Expat with 125k lump sum

mikek75

Hi,
I'm 46, been living in Poland for ten years with no intention to return to the UK. I just came into some cash from a property sale and am looking for some investment advice. I probably will speak with an IFA but will be best to have a clearer idea of what I want when I do that.
I'm married with kids, 5 & 6. We have a small-ish mortgage that I don't see any need to pay off (1.5% interest), in fact may borrow further. No other debts.
After some reading I pretty much decided I want to invest about 80k for long term growth in a few ETFs and expect to leave 50% of it at least 10 years and the rest until retirement.
Should I put the 40k earmarked for retirement into a pension - can I choose exactly the funds I want in a pension? And the other 40k? Poland's equivalents of ISAs are not great, they have very low max annual investment limits.

A complicating factor is what I can do in the UK. Now that I don't have a property there I will no longer be a non-resident tax payer. What products are open to me? My language skills are not good enough to deal with anything in Polish 😯
Any thoughts welcome, even if just where to find a suitable IFA 🙂

Thanks

dunstonh

I probably will speak with an IFA

Passporting permissions to residents within the EU ended with Brexit.   So, unless the IFA has set up an office within the EU to deal with EU clients then they wont be able to help you.

Should I put the 40k earmarked for retirement into a pension - can I choose exactly the funds I want in a pension?

You are not eligible to pay into a pension in the UK.

 And the other 40k? Poland's equivalents of ISAs are not great, they have very low max annual investment limits.

Poland wont recognise ISAs in the UK  as being tax free and any investments held in the UK would be closed as overseas holdings when it comes to Polish taxation.

My language skills are not good enough to deal with anything in Polish 😯

Is there an expat community group you can contact within Poland?

[Deleted User]

Pay off the mortgage. Then you have the property and maybe some money left to invest in a pension or something for your kids.
Can I ask how you have lived in Poland for 10 years but don't have a decent level of the language? Do they all speak English?

mikek75

dunstonh said:

I probably will speak with an IFA

Passporting permissions to residents within the EU ended with Brexit.   So, unless the IFA has set up an office within the EU to deal with EU clients then they wont be able to help you.

Should I put the 40k earmarked for retirement into a pension - can I choose exactly the funds I want in a pension?

You are not eligible to pay into a pension in the UK.

 And the other 40k? Poland's equivalents of ISAs are not great, they have very low max annual investment limits.

Poland wont recognise ISAs in the UK  as being tax free and any investments held in the UK would be closed as overseas holdings when it comes to Polish taxation.

My language skills are not good enough to deal with anything in Polish 😯

Is there an expat community group you can contact within Poland?

Ok so products & accounts for in UK residents are clearly out. Assuming there are products out there that fit the bill, does a pension fund sound better than just opening a broker account and buying the ETFs myself? It's the tax efficiency I'm thinking about. 
The expat community in Poland is a good shout. I'm sure there will be something.

mikek75

[Deleted User] said:

Pay off the mortgage. Then you have the property and maybe some money left to invest in a pension or something for your kids.
Can I ask how you have lived in Poland for 10 years but don't have a decent level of the language? Do they all speak English?

My in-laws generation didn't learn English but many my age did and younger ones all learn. Poland has many English language offices, it's a near shore hub of sorts. So I speak English at home and work, and Polish only occasionally 😁

Voyager2002

mikek75 said:

My in-laws generation didn't learn English but many my age did and younger ones all learn. Poland has many English language offices, it's a near shore hub of sorts. So I speak English at home and work, and Polish only occasionally 😁

By the sound of things you are likely to be able to find a young English-speaking IFA.

colsten

mikek75 said:

dunstonh said:

I probably will speak with an IFA

Passporting permissions to residents within the EU ended with Brexit.   So, unless the IFA has set up an office within the EU to deal with EU clients then they wont be able to help you.

Should I put the 40k earmarked for retirement into a pension - can I choose exactly the funds I want in a pension?

You are not eligible to pay into a pension in the UK.

 And the other 40k? Poland's equivalents of ISAs are not great, they have very low max annual investment limits.

Poland wont recognise ISAs in the UK  as being tax free and any investments held in the UK would be closed as overseas holdings when it comes to Polish taxation.

My language skills are not good enough to deal with anything in Polish 😯

Is there an expat community group you can contact within Poland?

Ok so products & accounts for in UK residents are clearly out. Assuming there are products out there that fit the bill, does a pension fund sound better than just opening a broker account and buying the ETFs myself? It's the tax efficiency I'm thinking about. 
The expat community in Poland is a good shout. I'm sure there will be something.

You are unlikely to find anyone on here who knows about tax-efficient investments in Poland. As has already been mentioned, you won't qualify for UK pension investments or ISAs, and you would almost certainly also have difficulties finding a UK platform which takes on non-UK residents for general investment accounts. You could try offshore in the Channel Islands or Gibraltar but if you plan to stay in Poland, your best bet is most likely an investment in Poland. 

maxsteam

mikek75 said:

A complicating factor is what I can do in the UK. Now that I don't have a property there I will no longer be a non-resident tax payer. What products are open to me? 

If you have a UK bank account, a UK NI number and an address in UK (a trusted friend or relative, perhaps), you may be able to access mainstream UK investment products except for ISAs, pensions and anything involving special tax status.

One mainstream broker who is definitely worth looking at is Degiro. They operate across Europe, including UK and Poland. Offshore brokers are best avoided if there are mainstream alternatives.

steampowered

Diversified ETFs are an excellent starting point. If in doubt, a simple stocks & shares account is a good idea.

Whether there are more efficient "wrappers" than a simple stock account in Poland (e.g. local equivalent of ISAs, pensions) I don't know.

mikek75

Thanks for the replies.
I'll certainly be using Degiro for anything I manage myself. 
I'll report back after speaking with an IFA (found through experts for expats).