French Residents With UK Investment and Pensions
Published / Last Updated on 05/05/2021
The Brexit Trade agreement DID NOT include financial services passporting – negotiations are ongoing with regard to ‘Equivalency’ on financial services with an Agreement in Principle or Memorandum of Understanding expected soon – it was supposed to be by the end of March 2021 but is still ongoing. In short, this means that technically we are no longer authorised in EU (for the time being). EU wines, cheese and cars exported to UK is no problem but the UK’s biggest industry, financial services exports to the EU is a ‘no’ at present.
That said, please read/watch to following two video guidance notes:
- https://www.financialadvice.net/financial_services_limbo_on_uk_eu_trade_agreement/video/1545/14
- https://www.financialadvice.net/brexit_and_expats_with_uk_policies_update/video/1571/14
For the time being, with no agreement in place, or indeed if they fail to reach an agreement – I also make the following statement:
Not Authorised in EU. As we are UK advisers, we are no longer authorised in EU from 01/01/21. Likewise an adviser in EU will usually not be authorised to give advice on UK matters. Given this and until an agreement is reached on Equivalency, we may be able to offer the technical advice at this end on your UK assets with our requirement that you also take advice locally in EU to oversee any actions from your end and ensure tax compliance and reporting requirements with the EU authorities.
Most EU authorities are still permitting cross border advice based upon the old rules when the UK was part of the EU and we had ‘passporting’ rights pending the pending Equivalency Agreement but France has not.
France: France has gone even further.
We believe it is a bid by France to ‘grab’ UK financial services market share with ‘smoke and mirrors’ messages trying to cover this up in an argument on French fishing rights in UK waters. France has currently BANNED any UK investment transfers or set up of new UK pensions or investments including pension transfers for French residents. You can amend an existing policy provided it is within the same scheme and its rules but no ‘new’ plans.
