Whitepapers

In today’s globalised world, the opportunities afforded Americans abroad have never been greater. However, significant care needs to be taken to ensure that any build-up of foreign cash does not get whittled away through poor tax structuring and financial planning.

As an American living in the UK, almost nothing related to your financial affairs is easy. The consequences of seemingly simple decisions - such as how to pay for a new home or purchase a mutual fund - may create unnecessary tax charges and complexities. 

Putting a coherent strategy around charitable giving can be an important part of an individual’s Wealth Plan. If giving strategies are among actionable priorities, it is important to identify tax-efficient ways to achieve your charitable objectives.

As an American living in the UK, there are several considerations when taking distributions from your UK pension. Within this whitepaper, we discuss some of these options in more detail. 

When it comes to lending money, it is essential to have a set of criteria that you use to determine whether or not a loan is a good idea. This criteria will help you assess the risk of default and make sure that you are lending to people who are likely to repay the loan.

As a US expat living in the UK, the thought of getting your estate in order can be quite a complicated and overwhelming process. It is important to ensure that you have your estate plan in order to comply with both the US and UK jurisdictions. This may require legal and tax expertise as it is important to ensure that the strategy covers the various laws in both jurisdictions. The different tax laws between the UK and the US can alter the distribution strategy and ultimately the tax liability of distributed assets upon death, so it is important that there is a full understanding of these before devising an appropriate plan.

As with other financial decisions, Americans often have additional areas of consideration when purchasing a property in the UK. Within this whitepaper, we discuss these areas in greater detail.

US investors have pretty much engaged in a love affair with mutual funds, closed-end funds, money market funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). All these investment vehicles provide access to a broad array of asset classes, often at a low cost. However, if the US investor living in the UK does not take preventative measures, the relatively low cost of such funds will not be sufficient to offset the high UK tax bill they could incur on realising gains.

Passive Foreign Investment Companies (PFICs) form part of the 1986 IRS tax reforms that closed loopholes being used to protect offshore investments from taxation. The 1986 tax reforms not only sought to close the loophole, but also to bring such offshore investments under US taxation and deter US taxpayers’ interest in such investments through punitive tax rates.

US Social Security and UK State Pension benefits often form a cornerstone of an individual’s retirement planning strategy providing a foundational source of income that will supplement other retirement savings. However, they can be difficult to navigate for expat individuals. Within our latest whitepaper, we share some guidance on the basic principles of the US Social Security and UK State Pension systems for a US-UK connected individual.

For persons with connections to the US and the UK, the subject of inheritance tax is one that can be very important due to the large differential in the nil rate inheritance tax bands available in the UK as compared to the US. A lack of understanding about how inheritance tax works can end up costing beneficiaries hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars.

Beginning your investment journey as an American citizen living in the UK can seem daunting. Whether learning to drive on the opposite side of the road or clarifying how His Majesty will tax your US investments, living in the UK can pose a unique set of challenges. Without the guidance of an experienced advisor or a playbook for dealing with those challenges, it can be very easy to succumb to inertia when thinking about important financial decisions. Within this whitepaper, we outline a roadmap of some key principles you should familiarise yourself with before setting sail on your investment journey as an American living in the UK.