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US national client in the UK

Case Study: Kate

  • Adviser name: Vall Wilkinson
  • Client name: Kate
  • Client location: Hong Kong

Kate is a US national from California. As part of her degree, she studied at Sussex University in Brighton. After graduating, Kate decided to make her home in the UK. She became a Chartered accountant working for KPMG initially, then joining a publishing company where she took up a Financial Director role for several of their divisions.

In 2008 the opportunity arose for Kate to head up a division of the publishing company based in Hong Kong. She moved there and later met her husband, whom she married in 2013. A year later, their son was born and Kate decided to become a full-time mother to him and her step-son.

As well as caring for her children, Kate has a number of volunteering roles. She supports a charity which provides financial education for domestic workers and is heavily involved in the charity associated with her son’s school. She is also president of a local Toastmasters International club.

Kate

Why did Kate decide to take financial advice?

Kate had a number of pensions and investments which she had built up during her career. She was working with a financial adviser in Hong Kong, but a friend alerted her to the poor reputation the adviser had for investing clients’ money.

Once she looked into her investments, Kate realised that they were not growing and she was not receiving good value from her current financial adviser.

At the same time, she became aware that even though she held a British passport and paid taxes in the UK, as a US citizen she is required to file tax returns in the US.

Fortunately, Andrew Hallam, author of the books ‘Millionaire Teacher’ and ‘Millionaire Expat’ had visited her son’s school to speak to its students about financial planning. In his book, he recommends Satis Wealth Management as an ethical and transparent firm which specialises in advising expats. Kate decided to get in touch.

How did we help?

Kate explained to Vall Wilkinson that she was concerned that her existing investments were not performing well. She wanted to make sure that she would be able to fund her children’s higher education and have sufficient money for her retirement.

Vall investigated all of Kate’s investments and uncovered a number of hidden fees which were not only being charged by the financial adviser, but by her bank as well. He discovered that it was the fees and charges which were hindering the performance of her investments.

With assets diversified geographically, it was imperative that robust tax advice was sought from the outset. Satis Tax, sister company to Satis Wealth Management, provided guidance on the tax position of Kate’s existing investments before considering any further financial planning.

Vall helped Kate to navigate her way through the opaque charging structure of her existing investments. He then showed her how these could be simplified into one investment, providing her with control, transparency and reduced administration costs.

Kate now has a more simplified investment portfolio, which is transparent and low in costs and charges.

Satis Tax continues to advise Kate on her US tax liabilities.

How have they benefitted from the advice?

Kate now has a sense of security, knowing she has a team that she trusts who can provide her with sound financial planning and robust tax advice all under one roof.

Kate says: “I can sleep soundly knowing that my investments are strategically spread. I can see that my investments are doing fine and can check them online as often as I like.”

Kate also praises Satis Wealth’s approach to risk profiling. Where her previous advisers had treated this as a box-ticking exercise which was undertaken and ignored; with Vall, there was more of a discussion before coming to an agreement on which investments best matched her risk profile.

Kate continues: “Vall is very refreshing! He keeps it simple; he does not try to blind you with science. He is efficient, but more importantly for me, honest and transparent. I feel like I can trust him; unlike the previous advisers I’ve had.”