Clients Seeking an International Lifestyle Plan, Sean & Philip
By Rebecca Scaife
Published on: March 9, 2022
The Background
Sean and Philip are in their mid-50s, and they approached Everlake to avail of our wealth planning expertise. Sean who is originally from Cork, lived and worked for several years in the UK. Philip is originally from the UK and as their family grew up, they decided to relocate to Ireland to put their children through the Irish school system.
They both have pensions from working in the UK. Philip’s pension fund is very close to the UK lifetime allowance of £1m and his Irish pensions are already over the Irish €2m lifetime allowance. Sean has also had a successful career and accumulated similar pension benefits.
The couple recently inherited €1.5m from Sean’s parents and anticipate a similar sum from Philip’s parents in the UK. They have collected a mixed bag of financial products and accounts over the years and currently have €1.2m of their own capital to invest.
The Clients’ Objectives
Now that their children are almost through college, Sean and Philip are thinking about their future and where they ultimately might live. They have a property in Spain and are dreaming about spending their winters overseas. They are also considering the possibility of returning to live in Philip’s family home in the UK. When they approached Everlake, they were seeking financial solutions that would enable a flexible and international lifestyle.
In tandem with their plans for the latter stages of their lives, they were also aware of their need for comprehensive, structured Estate Planning. They recognised the need to manage the significant inheritance tax bills that they and their own children face.
The Everlake Approach
Sean and Philip are quite typical of our wealth planning clients. At Everlake we specialise in advising non-domiciled families and individuals moving to or living in Ireland. Our planning often has a cross-border aspect to it, reflecting the modern international lifestyles of our clients. This includes specialist estate planning, covering the UK, Ireland and further afield.
As part of our recommendations to this couple, we demonstrated how to invest money more tax efficiently by availing of the remittance basis of taxation. We then supported them in building a suitable portfolio on this basis.
We also enabled both Sean and Philip to top up their UK State Pension entitlements, in addition to their Irish State pensions. They were previously unaware of this valuable opportunity.
To address their Estate Planning concerns, we assisted them with creating a comprehensive wealth plan, spanning three generations. This plan included a tax efficient investment portfolio to pay for their winters living in Spain. It also consolidated their pensions into a fixed-price pension trust in Malta, saving them a small fortune when compared to Irish pension charges.
Book an initial call with Marc to find out how we can help with your wealth planning, estate planning, or financial planning when moving to Ireland
