Financial Advisers

Anyone know of any FAs who can provide advice for Americans living in the UK? Not just tax advice, but all general financial advice.

Hi there,

As a start and something that's completely free, have a look at themotleyfool.co.uk website. A vast amount of information and you can check the relevant areas which apply to you. Check out the discussion boards, I'm on there quite a bit and find some of the advice fantastic!

As a 2nd step, buy yourself Quicken (the last & older versions) can still work perfectly well even though it's not sold nor supported by Intuit anymore (part of the reason I dont work at Intuit anymore!!) or Microsoft Money and begin to track all your financials. Overall, for a month or so you may find it a little bit of a chore to 'start' organising your finances but once you're in the swing of things, it's very easy to keep it up to date. Both products have functions which can help you budget and plan financial goals.

Then, if you find your goals are quite complex or need an advisor to help, you'll have a good amount of saved information which will help the advisor is providing more focussed advice to you.

If/when you do need advice in using Quicken and to some extent MS Money - once my website is live you can ask me there! until then, ask here and it'll be free ! for now!!!

Cheers! Dennis! West London & Slough UK!

Hi Dennis.

Thanks for your help.

I know about the Motley Fool and I can do the mathematical stuff myself. I have a good knowledge of finance. I work as an insight planner for a financial services company so I'm very familiar with the financial markets.  I've always been in charge of household finances, both with my ex and with my husband, and I've always done my own taxes.

I was thinking more on the lines of someone to help with investments, etc., despite the fact that I am knowledgeable about those thing -and the bits I pieces I don't know I can teach myself; I've had to teach myself things "on the spot" many times. I just thought it would be better to get outside advice. It's the idea that "A lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client."

I just have a fear that most IFAs won't deal with an American because they don't want, or don't have the qualifications, to be responsible for the US/UK tax implications. Well, if I have to, I'll just handle things myself.

I would like to see your website, though

sweetpeach- i'm having problems finding an IFA who is knowledgeable in both UK & US.  i need to set up a pension here and i want to take financial & tax advice first.  if you find anything - please do post or let me know-

Anyone know of any FAs who can provide advice for Americans living in the UK? Not just tax advice, but all general financial advice.

Great question. I was wondering if anyone on the board had actually employed someone to give them
financial or tax advice and if they have how much they charge and what they thought
of the experience.

I read somewhere that there are a few million US citizens abroad but that only a few
hundred thousand file returns....... who knows how many have more than $10k in foreign
accounts and don't file Form TD F 90-22.1 which I learned about just today, another reason
to ship money back to the US.

1. The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that approximately one-third of Americans overseas comply with tax filing.
2. The TDF 90-22.1 carries an automatic $10,000 penalty for non-filing, plus potential criminal penalties for wilful non-filing.
3. There are no accurate statistics of the number of US citizens outside the US.  There are plenty who are technically US citizens through parentage but do not know.
4. Many Americans in the UK are spouses of Brits, draft dodgers from Vietnam and more recently those are are anti-war.  However most Americans don't have passports.
5. If you do not agree with US tax laws such as filing of TDF 90-22.1 you have the democratic constitutional right to vote to change the rules.  You can also lobby your Congress-person.
6. Because IFAs in the UK are regulated by various laws and professional bodies, they tend to specialise.  Very few would advise on the impact of US laws because the risk of doing so would not be covered by their PI insurance.  There are also issues related to the way that the SEC thinks it has global jurisdiction that cause unease among IFAs.