Five key retirement questions for expats in Spain

If you live in Spain, or are thinking of moving to Spain for your retirement, it is essential that you seek expat financial advice in order to give you the best possible chance of successfully protecting and growing your wealth.

Blacktower Financial Management has offices in Barcelona as well as Costa Del Sol, Costa Blanca, Costa Calida and on the Balearic Island of Mallorca. From these branches, our team members can help expat retirees throughout Spain take care of their wealth management and retirement investment needs.

In this guide we take a look at some key questions for expats in Spain.

1. Do you have a regular savings plan?

Regular savings are often the bedrock of expat retirement planning. Whether you are putting regular savings in to offshore accounts, using the funds to invest in a diverse portfolio of assets, are considering an annuity or indeed any other retirement investment vehicle, it is vital that you sit down with an experienced expat financial adviser so that you can identify a strategy to help you realise your goals.

Not all savings plans are created equal and a regulated, licensed financial adviser will be able to review your current planning and assist you in understanding the best strategy and products for investing your money.

2. Have you made an expat pension transfer?

For many of us, pensions are, alongside property, the single largest retirement asset we have. As such, the way we manage and structure our pensions can have a profound impact on how much money we have to spend in retirement. For example, it may be beneficial to transfer or consolidate your existing workplace pension or pensions into a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) or Qualifying Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) in order to have greater freedom, flexibility and growth potential from this important retirement asset. However, these types of transfers are not suitable for everyone so it is imperative that you take qualified expat retirement transfer advice.

3. Is your expat life fully insured?

Although insurance policies are not financial products per se, they can be an essential complement to your investment portfolios and wider retirement plans. Income insurance, life insurance, health insurance and property insurance are all forms of cover that can give you and your family reassurance that you will at least have some safety network in the event of the unforeseen or the unexpected.

4. Are your investments sufficiently diversified?

It’s all too easy for expat retirees to make the mistake of putting their retirement eggs in just one basket. Often this is because they choose to invest in sectors and asset classes with which they feel comfortable and familiar. However, it is only by investing across a diverse range of asset types that you can be confident of best weathering the inevitable basket raiding spectre of market volatility.

Such complex investment decisions, such as deciding whether to invest in emerging markets and new geographical locations, are likely to be too complex for the layperson, so you should speak with an investment adviser and/or discretionary fund manager about the best way to diversify your assets.

5. Are your family and dependents provided for?

You may need to make a new Will when you move to Spain. Doing so can help you take advantage of either British or Spanish succession and inheritance laws and help to ensure that your wishes are faithfully carried out after you are gone.

Spanish succession law can be complex, particularly for expats. However, new Succession Regulations were introduced to allow EU citizens to nominate either the law of their own nationality or that of the country in which they are resident. However, to understand inheritance tax and succession factors sufficiently you will need to speak with a suitably qualified adviser.

Another component you may wish to consider is an education savings plan in order to assist with the education costs for children or grandchildren in the future.