Passive investment options for windfall

darrinm81

Sebo027 said:

Why aren't you able to utilise your ISA allowance for your investment? 

Unfortunately not currently resident. 

I was looking at either establishing a trust (UK or abroad) or just converting to my current local currency. 

I'm leaning on the former and investing the funds in the name of the trust to try reduce future tax burden. 

Sebo027

If you are tax non-resident, and assuming your income is not earned in the UK, you can open an account with an international bank, e.g. Saxo Bank or Interactive Brokers LLC. They are popular with expats and allow access to a huge range of investment products i.e. funds, shares, ETFs etc. In future when you look to return to the UK you would sell the investment, hold the cash for 30 days and then reinvest via a normal GIA. This assumes you are investing money now and holding it within, say, Saxo, for a period of time before returning to the UK in the future. 

An offshore bond may be more tax efficient, but I would highly recommend speaking to a real accountant - based in the UK - who knows about these things. It's a murky world -  investment products invested through offshore bonds, often recommended by Expat Financial Advisers, often come with a number of problems (Generali, Friend's Provident etc.) including earlier withdrawal penalties, high fees, and often, poor performance. I suggest you check out the following websites for some more ideas:

• https://www.deadsimplesaving.com/blog/tag/expats/
• https://andrewhallam.com/

dunstonh

An offshore bond may be more tax efficient, but I would highly recommend speaking to a real accountant - based in the UK - who knows about these things. 

Not sure an accountant is the right one to go to.  I had to train up an accountants firm with some basic knowledge as they didn't have a clue and that was a branch of a major national.

 It's a murky world -  investment products invested through offshore bonds, often recommended by Expat Financial Advisers,

Non UK based firms targeting ex-pats has been an area of widespread problems.  Often retailing products with charging structures that went obsolete the in the UK 20 years earlier.

including earlier withdrawal penalties, high fees, and often, poor performance

Modern offshore bonds can be platform-based and whole of market and broadly similar charges to ISAs, GIA, pensions etc.   Still a few old naff ones about though.