down on tax evasion
and, increasingly, on
tax avoidance as well.
For one thing, he notes,
British expats are having
to be more careful than
they had to previously to
avoid being classified as
UK-domiciled, while nondoms
living in the UK also
need help negotiating the
tax rules.
l Losing value
At the same time, these
expat Britons are seeing
their wealth being eroded
by a combination of the
global economic downturn
that has reduced the value
of investment holdings, falling
property values in their
adopted countries, and the
plunge in the value of the
pound.
“Many of them retired
some years ago, sold
their UK properties, and
purchased a home in
Southern Europe, only to
find that the strength of the
euro relative to the pound
has impacted significantly
on their pension income,”
he explains.
“Unless their properties
[in these markets] are
very high-end, they can
be extraordinarily difficult
to sell in the currently
depressed housing market.
These are the people who
desperately need advice
about what to do before
they come back.”
The result, says
Christchurch director
Anthony Walters, is a grow-
FEBRUARY 2010 [www.international-adviser.com] INTERNATIONAL ADVISER
27
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