The clients were both born in Canada, and then spent a lifetime working in Canada, the USA and the UK, resulting in these clients falling in love with a pretty bit of northern England.
So far, so good. But this was their second place that they had fallen in love with, and they had committed to the previous place – which was indeed beautiful – to the degree of buying a home there, and working with a local Financial Planner to get their retirement worked out.
The change of plan required some working through. The house needed selling, and new Financial Plans calculated. That entailed working with assets in three countries, in three currencies, with very different tax regimes.
They had accumulated pension rights in two of the countries, with different tax rules – and as we found out – very different attitudes to inter – jurisdiction transfers and early encashment.
As ever, the task was to bring simplicity out of complexity. The question was:
“Can we afford to buy a house and retire now, or do we need to carry on working?”
So with lots of to and fro, liaison with UK and other tax advisers, transatlantic telephone calls, the answer was:
“Not yet. So buy the house, get settled, and reorganize your affairs to use your allowances and reduce your tax and investment costs.
And then save as much as you sensibly can. And in between 3 and 5 years, the answer will probably be ‘Yes’”.
Which was the right answer. They were happy to carry on working, but wanted to know the point where they could emotionally walk away without too much pain.
The clients were last seen house hunting….