Top 5 Tips for an Australian Expat Choosing a Financial Adviser
Becoming an expat as an Australian can be a daunting and confusing process, especially when it comes to your finances. As soon as you touchdown in your new city or town, things can change, without you even doing anything. There will changes to how your Australian assets are treated from a tax perspective, as well as needing to get your head around new rules and regulations in your adopted country. Where to even begin? This is when a financial adviser for Australian expats comes in handy.
Working with a financial adviser can help you navigate these complexities with confidence. However, not all financial advisers are well versed in expat specific issues. Unfortunately, many end up either receiving poor advice or paying extra for specialised advice than you would by seeing an existing specialist in this area.
We have provided our top 5 tips that Australian expats should consider when selecting a financial adviser.
1. Are They Licensed?
Whether you’re an expat or not, you must ensure your financial adviser holds a licence from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC). You can do this by checking the register – click here. This ensures they provide advice in accordance with the regulations in place to protect you as a client, as well as providing recourse if the advice is inappropriate or illegal.
Where expats can often run into issues are with offshore based advisers. You would be surprised how many “financial advisors” in Asia and the Middle East have little to no licensing. If the adviser is British, American, South African or any other nationality its best to steer completely, as many don’t maintain appropriate licensing and/or can’t help with Australian expat specific issues.
2. Does Their Licensee Allow Them to Provide Financial Advice to Australian Expats?
Because providing Australian expat financial advice is complex and constantly changing, many licensees (who hold Australian Financial Services licences and register financial advisers with ASIC) do not allow their advisers to work with Australian expats. They restrict their advisers to only working Australian citizens who are residents of Australia.
In the past, we have seen financial advisers ask Australian expats to sign a Power of Attorney (POA). Thereby, appointing a friend or family member as their Australian point of reference to circumvent these restrictions. If an adviser asks you to do this, ask yourself why you’re paying ongoing fees to someone who can’t—or won’t—even speak with you directly.
3. Are They “Match Fit” for Australian Expat Financial Advice?
The next step in choosing your financial adviser is to assess whether they’re truly ‘match fit’. Financial advice is already complex, but expat-specific issues across multiple jurisdictions take it to an entirely different level.
If the adviser doesn’t come across these issues on a weekly basis, they simply won’t be able to keep up to date with all the respective changes in both Australia and overseas. Therefore, it’s likely they will spend significant additional time in the research phase of the advice process. Therefore, potentially charging you more than an expat specific adviser who has the answers immediately available.
In the worst case, the adviser may simply ignore areas in their advice. Perhaps this is due to ignorance, which ultimately may give you a significantly worse result than an adviser who thoroughly considers all cross jurisdictional issues and implications for you as an expat.
4. Are They an Expat Specific Firm?
Another step to consider is if the financial adviser is part of an expat specific financial advice firm or not. There are specialist expat financial adviser teams who work for large firms, rather than for an expat specific firm. However, many of these advisers also have a large portion of their clients being non-expats. Primarily due to their firm doesn’t holistically specialise in expat advice from top to bottom.
This matters because firms that don’t specialise in expat advice typically lack the resources that dedicated expat advisory firms have. Building these resources takes time and effort—something a single adviser or small team can’t easily achieve.
An expat specific firm should have developed a deep knowledge base and significant resources on expat specific advice areas. This includes across many supporting team members, such as paraplanning and client services. This means that you are best supported at all levels as an expat, rather than just having a single adviser contact who is familiar with your complex situation.
5. Does Their Service Package Best Suit Australian Expats?
As part of engaging an adviser to provide ongoing financial advice, you need to make sure that they have the tools and resources to deliver. A once-a-year visit to their office when your back in Australia is not enough. Multiple time zones must be factored in to ensure timely advice and engagement is maintained.
The rules and regulations are changing so rapidly for Australian expats. Updates need to be provided as and when they occur. As a minimum, you should be receiving in-person meetings or digital video calls at least once per quarter. Additionally, regular updates being provided every month or two between those meetings.
Remember – financial advice is not set and forget. It requires constant reviews and amendments to ensure that your goals and objectives are being met. Also taking into account any legislative changes that affect Australian expats specifically.
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s not just a simple case of opening the digital Yellow Pages and picking the first person you see. It’s also not wise to ask friends and family for a referral to their financial adviser, as your needs as an expat may be completely different from their needs.
Australian expat financial advice is a complicated and specialised field. You shouldn’t risk your financial future by relying on a financial adviser who lacks the licensing, authorisation, experience, or capability to support your goals while living overseas.
Contact Us
Contact us today! At Atlas Wealth Group, we specialise in supporting Australian expats with cross-border tax planning, superannuation, and wealth management. We are the only Australian financial advice firm that holds both an Australian Financial Services Licence from ASIC and a licence from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).
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