Five Ways to Safeguard Your Financial Future

We work throughout our lives to progress in our careers, make sound investment decisions, and manage our wealth as efficiently as possible. Protecting that wealth, and defending against risk factors, is vital to financial stability.

Many expats have multiple assets, from savings accounts to investment products and pension funds. Each requires regular assessment and monitoring to ensure that your assets are performing well and are not exposed to potential losses or damage that could be detrimental to your future.

In this guide, we’ve summarised five of the best ways to defend against such risks and protect your finances now and in the years to come.

As always, professional advice and financial guidance is key to making confident judgements about the ideal investment or retirement strategies. If you have any concerns about the stability of your wealth, we recommend you seek expert support to ensure your assets are suitably protected.

1. Accounting for Inflation in Long-Term Savings Strategies

Inflation is part and parcel of long-term capital investments. While we can’t remove the reality of inflation, we can consider strategies to mitigate the effect or prepare for anticipated inflation rates.

Here are a few examples:

• Switching static long-term savings into equities or alternative investments, with better potential for long-term growth and the prospect of achieving above-inflation returns.
• Maximising your tax-efficiency, which is essential for expats who may be subject to cross border or international tax regimes. Being tax-efficient can reduce your liabilities, increase your returns, and avoid drops in value.
• Smart investment management strategies, with planning to ensure anticipated returns are above inflation and yet correlate with your appetite for risk exposure.

If you have stabilised these factors and know that your plans account for expected inflation, you will be in an excellent position to ensure your assets or savings do not erode over the long-term.

2. Working With an Experienced Adviser to Continually Evaluate Investment Risks

We’ve touched on the need to consider your investment risks, and understanding the exposure inherent in each investment product or fund is vital to protecting your wealth – while noting that risks and returns can vary and are unlikely to remain level over time.

That’s because every investment product with variable returns will carry an inherent level of risk. Simply opting for investments with a negligible risk factor can be an option during volatile economic times – but, for most investors, this isn’t a sustainable ongoing strategy, given that low fixed returns might fall below inflation and offer little in the way of wealth optimisation.

Investment portfolios should always be tailored to your aspirations, plans, and risk strategy, taking into consideration:

• Your planned expenditures
• Anticipated changes in circumstances
• The returns you require
• Changes to the costs of living
• Your current age and retirement plans

By tailoring your investment portfolio and balancing higher risks with higher returns and, conversely, risk-averse strategies, you can gain maximum investment success without exposure during times when you’re reliant on your investments as a primary income stream.

3. Optimising Tax-Efficiencies Across Your Income, Assets and Wealth

The next priority to safeguarding your wealth is to look at your tax-efficiency and consider measures or structures that may improve your financial position.

Taxes are one of the most significant outlays for millions of investors, businesses and families. By revisiting your tax position and identifying solutions, there may be opportunities to restructure your assets, income or investments to reduce your tax liability.

Unfortunately, taxes are a part of life, impacting every asset portfolio. Depending on your country of residence, they might include:

• Succession planning and inheritance tax
• Income taxes and wealth levies
• Capital gains charges and investment taxes
• Taxation against property assets and rental portfolios

Conducting a tax analysis exercise with advice from a taxation specialist is always worthwhile, and can determine where you can make efficiencies and protect your wealth from unnecessary obligations.

4. Evaluating Your Retirement Plans, Expectations and Finances

Many savings products and investments are designed to provide steady income streams into our retirement years. There are numerous different options when it comes to pension schemes and funds, with vastly variable returns, interest rates, tax exposures and benefits, with decision-making factors including:

• The flexibility of access to your pension wealth
• Options to make lump-sum and tax-free withdrawals
• Evaluations of investment risk
• Current and future tax liabilities against your retirement income
• Varied options to manage and structure investment funds
• Contrasting pension structures, products and benefits

Leaving pension funds in situ when your products aren’t showing positive returns, can cause significant concerns especially if you are fast approaching retirement. Even substantial pension pots can decrease over time and make a difference to your expected pension income and standard of retirement living, where the value of the fund is dependent on the investment risk and type of pension scheme you hold.

Chase Buchanan’s pension specialists often consult with clients who have high-value pension funds, but that haven’t been leveraged to their full capacity. These assets, therefore, might show diminishing values, which can be corrected with a risk-balanced investment plan with a strong chance of delivering more positive results.

Decisions around pension investments should always be made with the benefit of experienced advice to ensure these align with your anticipated retirement age, plans, and budgets.

5. Seeking Independent, Expert Financial Advice From an International Wealth Management Professional

Wealth management is a multi-faceted area. Expats living overseas, with assets or properties in different countries, and wealth held across borders, should always implement a personalised wealth management strategy to ensure they are maximising their tax efficiencies, minimising obligations, and offsetting inflation risks over the long-term.

Multiple risks can arise over time, and having an adviser who can keep pace with possible and future regulatory changes or taxation regimes can ensure you make timely, informed and educated decisions to safeguard the value of your finances and assets.

That might mean separating asset holdings, taking out liability insurances, creating legal entities to manage your wealth, or restructuring your portfolio in ways that create more attractive returns without exposing you to additional costs or taxes.

Overseas legislation is often markedly different from that in the UK, impacting the breadth of financial planning choices and often meaning you have a range of options available to choose from.

Chase Buchanan consults with UK nationals living abroad and global expats who require dedicated support. We ensure that issues such as taxation, inflation, low investment returns, and lack of retirement planning do not damage the value of their finances, with contingency plans in place to ensure that our clients’ future is safely provided for.

To schedule a portfolio review or discuss options available to safeguard your wealth, please get in touch with your nearest Chase Buchanan office to arrange a private consultation.

All investments carry risk, including the potential loss of capital. You should carefully consider whether investing is suitable for you, taking into account your personal circumstances, financial situation, and risk tolerance.

* Updated April 2025