Hi - is it possible to get a little basic advice re: strategies for handling money in France.
I believe there are some ‘new’ internet-based financial organizations/banks that provide a higher rate of interest and lower annual charges on ‘Assurance vie’ relative to the ‘old’ banking sector … … is it possible to get a decent interest rate on savings from a French online bank and a low cost ‘fully managed’ Assurance vie these days?
Do some of these new banks offer a free account and a free debit card, the last time I checked France charged for an account and charged extra for a debit card?
Is there a ‘cheapish’ way of transferring UKP into Euro to buy a house in France?
Does anybody have any experience of having a UK private pension in drawdown in France?
When my wife + myself die - the UK private pension goes to our UK-based kids, but I’m guessing we have to pay taxes to France if we’re living in France when we die.
I guess I’m trying to work out what the %tax will be in this case.
Any other top tips on money that you might have are welcome also!!
In the UK we’ve Martin Lewis (moneysavingexpert.com) who helps with all of this, but I’m guessing the UK’s a bit further ahead of France here.
Hiya,
You need to speak to our resident pensions and investments guru @Dave_Lawson!
he really knows his stuff and is a really nice person to boot!
Cat x
My wife and myself were only this morning commenting on how much of our time is spent cleaning … … but our youngest leaves home in just a few weeks now and as for blackberries! My wife and myself fill a small freezer with them each year. Frozen berry smoothies are our thing!
I can heartily recommend talking to @Dave_Lawson. I’ve always had a guarded attitude to financial advisors but having had a free hour or so with him last week I am pleased to report that he did not pressurise me in any way, but just gave straight forward advice.
Having had to try & sort out some UK private pensions recently I would advise that you start any kind of UK private pension (annuity, draw down, etc. ) before you move to France. Once you are non-UK resident most providers will not/cannot open new business for you. @Dave_Lawson can tell you more.
Thanks Badger - Great advice and I’m definitely thinking of starting drawdown in the UK.
Slight pain in the neck re: how to transfer UKP at a reasonable transfer rate to a half decent French online account … … but I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to sort those two out.
Yes, my private pension is in drawdown, but as far as the paperwork is concerned I use my brothers address and its paid into a uk bank ( under advice from my PFA). UK tax authorities are aware and it’s all declared/taxed in France via FFI
Hi Mark - exactly what we’re thinking of doing. So - registered address of one of our kids in the UK and drawdown declared/taxed in France as we’ll be living there permanently. I believe the Social Charges are a little painful until we hit 67 and get our S1 - but that’s the price of early retirement and finding a place in the middle of nowhere in the sun! We’re buying around Foix.
There are various threads on this topic if you do a search as it comes up a lot!
For moving small amounts of money and having the convenience of a multi-currency VISA card many of use use Wise or Revolut - you can open accounts with them while UK based. I personally use Wise.
For larger amounts you can still use the above or there are specialist currency exchange firms like TorFX or Lumon who give a better rate than UK banks.
Online French banking I can’t comment on since I am not in France full time yet myself! You will probably want an account with a chequebook as cheques are still a thing in France.
Credit Agricole has an offshoot called CA Britline which has English-speaking advisors.
For your drawdown, keep a UK account with (say) Nationwide Building Society so you can have it paid into that and then move the money across at your convenience. Not many UK financial institutions will let you keep an account after leaving the UK, but NW will. I’m not drawing mine yet but I checked in advance and my private pension provider told me they will not pay out into non-UK accounts.
The UK State Pension can be paid into a French account in Euros though.
Yes to the latter. I use Nalo, a French fintech, which offers a fully managed service (online) for a maximum cost of 1.65%. They invest entirely in ETFs (ie tracker funds) and are very user friendly. Funds are entirely held by a third party custodian, Generali, to minimise concerns over giving funds to non bricks and mortar institutions. Others I know have used Yomani (sp?) a similar, well regarded fintech for Assurance Vie.
I’ve had 2 private pensions in drawdown in France, but made the first withdrawals (25% UK tax free lump sum) when UK resident…With hindsight I should possibly have taken both as 100% lump sums when French resident, to benefit from the 6.75% tax rate. I was vaguely aware of this before coming to France but honestly thought it too good to be true and had slightly dismissed it in my mind, pending further research.
Watch out for the (French inheritance tax) trap that arises from transferring assets during your lifetime from one spouse to another when French resident, unless the total over 15 years is less than approx 80,000€. Tax of approx 20%
I’m in exactly that box at the moment - whether to take the tax free lump sum or not. I guess I was worried that if we took the lot - then we’d have to pay Social charges as well as tax at 6.75% (but I may just be making that up - the Social charges are a bit difficult to get our head around).
So - if we only get taxed at 6.75% - do we end up with all of the rest of the money sat around as cash?
I couldn’t work out if it has to go into a QROPS - which opens up another can of worms with charges,
It’d be great if we could do a transfer from UK Private pension into either a French bank account or Assurance Vie with Nalo … … but that all sounds as though it’d be too good to be true, if it were permitted.
I haven’t actually even thought of that other point you raise - so if I die and my Private pension goes to my wife then 20% is taken - and I guess the same is true if I die and the money goes to the kids - then 20% taken? I just assumed all of my pension would pass to my wife without tax upon death - but that some money would be taken if the money went to our kids.
Life becomes so much easier when the UK state pension becomes payable!
I second the advice to get any annuity/drawdown arrangements set up while you are in the UK. Both my partner and I have suffered from the post-Brexit problem of not being able to make transfers to/from UK pension pots or set up annuities/ drawdowns when not resident in the UK.
Almost the same applies to creating a new bank account - very difficult to find a bank that will set up a new one for a non-UK resident - but many banks will allow you to continue with current and savings accounts that are already set up. I can personally vouch for that being the case with the Co-op and Nationwide.
I do all my currency transfers using Wise, but only smaller amounts (<£10,000)
Personally, I wouldn’t take a lump sum - it’s what I’ve been forced to do because of the first-mentioned problem - but tax-wise it’s messy. @George1 is extremely knowledgeable about that sort of thing though.
Yes but you were already with them weren’t you? The problem arises if the pension pot is with someone who doesn’t provide that facility because you can’t now transfer it.
Don’t bet on it - Barclays kicked me out unceremoniously when I moved to Turks & Caicos! But hopefully if they’ve done nothing about it since Brexit they won’t start now…
As for whether you can set up annuities etc I think that’s at the whim of the provider.
Our experience says, that IF you have a pension pot with a provider that can do annuities/drawdowns AND they are willing to do so, that is fine. If, like us, your pension pot was sold on to a series of other providers, none of whom offered that facility, you are, to use a technical term, stuffed
Yes indeed that’s the catch - one of my pension pots has been round the houses a few times and is now with Reassure having started out as Legal &General.
Anyway I am keeping my Nationwide account so hopefully that will work. I haven’t decided whether to take a lump sum or not while I’m still in the Uk.
Fine if you’re in the UK - less so once you’re here!
Funnily enough our pension pots started out with L&G too who do, annoyingly enough, provide annuities but with the people they sold it onto not one of them did and L&G don’t take transfers in from non UK residents. Sigh…
