Tips on How to Choose a Cross-Border Adviser

It is important that expats who have tax and financial advice needs spanning a number of countries choose a regulated adviser with the appropriate cross-border expertise. Below we give our tips on how to go about it.

ExpatMoneyChannel often gets asked to recommend a financial adviser. While we cannot give recommendations, we can certainly shed light on how to go about choosing an adviser that is both regulated and expert in the services you wish.

If you are going down the independent adviser route then first and foremost is to make sure you are talking to a fully regulated adviser who is competent in tax and financial planning in the countries involved. For example, if you are a UK citizen, have a property in Spain and work in Portugal you will ideally want an adviser who has expertise in cross-border tax regulations covering all three countries.

You can do this in two ways. Taking the example above, you can check the UK’s FSA register to see which advisers are authorised (called passporting) to offer financial advice in Spain and Portugal, or you can check via the Portuguese regulator. We have put a few tips on both of these regulators below as they can be a devil to negotiate if you do not know the names of any advisers. It's worth noting that if your affairs take you outside the EC, then you will certainly need to check on individual regulator registers, so getting used to how they work is worthwhile.

Another source is trade associations such as the Federation of European Independent Financial Advisers, which has a member list of advisers specialising in offering advice throughout Europe. http://feifa.eu/memberslist.aspx. Again, check any regulatory claims made on individual websites with the relevant authorities. 

If you have a good banking relationship and qualify for wealth management services then you may find they offer a range of tax services you could make use of as part of your banking package. Obviously check that if opting for a financial advice service with your bank that you are not simply getting a limited range of options based on what the bank itself offers.

For tax specific services there are also the big accountancy firms, such as KPMG, PWC and Mazars, many of which have offices globally.

Tips on Using Regulatory Registers

While we have covered just the UK and Porgual below, it gives a flavour of the importance of using such registered correctly and gaining an understanding of what information held means.

UK FSA: www.fsa.co.uk. This will take you to the FSA register. Click on Financial Services Firm Search. The only problem with this system is you need to at least know the name of an advisory firm to check their authorisation. Once you have a name in mind then type it in. If you are not sure you have the correct spelling, then click Match Level: Partial. This should come up with a list of names similar to the one you are looking for. You will need at least 3 letters of a name to get anything. Once you have found the firm, click on the name and passports/permissions (top of page) to check on where and what they are allowed to advise on.

Portugal ISP: www.isp.pt. This link will take you to the register. While the overall site can be viewed in English the register buttons are all in Portuguese. To get a list of UK advisers authorised to give advice in Portugal click on the Pais Origem - click Reino Unido - click pesquisar (bottom left). This will give you a (long) list of UK advisers. Unless you know any of the names it will be a question of ploughing through clicking on ones you feel could be of interest. Those with offices in Portugal will have Morada (address) and Sucursal (branch office) listed. Those that don’t will operate from the UK, but are authorised to offer advice in Portugal (see further note on this below). There are two other regulators in Portugal (www.bportugal.pt and www.cmvm.pt). However, most advisers will come under the ISP.

A final note of caution is that there are differences in the type of advice UK authorised firms that have European ‘passports’ can offer and, in terms of investor protection, note that you will only be covered for whatever they are authorised to advise on. 

So long as you stick to the above guidance, then who to choose becomes a matter of personal preference. Indeed you may find separating out your tax and financial planning needs, rather than opting for one provider, is your best option.

If you would like us to run through how other regulatory registers work, then contact us.