The structure your financial life abroad was never given.
Most expats apply advice designed for someone who never left home. We specialise in the part their home-country advisor never covered: what happens when your pension is in one country, your income in another, and your assets in a third.
Three problems most advisors miss entirely
These are the structural gaps we find in almost every new client situation. They're not behavioural problems. They're architectural ones, and the fix is restructuring, not motivation.
Structure before selection
Which funds you hold matters far less than where you hold them. A well-chosen portfolio in the wrong legal wrapper, wrong jurisdiction, or wrong currency will consistently underperform a mediocre portfolio in the right structure. Most expat clients arrive with the right funds and the wrong architecture. We fix the architecture first.
This means reviewing legal wrappers, account domicile, tax residency alignment, and cross-border inheritance exposure. All before we discuss a single fund name.
Currency as managed exposure, not background noise
A senior professional earning in USD, spending in MYR, with a Dutch pension and plans to retire in Portugal is running four simultaneous currency exposures, none of which are being actively managed. This is not rare. It is the standard expat situation.
Currency risk for expats is not about speculation. It is basic financial housekeeping. We map every currency exposure in your financial picture and build a strategy that accounts for where you earn, where you spend, and where you intend to retire.
Cross-border pension restructuring
British expats face HMRC complexity: QROPS eligibility, SIPP consolidation, CETV decisions on defined benefit schemes, Class 2/3 NI gaps. French expats carry AGIRC-ARRCO portability questions. Dutch clients navigate AOW gap years. Germans handle Riester/Rürup transferability. The specific scheme varies by nationality. The pattern of inaction, and the cost of that inaction, does not.
DB pension transfer decisions are permanent. Once transferred, the guaranteed income is gone. We work through the full picture: health, dependants, other income, retirement jurisdiction, and inflation expectations. Only then do we make a recommendation. The decision may well be to leave the pension where it is. We will tell you honestly either way.
Flat-fee engagements for every stage
Not every situation requires full portfolio management. These fixed-fee packages exist for clients who need clarity, a second opinion, or a structured review, without committing to an ongoing advisory relationship.
A 90-minute diagnostic session to map your situation and identify the most urgent structural gaps. Suitable for expats who need a clear picture before making any decisions.
- 90-minute structured diagnostic session
- Review of current pension, investment, and tax position
- Written summary and priority action list
- Currency and jurisdiction exposure mapping
A comprehensive cross-border audit of your full financial picture, with prioritised written recommendations and a session to walk through them together.
- Full cross-border financial audit
- Pension analysis (all nationalities, all scheme types)
- Tax residency and treaty review
- Currency exposure assessment
- Investment structure and wrapper analysis
- Estate planning flag review
- Written report and debrief session
Full audit plus hands-on execution. We handle the restructuring, open the right accounts, initiate any pension transfers, and set up ongoing management infrastructure.
- Everything in Full Review
- Account opening and product setup
- Pension transfer coordination
- Investment structure implementation
- Ongoing management setup and handoff
Portfolio management for complex lives
For clients who want full ongoing management, Bratu Capital operates on a straightforward AUM model. No trail commissions. No product-linked incentives. No hidden fees that appear in year two.
We manage globally diversified, tax-aware portfolios built around Irish-domiciled accumulating UCITS funds, the structurally correct vehicle for non-US persons who may change tax residency and have no appetite for US estate tax exposure.
The minimum for ongoing management is $250,000 in investable assets. If you're building toward that, the flat-fee packages above are the right starting point.
Check your UK State Pension entitlement
For British expats with gaps in their National Insurance record, voluntary Class 2 or Class 3 contributions often represent one of the best risk-adjusted returns available. The numbers make the argument clearly in the majority of cases. Run your numbers first.
Find out what you're actually dealing with
A planning session is 30 minutes. We look at your situation, explain what we see, and tell you honestly whether there's a structural problem worth fixing, and whether we're the right people to fix it.
Book a Planning SessionDisclosure: bratucapital.com does not provide financial, investment or tax advice. It is specially designed to provide its users with general information. It does not give individual or specific advice on which products or services are the most appropriate for an individual’s particular circumstances. We may from time to time publish content on this site that has been created by affiliated or unaffiliated contributors. Bratu Capital is a trading name of NEBA Financial Solutions who are authorised by the Labuan Financial Services Authority & Regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
