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Siddalls? Anyone use them?


Richard
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Hi Folks,

As we are in the beginning stages of doing our due diligence on moving to France, we attended The France Show in London yesterday.  Very worthwhile, and very informative; sometimes a bit overwhelming.

We attended a short seminar on taxation, pensions, and health care, presented by Siddalls.   Has anyone used their financial advisory services?   If so, what was your experience?  Would you use them again? Were they expensive?   Should we stay clear of them?

When we left the seminar, our heads were about to explode!  :-)    It started to make us wonder if we could actually afford to live in France because of all the different taxation and health care coverage issues....   We mentioned this to a friend at the show (an exhibitor) and the comment came back "don't let them scare you....  they're trying to drum up business".   Whilst I agree with that statement to a certain extent, do we REALLY need a financial adviser to help us with the maze of important issues?

Many thanks!

Richard

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[quote user="Richard"]Hi Folks,

As we are in the beginning stages of doing our due diligence on moving to France, we attended The France Show in London yesterday.  Very worthwhile, and very informative; sometimes a bit overwhelming.

We attended a short seminar on taxation, pensions, and health care, presented by Siddalls.   Has anyone used their financial advisory services?   If so, what was your experience?  Would you use them again? Were they expensive?   Should we stay clear of them?

When we left the seminar, our heads were about to explode!  :-)    It started to make us wonder if we could actually afford to live in France because of all the different taxation and health care coverage issues....   We mentioned this to a friend at the show (an exhibitor) and the comment came back "don't let them scare you....  they're trying to drum up business".   Whilst I agree with that statement to a certain extent, do we REALLY need a financial adviser to help us with the maze of important issues?

Many thanks!

Richard

[/quote]

Hi,

    I have had SOME of my investments through Siddalls for well over 10 years, and have always found them friendly and helpful. Having said that, they are of course in business to make a profit, but I believe they feel they can get what they want by supplying a good service and building a reputation, unlike some of their competitors, of whom I have had some 2nd hand experience when trying to sort out problems for my  friends.

    As to whether you need an IFA,that depends on how much money you need to invest, how much you understand about investment products, and what you feel you need to make in interest and/or gains. I said I have SOME investments via Siddalls because there are two ways of accessing their services ; you can pay a set fee for a complete financial report and recommendations (including succession issues) or you can access investment products through their advice for which you don't pay them, but they get a commission from the product providers. I took the second course, and now with only a fraction of my assets under their management, I still get their advice when required, but over time, I have learnt to conduct my own investment plan (at much less cost) investing direct ; but to do this you must have some understanding of the options available.

      If , like many , you want a very secure investment , then the products you need are french life assurance plans , which allow you to invest in guaranteed € funds which are 100% safe and guaranteed. The price of security is that the return is between only 3.5% and 4%, but this is better than any french deposit accounts and these plans have many tax and inheritance advantages.If you want to put all your assets into such plans you don't really need an IFA--you can invest (and manage your plan) via internet, with no start-up fees and no commission paid to an agent.  These internet plans are run by several of the largest and well-reputed conventional assurance companies (Generali, Symphonis for example).If you want to make more then you get into the realm of risk, and without knowledge , you are probably best going to an IFA, and I recommend Siddalls.

     The succession advice which an IFA will also give you is also available free , and , I for one, have made a study of that subject(through personal interest due to a complicated family situation), and often give advice on forums , but ALWAYS advise people not to act on my advice without checking with a notaire.You can also learn a lot about taxation and health care on these forums.

     PM me if you have any questions .

     PS. I am not an agent.

   

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We had a consultation with them before we moved (free.)  They were only really interested if we were prepared to invest money via them.  As we had nothing but two decent pensions which we weren't prepared to move, and the capital to pay for our house, they got bored very quickly. I'm sure that they are good at what they do, as Parsnips says, but if you just want an advisor on the day to day ins and outs of healthcare, taxation, car registration, etc - the info' on here is pretty good and at the very least, will tell you where you can get good advice.

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I used them because at that stage I knew very little about French investment products, and I was still in the UK.  I too took out assurance vies, and are happy they they gave me the advice I needed.    I could have done the work myself, perhaps, but did not have the knowledge to know which package to chose at the time.  The adviser I used has since left, and since I am not atuned to his successor in quite the same way, it is perhaps fortunate that I do not need further advice from them at the moment!

They do seem well qualified and "insured" to give advice in both France and the UK, so you could probably do a lot worse.

Agreed, they do try to make it complicated, and yes, you could probably forget quite a lot of what they said, and still cope ok.

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You need to take in to account how much you have to invest and their fees.

We had a meeting with them when we thought we would be relocating to France sooner than we will (thanks to that nice M Sarkosy and his health reforms). We felt that their management fees to eat very much in to any interest.

If you are going to go the Assurance Vie route then I am led to understand that it is beneficial to start if whilst still UK resident.

Paul

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[quote user="PaulT"]

If you are going to go the Assurance Vie route then I am led to understand that it is beneficial to start if whilst still UK resident.

Paul

[/quote]

Yes, agree, that's why I was talking to them, and setting them up, before I left the UK, not so easy to do it from the UK, hence the use of Siddalls, who can do all the paperwork for you (believe me when in in a busy job, and the wrong side of the channel, that is worth paying for)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi - Short answer, Richard - I would not use Siddalls again. I have not had any reviews over almost ten years! It appears that once they receive their commission they have no further interest in the matter. Any discussion (eg in respect of the infamous CMI Isle of Man bonds) has been initiated by myself, maybe because this investment is seriously underperforming!

Speak as one finds.

UaG
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Thank you everyone for the valuable responses!  Very helpful indeed!

So, it looks like I'll be doing the research myself.  And this forum seems to be the best source of that information.....   Where I'm trying to figure out the best course of action is around the taxation in France, when to move money from the UK to France (and from the USA to France) without being heavily taxed on the movement, etc. etc.

So, I'll post another query in this section to see where we go from here.....

Many thanks All!!!

Richard

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Richard posted . . . "Where I'm trying to figure out the best course of action is around the taxation in France, when to move money from the UK to France (and from the USA to France) without being heavily taxed on the movement, etc. etc"

I can't see why you would be taxed on the movement of money - tax is paid on income or interest, and once you are resident in France you are taxed on all your worldwide income (and interest) so it doesn't matter where the money is.
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  • 11 months later...
Hi,

       Having had experience of several of the major IFA companies in France, I can say that Siddalls are better than the main alternatives.  Having said that, all the IFAs will steer you towards french life assurance plans as a main plank of your strategy.   This is a good way to go , but you can research for yourself online, and get better performance , and more importantly, much lower management fees and no entry fees (because there are no IFAs taking commissions).   Try "Fortuneo", Linxea" and "mesplacements.com" for a start.  There are others. 

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Richard

Apologies if my previous post I sent about an hour ago appears as I am now about to repeat what I said if I can remember it!

The gist was I also went to a similar presentation in London a year or so ago which I found both informative and very helpful but was also blown away.

However if you had to speak to anybody (French/German/Spanish etc) for an hour on The NHS and how to join, NI Contributions, UK Income Tax, UK Inheritance Tax, Various pension plans in the UK as well as UK investments would you expect them to immediately understand ? This from somebody that left the UK last year having spent 60 years of trying to understand the system.

What I do find mind blowing is you not wanting to take advice based on comments from a forum when they have not even answered your question. If not Siddalls then at least try somebody else although I am sure if you put anybodys name on a blog site somebody somewhere will criticise it.

 

 

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