Introducing Expat Wealth

The American Dream is evolving. While the US remains a land of opportunity and hard work, more people are heading to Europe in search of balance, lifestyle, and long-term quality of life. Understanding how US and international financial regulations differ can help Americans avoid costly landmines and make the most of their opportunities abroad.

We’re the Brits in America has rebranded to Expat Wealth, broadening the conversation beyond the American border. In this episode of Expat Wealth, Richard Taylor – dual UK/US citizen and Chartered Financial Planner – is joined by James Boyle, Lead Financial Planner and Partner at Plan First Wealth, to explain why the podcast is changing and what that means for listeners going forward.

Here’s what to expect from Expat Wealth:

1st Thursday of the month: Richard is joined by James Boyle, Partner at Plan First Wealth. Together, they take you behind the scenes as they are building a business that serves the expat community. Get advice for expats and retirement planning tips.

2nd & 4th Thursdays of the month: Expert interviews featuring top voices in cross-border tax, finance, estate planning, immigration, and more. Get expat tax advice from experts and learn more about your tax obligations.

3rd Thursday of the month: A global economic and investment roundup to help you stay ahead of the game with Brian Dunhill, founder of Dunhill Financial and American investment advisor based in the UK. Get cross-border financial planning advice to help you plan for a better retirement.

About Expat Wealth:

Expat Wealth is dedicated to helping ambitious US-connected expats and immigrants navigate those challenges — and thrive. Whether you’ve moved to the US for opportunity or are an American seeking adventure and growth abroad, our job is to equip you with the tools and insights you need to succeed.

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Expat Wealth is supported by Plan First Wealth. Plan First Wealth is a Registered Investment Advisor serving fellow expatriates and immigrants living across the US on matters such as retirement planning, investment management, tax planning and non-

 

About Richard:

Richard Taylor is a British expat, dual citizen (UK & US). Originally from Bolton, he now lives in Greenwich, CT, where Plan First Wealth has its head office.

As the firm’s leader, Richard launched Taylor & Taylor, now Plan First Wealth, and continues to fuel the firm’s growth. Richard is a Chartered Financial Planner (UK – CII) in addition to holding the IMC (CFA UK) and Series 65 (US – FINRA).

Connect with Richard on LinkedIn

Transcript:

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:00:00 – 00:00:34]

If you’re in search of the good life, you’re going to go to Europe or somewhere else, right? People go there in search of that. People come here to America for the opportunity. And America is uniquely challenging in that respect. It’s uniquely challenging and also uniquely punitive in that respect. I love working with expats. I’ve done this job in the uk, in the Middle east and in America. And what I’ve come to realize is. Hello, James. Welcome to our inaugural episode of Expat Wealth.

 

James Boyle:

[00:00:35 – 00:00:38]

Thanks for having us. It’s a whole new episode.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:00:38 – 00:01:16]

Yeah, it’s a whole new format. So if anyone is scratching their head right now, wondering what I’m talking about, let me explain. So you are not. You’re not in the wrong place. This was with the Brits in America, but it is now Expat Wealth. We are debuting a entirely new. Well, not. Not entirely new. There’s a lot we’re pulling over from Wither Bits in America, but have a new show name, a new format, so to speak, and a wider scope. This episode, which is not gonna be very long, is just gonna be introducing Expat wealth to you and explaining what it’s gonna be and also really why we’re doing this.

 

James Boyle:

[00:01:16 – 00:01:33]

Whole new changes, but we’re really excited. We. We always talk about, you know, a lot of this podcast is focused on growth, is focused on the questions we get from listeners. And this is in large part trying to meet that demand. Right? Trying to answer the questions that we see and we hear from our audience most often.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:01:33 – 00:03:09]

It’s evolving, Right? We’re new. Podcasting is relatively new, and we’re new to podcasting. And this really came about because I. I inhale podcasts. I listen to podcasts constantly. I love them. And I also, it turns out I enjoy podcasting, and I’ve learned an awful lot as well. And the feedback we’re getting suggests that people are so. People appreciate and enjoy it. So we really just want to. We want to expand on this. So what am I talking about? Right? We’re the Brits in America was bi weekly, and it was primarily focused on Brits living in America. Expat wealth is going to be weekly, and the scope is going to be much wider. It’s going to be for all what we’re calling us connected expatriates. So that’s obviously foreign nationals in. In America, people like me, but also other foreign nationals. Irish, South African, American, Australian, European, etc. Etc. But also Americans abroad. So US connected expats, foreign nationals in America. Not just Brits, foreign nationals and Americans abroad. And our core constituency will always be Brits because I’m a Brit. But 80% of what we talk about is relevant for, for all expats, including Americans abroad, because a lot of all the stuff we talk about applies to Americans overseas. And in some ways it’s even worse for Americans overse. So our core constituency will remain Brits, but we’re just, we’re just widening the scope because, because most what we talk about is relevant for them and because it’s interesting and this information needs to be out there.

 

James Boyle:

[00:03:09 – 00:03:48]

You know what else, Richard too is a growing portion of our audience are connected through the US having been here and then returned elsewhere. What I mean by that is, for example, a Brit who has come to the us, worked for maybe many years and now is going to move back to the UK potentially with citizenship or at the very least with some sort of portfolio investment assets, interest in the US And a lot of the problems we cover, as you mentioned, are just as relevant for them having returned to the, to the motherland, so to speak, and needing to continue to manage and maintain those cross border considerations or even.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:03:48 – 00:04:35]

We have a client who returned to Portugal. So then you have a Brit American living in Portugal with US assets, UK income streams and assets, and now Portuguese matters as well. So. Exactly. And look, I just want to, just want to spend a minute giving people how and why this came about. So first of all, I love working with expats, right. I’ve done this job in the uk, in the Middle east and in America. And what I’ve come to realize is I really, really enjoy working with experts, I should say. I’ve worked with business owners, I’ve worked with expats, I’ve worked with retirees, and I really, really, really appreciate expats. And I’ve come to believe that expatriates are a certain. And look, I know I’m not very objective here. You know, I am an expat myself, therefore I’m arguing I’m very biased.

 

James Boyle:

[00:04:35 – 00:04:40]

I can back you up here. I can back up. I’ll echo what you’re saying.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:04:40 – 00:04:49]

Okay, good, good. I find expats to be, in general ambitious, adventurous and open minded. And I like those sorts of people.

 

James Boyle:

[00:04:50 – 00:04:50]

Absolutely.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:04:50 – 00:06:07]

I also think immigration is phenomenally important to America. Like the. The what? There’s that famous stat about immigrants start more businesses, there’s more immigrant entrepreneurs than there are. And I think that that’s, that’s very much linked to what I just said. Expats are adventurous they are risk taking, they’re open minded, they’re not necessarily afraid of failure. And I think that’s, they’re all the key ingredients for entrepreneurship as well. So I don’t think it’s any surprise that immigrants start more businesses and are more entrepreneurial. And then I think coming to America, I’ve said this to you before, you don’t come to America for the good life, right? If you want, if you’re in search of the good life. And I know I’m talking from a, from a very, very, very privileged perspective here, I acknowledge that. But let’s just be clear. The, the sort of people we’re talking to and about are educated Western expats, right? They do have options. And if you’re in search of the good life, you know, La Dolce vita, you’re gonna go to Europe or somewhere else, right? People go there in search of that. People come here to America for the opportunity. People come here because they’re doing well at work. They get a tap on the shoulder and they said, listen, do you want to go and try your hand in America? And people say yes, because it’s still, it’s still the land of opportunity.

 

James Boyle:

[00:06:07 – 00:06:09]

The opportunity is enormous.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:06:09 – 00:07:32]

The opportunity is enormous. And it’s kind of, and it’s kind of, you’re given the opportunity to go to the biggest market with the best educated and the most successful people and see if you can hold your own. And ambitious people are attracted to that. And that’s how a lot of people end up in America. And America is a wonderful place. But it you come here, you’re much further from your family and friends than you are in Europe. You work hard, you get less vacation, and you’re striving. And I think that makes it even more important when you, when you look at the rationale of why people are coming here, what they’re coming for, I think it’s even more important, therefore, that they, their personal financial situation is taken care of. They don’t. They take advantage of the opportunities we talk about, but also they avoid the, the numerous, the myriad landmines that we’re always talking about. And America is uniquely challenging in that respect. It’s uniquely challenging and also uniquely punitive in that respect. There are landmines abound, and if you’re coming to America for the opportunity to make it, you don’t want to undermine it or jeopardize it by stepping on some of these landmines that can be avoided. And the podcast really started because I was having the same conversations one on one, on one with people. And that led into a blog that Len has morphed into a podcast, and now we’re expanding it.

 

James Boyle:

[00:07:32 – 00:08:13]

You know, it’s such a good point, and I think it echoes what you talked about. You know, why do we do this and why are we expanding and what drives us and what keeps things interesting. That complexity, that very complexity that you mentioned is, is a big part of it. Right. And, and our job, our remit, our mission with, with this podcast and the other, you know, content articles that we produce is to get that information out there because it’s not, it’s not easy. Right. To find good information in this space. And if we can help our target audience understand this complexity and then successfully navigate it, that’s job done. Right. That’s what we want to be doing. And that certainly keeps things interesting and keeps us and our audience engaged, or at least we hope so. Right?

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:08:14 – 00:11:07]

Yeah. For experts coming into America, I think it’s super important that they take advantage of opportunities and they avoid the line minds. They make the most of their opportunity here because they’re coming here to make it for the most part, for the opportunity. Now going the other way, though, why I want to deal with Americans overseas is partly to what you said before about the fact that we have clients like this. Our clients go back regularly, go back as US citizens, I should say, and then, and encounter these issues. But also what I was just saying about America being, it’s a land of hard work and I think more and more Americans are now waking up to expatriating and it’s almost laughable. I say that because everyone, everyone says Americans don’t go abroad. And there’s something like 7 or 8 million Americans abroad, right? There’s loads. Right. It’s just that there’s like something like 350 million odd Americans. So I guess percentage wise, it’s not that many, but there are lots and lot Americans abroad, but there are more and more. And this movement is snowballing. You know, it’s not just political this. The Americans looking to spend time temporarily or permanently outside of America is snowballing right now. And I can see why. So you’ve worked in America, you’ve grown up, and you’ve worked in America for 30 years. You’ve worked really, really hard, you’ve done really, really well. And the world seems small than ever. And going and spending 10 years or longer in Europe is very, very attractive. You know, then they are in search of the good life. You know, what’s that frame? What’s that I’ve quoted this 2 million times. America is a business. Japan is a nursing home. Europe is a museum, right? Think and think about it. If you’re working, if you’re striving, if you’re trying to achieve, where do you want to, where would you want to work? You want to be in a business, therefore you want to be in America. But that you, you’ve done that, you’ve succeeded, you’ve made it, you’ve saved, right? You’re looking at the twilight of your life, the final third. Would you rather spend it living in a business or living in a museum? And Europe is a living, breathing museum. And I think that makes Europe and other places, but particularly Europe extremely attractive to a certain sort of American right now in search of that La dolce vita. After 30 odd years of striving and working hard in America and all these issues that we’ve talked about and we talk about regular podcasts apply overseas only. I guess now the stakes are even higher because this is someone who’s amassed a certain amount of wealth and therefore penalties, fees. Mistakes can be much, much more costlier. And I want to, I want to support Americans looking overseas. I don’t want them to think, oh, it’d be love, it’d be nice to live in France one day and then not do anything about it. I want them to go and do it, but I want them to do it in such a way that they do so most financially advantageously, which is, as we always say, taking advantage of the opportunities and avoiding the landmines. And there are both. There are both.

 

James Boyle:

[00:11:07 – 00:12:08]

It’s something, it echoes back to something we talk to our clients about. I’m sure we’ve, we’ve covered on the podcast is shifting from that accumulation phase. Right. If we’re, if we’re thinking, if we’re mapping that to America as a business in this example, into that decumulation or distribution, Right. And really assessing a few things. Number one, what does that lifestyle look like? Right? And for a lot of people right now, and certainly to your point, Richard, we are trending upwards in this direction. Is Americans considering do I want to go back or expats, like I said earlier, who have come here and are now considering where do I really want to spend time in this twilight zone? And that commensurate added importance, priority urgency to begin protecting, you know, what you’ve built up, what you’ve spent time in that business working on and making sure you’re doing that in a way that’s cognizant of one, two, potentially three or more jurisdictions and tax codes and regulation systems. All those things that we need to be cognizant of, that we hope to cover in, in this. In this new format.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:12:08 – 00:13:37]

Yep. So that’s what we’re doing. Expat Wealth, a weekly show. So the formats are changing slightly. You and I will continue to do a monthly from the trenches show where we’re, we’re playing with the format but really we’re going to try and answer one question each week. You know, we, we talk to clients on a, on prospective clients on a. On a daily basis, almost get asked a lot of questions and we’re going to just try and pick the most personal one we think we’ve been asked in the last month and then answer that question to hopefully help other expats while whilst also talking about building this business and working with clients and, and just running some insight there. We’ll have a. I’m going to be doing a regular kind of like markets investment show with currently Brian Dunhill from Dunhill Financial, but might have other guests on as well to talk about this. Just not like necessarily what’s happening right now, but just like the broader themes of what, what’s going on as sound investments. And then the most popular show we have by far is the Ask An Expert where we get in a tax professional or a, you know, legal professional, someone in this space to come and talk about the topics that, that really matter for expats in America. So that’s going to be twice a month with the other shows. Next up, I’ve got Chris hall from PKF on to talk about UK pensions. I am recovering from the flu in this episode so I’m. I look and sound absolutely abysmal for anyone wondering. James and I are recording this on the 5th of January. We meant to re record this before Christmas but we both had the flu and it took us, it took us and everyone down hard.

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:38 – 00:13:40]

Completely unconnected too bizarrely.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:13:40 – 00:13:41]

Right.

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:41 – 00:13:50]

300 miles apart probably. And it just was a bad season for it. But we’ve bounced back and we’re ready for a successful 2026.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:13:50 – 00:14:15]

Yes, we’re back now so we’ll keep this one short. But Extract wealth is a new format. All things us Connected expats. We want to help us Connected expats. That’s foreign nationals in America and Americans overseas. We want them to thrive and that starts, I think by sharing this information and this, this knowledge and, and hopefully helping people avoid the landmines, take advantage of the opportunities and make the most of their opportunity.

 

James Boyle:

[00:14:16 – 00:14:33]

Absolutely. And part of this, you know, we want to say, and as we reflect on the new year here, thank you all for who have listened. And we really are excited to bring you all along in this, in this new phase of the journey. The theme is more episodes, more coverage, more experts and hopefully more engagement.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:14:33 – 00:14:33]

Right.

 

James Boyle:

[00:14:33 – 00:14:46]

We really enjoy that. So any questions, comments, send them through. We’re always happy to incorporate that into the, into the episodes as we go. We want to hear, you know, what kind of content our, our audience is thinking about. It’s really important to us.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:14:46 – 00:14:55]

Yeah, please. And ask us questions. We will, we will try and answer them on the show. Right. On that note, James, I’ll see you. I’ll see you soon.

 

James Boyle:

[00:14:56 – 00:14:56]

Sounds good.

 

Richard Taylor, Founder of Plan First Wealth:

[00:14:57 – 00:14:57]

All right.