Plan First, Invest Second: How Globally Mobile Brits Actually Retire Well

For many British expats in America, the idea of moving back to the UK can start as a distant possibility, then quickly become a serious life decision. But repatriation is rarely simple, especially when your wealth, tax position, pensions and long-term plans are split across two countries.

In this From the Trenches episode of Expat Wealth, Richard Taylor, Chartered Financial Planner and founder of Plan First Wealth, and business partner James Boyle are joined by guest Miles Sharp of Fawley Wealth to discuss why more Brits in America are thinking about returning home and what they need to understand before making the move.

Together, they explore the emotional pull of the UK, the changing political and financial climate in the US, and why expat life is often more changeable than people expect.

Richard, James and Miles discuss why many people arrive in America thinking they will only stay for a few years, only to find themselves decades later with UK pensions, ISAs, US retirement accounts, green cards, property and tax obligations that now need careful cross-border planning.

The conversation also looks at some of the biggest financial planning risks facing British expats and internationally mobile families, including green card exit tax exposure, PFIC issues, neglected UK pensions, ISA problems, annuities, trusts and the challenges of returning to the UK as a US citizen.

Richard, James and Miles also discuss the cultural differences between British and American attitudes to work, investing, retirement and advice from America’s risk-on mindset and strong work ethic, to the British instinct to delay decisions or rely on property and how those differences can shape long-term financial outcomes.

Whether you are a Brit living in America, planning a move back to the UK, managing pensions and investments across borders, or simply trying to build a financial plan that reflects an international life, this episode offers a candid look at the realities, risks and opportunities of cross-border wealth planning.

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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-US asset management.

https://planfirstwealth.com/

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Expat Wealth is affiliated with Plan First Wealth LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Plan First Wealth.

Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Plan First Wealth does not provide any tax and/or legal advice and strongly recommends that listeners seek their own advice in these areas.

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:

James Boyle:

[00:00:00 – 00:00:25]

There’s this inertia, there’s this momentum of living in this environment for 45, 50 years, working hard your entire life. You get to 70, 72, 75, some cases, and you go, well, I don’t really know what my life would look like outside of work, so I’m just going to keep working. And then, you know, the classic story of like, you get the retirement dinner and key and three months later, you know, they’re laying you out in the slab. It’s adventures, it’s travel, it’s, you know, spending time with grandkids. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:00:25 – 00:00:28]

It’s all those things under this administration. Yeah, you’re done. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:00:28 – 00:00:31]

I was going to mention, in this climate in particular, you do not want to be mess. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:00:31 – 00:00:33]

Still wouldn’t be like, you don’t want. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:00:33 – 00:00:34]

To take that risk. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:00:34 – 00:00:38]

Yeah. Being a referee for FIFA apparently is. Is right in the country. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:00:38 – 00:00:38]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:00:38 – 00:00:41]

For being that. So, yeah, it’s. It’s absolutely insane. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:00:41 – 00:02:52]

You know, I also have this other theory, right. So I think America is land of opportunity. There are challenges or difficulties. Yes, yes, yes. But America is a land of opportunity and I think people come here to make it. There’s this wonderful saying, America is a business. Europe is a. Europe is a museum. Japan is a nursing home. It is risk on have a. Keep trying, keep striving. Whereas Europe is a museum. Right. It’s a completely different way of life. 

Welcome to Expat Wealth, a Plan first wealth podcast dedicated to helping ambitious expatriates in America and Americans overseas thrive. I’m your host, Richard Taylor, and Plan first wealth is the business I founded and run today. And we work with successful expatriates, immigrants and internationally minded Americans to make the most of opportunity and avoid the expat landmines. First, a quick disclaimer. While Plan First Wealth LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of Plan First Wealth. Information presented is for educational purposes only. Now, if you aren’t already receiving our emails, please go to our website, www.planfirstwealth.com and sign up there. If you. It’s free and you’ll be notified every time we drop a new episode and so much more. Okay, let’s get back to this week’s show. Welcome back to a From the Trenches episode of Expat wealth, where myself and my Plan first wealth partner, partner James Boyle bring you behind the scenes as we build this business and work with our expatriate clients so we have something a little bit different for you this time because today we are joined by our friend and competitor, Mr. Miles Sharp of Fawley Wealth. Yes, it may seem a little odd that we are having a direct competitor on this show, but Miles is a friend. And as we have gotten to know one another, we have come to realize that we are very philosophically aligned. We approach this business and working with clients in a very similar way. And I thought it might be fun for us to get together on air to compare notes. So without further ado, let’s get into it. Hi, Miles, welcome to Expat Wealth. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:02:52 – 00:02:54]

Thanks, Richard. Great to be here. Thanks for having me. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:02:54 – 00:02:57]

Thank you, thank you. And thank you for coming down to New York for this. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:02:57 – 00:02:58]

Yeah, it’s great. I always love being in the city,. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:02:58 – 00:03:02]

Which is World cup mad and Nick’s mad madness. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:03:02 – 00:03:03]

 

James Boyle:

[00:03:03 – 00:03:13]

We were chatting a bit pre show and I’ve gotten I think 12 to 15 emails from Amtrak warning me about the travel from Penn Station today. So hopefully we all get out of it unscathed. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:03:13 – 00:03:22]

But I love it though. It’s cities alive right now. The Knicks thing is brilliant. Yeah, Walking around seeing Scots in their, in their kilts and yeah, lots of French T shirts. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:03:22 – 00:03:24]

Lots of French today. Yeah, yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:03:24 – 00:03:28]

Great times, right, Miles, introduce yourself, please. But don’t do too good a job. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:03:30 – 00:04:10]

I’ll sell you guys. So Miles Sharp got to know you guys really well. The last few months. It’s been fantastic. So forlue wealth, direct competitor to you guys. We’re an independent RAA specializing in the cross border space. British people typically living in the US Also repatriation. So Brits moving back after quite a while, having lots of contacts with Americans back home as well. So, yeah, independent we plan first, which is a nice segue for you guys. Totally believe that’s the way forward. So that’s our ethos and then basically using factor based investment models to plug in on the back end. But tax optimization, navigating the tax treaty, all that good stuff that you guys know very well. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:10 – 00:04:20]

All right, I’ll tell you, we’re going to start. Let’s start with repatriation. So put a pin in that for a second, but also tell us, tell us your story. Like we just popped up in America out of nowhere where, where, you know, where did it all begin? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:04:20 – 00:04:34]

Um, so I actually worked for a US asset manager back in 2001, which obviously is like centuries ago at this point, but yeah, that was in London. They were starting their business, originally based in San Francisco, had a blast working for them. It was all investment management, quite sales centric. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:34 – 00:04:38]

But you worked for a US investment manager in, in London. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:04:38 – 00:04:38]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:38 – 00:04:39]

Oh, did you? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:04:39 – 00:04:45]

Oh, yeah. So I worked for them, so it was just brilliant. I mean, I went over to San Francisco for probably eight months. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:45 – 00:04:46]

Who is that? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:04:46 – 00:04:46]

Fisher. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:04:46 – 00:04:50]

Oh, you have. Oh God, sorry, I didn’t know that. Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, got it. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:04:50 – 00:05:27]

Yeah. So it was tremendous, great experience. Got to know their investment expertise, which obviously, you know, I think is very good. But ultimately decided around 2009 that I wanted to do my own thing, particularly planning, because I’d never done planning. Wanted to get up to speed with it. So joined St. James’s Place, set up a practice there. Perfect timing around the credit crisis. So it was, it was all challenging to start that business and grow it, particularly as you know, I didn’t have clients to bring to the table. So did that on your own then or were you? Totally on my own, yeah. One and a half bed flat and Putney working from the half bed. Well, my wife used to go to work and Ernest pay the rent. But no, it was great. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:05:27 – 00:05:28]

I’ve been there. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:05:28 – 00:05:29]

You know how that works. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:05:29 – 00:05:30]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:05:30 – 00:05:45]

So loved it. And then did that for about 10 years. Built practice, bought some books of clients. Yeah, very supportive culture at sjp. Know lots of great people too. And after about, well, Covid, my wife said we’re moving to the U.S. i. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:05:45 – 00:05:47]

Said, okay, because your wife is American. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:05:47 – 00:06:15]

Yeah, she’s from America. We met in London. She worked for a bank in London and we stayed in London, had three kids and we find ourselves in New York State. So she’s from Rochester, New York, Western New York. She’s way up there. And yeah, we moved there about five years ago. So that’s where I ended up. Friends moved, couldn’t do the job, had to give up my practice in the UK so started the expat cross border wealth in 2023 officially. So yeah, and here we are. We are. Yeah, and here we are. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:06:15 – 00:06:28]

Right, well, I’ll tell you what, let’s. You mentioned something then you mentioned repatriation. So let’s just, let’s start there. Right, so let’s just talk about all things like Brits in America, financial planning, but also, you know, personal. You and I are Brits in America and there’s a lot. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:06:28 – 00:06:29]

I’m outnumbered today. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:06:31 – 00:07:14]

You bring different perspectives. We are finding expat. Sorry, repatriation has gone up like a hundredfold. Yeah, I’ve been doing this in America now for nearly 11 years and hardly any Clients went back, honestly, ever, occasionally, obviously it happened. And then suddenly we’re getting all these inquiries, just constant stream of people who are just, like, going back. I think part of it is just the people we work with are just reaching that age. But I think a lot of it is. I think it’s political environment and also the change in the UK rules have made it easier to go back. And from a tax perspective, is it. So this is what you’re. This is challenged with what you’re finding as well? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:07:14 – 00:07:45]

That’s exactly it. I think, number one, it’s aligning people reaching maybe 50s, 60s, perhaps their politics is a certain way and they don’t want to stay in the US for whatever reason. And then they just say, hey, the tug back home is big, whether it’s relatives, elderly, parents, that’s priority one, but priority two is tax. So what do they want to do? Well, maybe keep the passport in the us, but ultimately get residency in the uk. And these new FIG foreign income and gains rules have become a game changer, I think. And we could talk more about them,. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:07:45 – 00:08:04]

You know, that you talk about the tug, which you need to be careful. Edit. What kind of podcast is this? The. The. The pull. Let’s go. I’m not sure that’s any better, but the, the pull back home, I. I find I have that. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:08:04 – 00:08:04]

Yes. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:08:04 – 00:08:36]

And I don’t think it ever goes. And my life is here, though. My family’s here, my business is here, My kids are American first, but I. I really, I feel that. And I think part of it is that I don’t go back very often. I’ve got young kids and I just. I don’t want the. The drama of the effort, frankly, of, like, running around the UK with them yet. But I definitely feel that as well. I think that grows over time. And I’ve had clients who, when we’ve taken them on, they’ve said, never leaving, never, never. And then one day things just change and they’re like, right, I’m off. Yeah, it’s like a switch goes off. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:08:36 – 00:08:37]

Yeah, exactly. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:08:37 – 00:08:43]

I don’t think you can ever say never as an expat. Things just like, life is inherently changeable, as exciting, and sometimes it’s a bit exhausting. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:08:43 – 00:08:45]

Yeah, I totally agree. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:08:45 – 00:08:59]

It’s not just that, and I know we’ve talked about this, this has become a kind of a theme of the podcast the last year or so. But it’s not just the sheer number of inquiries we’re getting of people who are interested in going back. It’s cases Client cases, actual cl. Been working with for, for years now, who are on the margin. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:08:59 – 00:09:00]

Right. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:09:00 – 00:09:13]

Who are kind of in this gray area of am I going to go back or no. You know, kind of leaning one way, you talk to them one year, next year they’re, they’re leaning the other. A lot of those cases now are, are feeling like they’re, they’re much more doing it. Yeah, they are doing. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:09:13 – 00:10:21]

Yeah. Something is tipping them from talk into action. Yeah. I also have this other theory, right. So I think America is land of opportunity. There are challenges or difficulties. Yes, yes, yes. But America is a land of opportunity and I think people come here to make it. And certainly compared to Europe and the uk, there is just a wealth of opportunity, financial, career, people get the tap on the shoulder to come to America. And it’s just, you kind of feel like you just gotta. I think people feel like obligated to have a go, right, and come and make it and try and change their lives financially. But America is, There’s this wonderful saying, America is a business, Europe is a, Europe is a museum, Japan is a nursing home. And I think there’s some real. America is, is, you know, is work hard mentality, it is risk on, have a go, keep trying, keep striving. Whereas Europe is, is a museum. Like it’s a completely different way of life. And I think people come to America and they, and they, they try and make it. And that means working hard and being bold and it’s kind of, and striving, particularly in an area like this. Yeah. Like you’re striving and it’s kind of exhausting. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:10:21 – 00:10:21]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:10:21 – 00:10:50]

And I think people burn out. And then you look, you look over the Atlantic, you look to the uk, to Europe, and there is just a completely different mentality, a completely different way of life. And the UK is more like America than the rest of Europe. Europe in particular. You know, I think France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, their approach to, to life, to what makes a good life, is completely different. And I think that becomes much more appealing. You’ve made it, you’ve come here, you, you’ve, you’ve ticked it off, you’ve raised a family, you’re knackered. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:10:50 – 00:10:50]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:10:51 – 00:11:14]

You know, you’re aware, you’re aware of your finite because as you get older, you definitely become much more aware that time is limited and you see people get taken from us unexpectedly and that, that brings it home. And I think that calling the Dolce Vita, the change in, the change in, I don’t know, pace with a load of money in the bank becomes very attractive. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:11:14 – 00:11:52]

Yeah, I totally agree. I think ultimately you’ve got a lot of rising costs here as well. Like living in New York City is almost unaffordable unless you’ve got a certain job that’s replicated around the country regardless of where you live. And I think you’ve got that moving into 60s, you’ve got healthcare, Medicare, all that good stuff and it just does not fit the bill for the average person. So what do you do, you know, do you continue working, you know, do you do a summer retirement? A lot of people do. Or do you move back to your home country or home domicile, whatever you want to call it? You know, NHS in the UK is not great, but you can get private health care and you know, for pretty affordable prices if you’ve got a good pension. So, you know, there’s definitely good options. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:11:52 – 00:12:01]

The healthcare thing is such a double edged sword. If I hurt myself, right. I’ve hurt my finger skiing, it’s not getting better. I know I’ll go back to this doctor and I’ll have an MRI within. Within like two or three days. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:12:01 – 00:12:01]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:12:02 – 00:12:05]

Something’s going on. My family in the UK right now and they can’t even get an appointment. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:12:05 – 00:12:05]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:12:05 – 00:12:18]

At the doctor to then get an mri. It’s just. Yeah. It does seem like it is a double edged sword. Like on the one hand, financially it’s a nightmare here, but I know something goes wrong, I’m going to get good care. Whereas in the uk, my family’s struggling. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:12:19 – 00:12:40]

Yeah. Grass store is green. All right. And I think a lot of people, I’ve had relatives move home back from. Well, we’ve got a cousin who’s basically from Bruce and Edmonds and the wife’s from Rochester. And I think ultimately they move back thinking it’ll be just like it was 25 years ago. And I think they’ve realized that it’s not quite there. Yeah. UK has its struggles as well, but I think ultimately there are pros and cons in every place. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:12:40 – 00:12:47]

I think you’ve heard Right. So I left the UK nearly 15 years ago. The UK I left is not the UK. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:12:47 – 00:12:47]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:12:47 – 00:13:03]

That’s not specific to the UK. That’s a universal thing. But where, if you leave somewhere and you go back 10 years later, 15 years later, it’s not the same. Yeah. And especially the UK since then we’ve had Brexit, we’ve had about 17,000 Conservative prime ministers. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:13:03 – 00:13:03]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:13:03 – 00:13:09]

We’re going to have about 18 labor prime ministers. Could it have. Could be we could have a Farage. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:13:09 – 00:13:09]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:13:10 – 00:13:13]

Prime Minister, Vice, you know, like, it’s not the same country. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:13 – 00:13:13]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:13:13 – 00:13:13]

And everyone. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:13:14 – 00:13:18]

I mean, I’m viewing from afar right now, frankly. Everyone just seems a bit pissed off. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:13:18 – 00:13:19]

It’s division. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:19 – 00:13:20]

Yeah. Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:13:21 – 00:13:22]

I guess you could say the same thing about here. Right. Couldn’t. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:13:22 – 00:13:28]

The way he could. Yeah, yeah, it’s the same. What do you think, James, about the comparison? It’s. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:13:28 – 00:14:18]

It’s one of those things where. Well, what’s that saying? I was going to try to quote poetry and I’ll probably do a bad job of doing it, but you can never go home. Isn’t that like, I don’t know, wall women or something? But. But it’s true. And I think you’ll see people increasingly face that reality as they go back. But the question, I guess, is, can we potentially get the best of both worlds? Can we spend the time in the U.S. build up the pension, build up those retirement accounts, make more money in a lot of cases, and then capitalize on what might be a more relaxed pace of life or being closer to family, elderly relatives, whatever it may be. And I think the audience that we talk to, that this podcast attracts are willing to take that risk. Right. They’re globally mobile, they’re adventurous, they’re excited to try new things. And it’s, you know, would you regret not trying it? Right. Or not doing it? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:14:18 – 00:14:47]

So you just treated something. I’ve got a friend who moved here about 18 months ago on expat contract from the UK and they came here, they’ve got a very juicy expat contract and they’ve got friends in. They’re around our age with kids at the same. Same school, and they thought, like, compared to what they’re gonna make in the uk, like, wow, yeah, yeah, we’ve made it. Yeah, we’re gonna save all this money and then go back and, you know, and then change our lives. And 18 months in America, in the Northeast. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:14:47 – 00:14:48]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:14:48 – 00:15:02]

And the cost of living and the travel they’ve done, they’re like, yeah, we’ve not saved a penny. Haven’t saved me anything. And they cannot be on an expat contract for so long. So I think they’re getting a little bit like, right, are we. What are we going to do here? We should live at large or are. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:15:02 – 00:15:02]

We going to save? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:15:02 – 00:16:22]

See the. A word of caution. Yeah, yeah, Right. If you’re going back, in our experience, most people going back as US Citizens, if you’re not going back as a US Citizen, Well, I say, you know, I Say, well, let’s start. Right, so if you go, if you’re leaving the US and you’re going back to the uk, you’re either going back, you’re on a visa, which very, very rarely happens. We have one client, it’s going to happen too. But they’re your best. If you’re on a visa, that, that’s the best way because you can make a clean break. Yeah, you’ve got no exit. If you’ve been out in the UK for 10 years, you know, apply for this new regime in the UK where for four years you can exclude foreign gains and income. So if you are leaving on a visa, you might have some fantastic tax planning opportunities. Fantastic. Like once in a lifetime tax planning opportunities. But in my experience that’s almost no one. In my experience, everyone is leaving is either a long term green card holder and they have to be super careful or there are US citizens. So let’s just drill down a little bit, Just give people a word of warning. If you are on a green card and you’re going to leave the US and live elsewhere, you have to be super careful. You have to be super careful because you’re probably, if you’ve been here for seven or eight years, a long term permanent resident and if you have a net worth more than 2 million, and there’s some other, there’s some other criteria, but if you have a net worth more than 2 million. Global assets. Global assets, you are going to be subject to the exit tax and that tax can be devastating, particularly when it. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:16:22 – 00:16:27]

Comes to illiquid assets. Right. So if you’ve got pensions in the uk, you’ve got property, you’ve got real estate. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:16:27 – 00:16:27]

Business. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:16:28 – 00:16:56]

They’re business. Absolutely. It’s almost as if you’ve liquidated them, but you haven’t yet. Right. So you suffer this exit tax, potentially. There are planning opportunities here. Right. We always, I ring this bell all the time. You need to have a Runway to plan properly. Right. We say at the very least, give yourself a year, 12 months. Now the unfortunate reality is people come to us and they say, I want to leave in six months. Now there’s still more you can do. Right. The best time to start planning is, is, was a year ago. Now the next best. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:16:56 – 00:17:00]

But you need a year as well, James. Because our experiences, people have got so much going on. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:17:00 – 00:17:01]

Yes. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:17:01 – 00:17:15]

Even if they give us a year, they’ve got too much going on. So we don’t really have a year because you have time is so crowded out with other priorities and then the clock is Ticking and ticking and ticking. But you also want to make sure you spend a couple of tax years. So it might be even longer than a year. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:17:16 – 00:17:50]

A couple key points. Having or holding a green card for one day in a calendar year. We always mention this is worth highlighting. One day in a tax year in the US Counts that entire calendar year as one of your tax years against the recommendation or the requirement. So sometimes people come to us and say, well, I got that in December of 2020 or whatever. It may be thinking that, well, now that resets my timer, I get an extra year. Effectively the answer, the reality is no, that that counts as a full year against your, your residency requirement. So that’s something that catches people out. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:17:51 – 00:17:57]

But the real danger we found with green cards is people don’t realize they have to give them up. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:17:57 – 00:17:59]

So they’re not even aware of the exit this thing. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:17:59 – 00:18:07]

Yeah. But they also, they also think that they can just leave and a green card will expire. Yeah. And that’s them off the hook. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:18:07 – 00:18:07]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:18:07 – 00:18:43]

I’ve had people say I might keep it just in case I want to come back. Not realizing that, yeah, if they’re out for six months or so, it’s certainly a year. It’s going to just be. It’s just going to get basically pulled from them. And they don’t realize that this does not. Unless they actively give up their green card and notify the IRS, they will still be considered a U.S. taxpayer. And this means that if they leave and don’t take these steps, these obligations are just going to be mounting. So you can have years. When the IRS was expecting you to file tax returns, you weren’t. Oh, and by the way, you also might be split up to this exit tax. It can get incredibly ugly. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:18:43 – 00:19:05]

Yeah. Very messy. I work with a client recently, is actually a good friend, just adamant, doesn’t want a US passport. Yeah. He’s married to American, been here 25 years. American kids, very patriotic to UK doesn’t want that passport. I don’t want to be a taxpayer forever, I’ve said. But you’ve had a green card for over eight years. So that’s the problem in itself. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:05 – 00:19:05]

Right. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:05 – 00:19:21]

So we’re now at a point where when you speak to the good accountants, when you speak to us, we can impart that advice. But getting your head around citizenship and also having kids that are linked to the US they’re probably going to stay here. So you’re going to want to travel to and fro. Having that passport is gold. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:21 – 00:19:24]

What’s the outcome there have you got him to. So you sense. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:24 – 00:19:37]

Yeah, half, actually. I’m actually just eligible for a US passport, so I’m. I’m kind of coaching him through that process now. So we’re doing it together, which is quite cool. But I’ve got other friends as well who have been in the US for years. Same, Same boat. Just won’t do it. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:37 – 00:19:40]

They don’t realize they’re one. Like they’re on dui. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:40 – 00:19:41]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:41 – 00:19:42]

From getting kicked out. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:42 – 00:19:43]

Absolutely. Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:43 – 00:19:46]

And I’m not saying. I don’t mean like getting Absolutely. Habit. I mean having three beers. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:46 – 00:19:46]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:46 – 00:19:49]

Which is one too many. Getting around it. And under this administration. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:49 – 00:19:49]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:19:49 – 00:19:50]

You’re done. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:19:50 – 00:19:53]

I was going to mention, in this climate in particular, you do not want to be messed. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:53 – 00:19:54]

Don’t want to be like. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:19:54 – 00:19:55]

You don’t want to take that risk. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:19:56 – 00:19:59]

Being a referee for FIFA apparently, is. Is right. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:19:59 – 00:20:00]

You can’t get in the country. Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:20:00 – 00:20:02]

For being that. So, yeah, it’s. It’s absolutely insane. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:20:02 – 00:20:27]

You won green cards. I’d be super, super careful. Yeah. We had a client, right. Who basically just didn’t. Nothing we could say. She left the us, gone back to the UK and was on a green card. And we just kept warning, right. We kept saying, yeah, this, this is. Could be a problem. And she got very lucky on the way back into the us, she nearly got stopped and what? She got stopped. They let her in, but they said, next time I’m gonna yank this from you. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:20:27 – 00:20:28]

Right. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:20:28 – 00:20:33]

I would not want to be risking that, like back home or, you know, oh, my goodness. Have that hanging over you. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:20:33 – 00:20:42]

Yeah. And if you’re a US citizen going back, you’re going back as a US citizen, you need to be aware that things are going very different for you in the uk. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:20:42 – 00:20:43]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:20:43 – 00:21:30]

You know, everything you did before you left financially is going to be a lot harder or not not applicable. You’re still going to have to do US tax returns. Tax years are not going to match up and that’s going to be a headache. You are going to struggle with UK banking because you’re a US citizen. You ISAs are basically not really an option. Maybe cash ISA, but investment ISAs are not an option. Most investments in pound portfolios are not really going to be an option for you. You know, is there more, you know, trusts. Be incredibly careful of trust from a reporting and a tax position. You know, double taxation on trust is rampant. If it’s. If it’s not addressed, it’s going to be very, very different and you’re probably going to have to Pay a cross border tax preparer to help you. And. And a good UK US tax preparer is going to cost you at least a couple of grand each year, if not more. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:21:31 – 00:21:36]

Yeah. The classic one I find is isis. So build up a big steam of ISA accounts. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:21:36 – 00:21:36]

Great. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:21:36 – 00:21:51]

In the uk, move to the us, do the right thing, you know, Pfix, which we’ll come on to. I think ultimately they think, oh, I’m going to move back, I’m going to go back to the uk. That is support for this could be so powerful for me because they think they’ll be done with the us and obviously it’s just a big hangover. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:21:51 – 00:21:51]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:21:51 – 00:22:06]

You know, what’s the right move? Well, if they can see the future, which is tough, you know, 20 years out, maybe they don’t know they’d want to move back. But ultimately getting rid of that ISA portfolio is probably the right move. It’s just getting that having someone coach you through it, I think is the key thing. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:22:12 – 00:22:51]

So now we’re talking about people coming to America, right? Yeah. Come to America. I know what I said before about you. This is your opportunity. People, in my experience, no one says, right, I’m moving to America forever. Yeah. Everyone’s like, right, I’m gonna do. I’m gonna do two years, see how it is. And if I like it, if I’m doing well, stick around. Well, as we all know, after two years, you’re just getting your feet under the table. And generally if you know, before you two years up, if you’ve done and you’re out of here, if after two years, if you’re still here at two years, you’re probably going to be here in 20 years. But because they come with that mentality, they think, right, all this UK stuff, pensions, ISAs, I’ll just deal with that later. Yeah. And then they come to us in 20 years time. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:22:51 – 00:22:52]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:22:52 – 00:23:38]

In their mid-50s, thinking about retirement planning. And you’ve got three UK pensions that have maybe not been reported, certainly have been neglected. Yeah. And could be much, much, could be worth much, much more. But what you might also have is 100, 200, 300 grand in an ISA that is very problematic because it’s in pfix, which for anyone listening is non US collective investments punitively taxed in the us. So you’ve got a reporting requirement that wasn’t met, so now you’re in non compliance, maybe for 20 years. And you’ve also got punitive tax on any gain. So people are thinking, I’ve got 300 grand in a tax free ISA here and we’re like, actually that’s 50% of that’s going to get taxed as gain. And also by the way, you got this massive reporting problem you need to fix. That’s a hard conversation to have. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:23:38 – 00:24:05]

Oh, it’s huge. And that’s the problem. When we’re engaging with those sorts of clients. You’re not engaging in a positive way. Yeah, yeah. You’re like Stephen King, you know, coming with the grim reaper. But yeah, and it is a challenge. I often find going, doing it together with a really highly regarded cross border accountant is the right move because you, you can coach them and then get the, the real sort of tax advice, the nitty gritty from the accountant just to rubber stamp your, your comments. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:24:05 – 00:25:36]

Right, I’ve got a call tomorrow. I need to be careful because you, you talk about clients. This podcast is about trying to share, working, building this business, working with clients. But also we don’t want to like, you know, you don’t want to cross any boundaries. Yeah. I’m meeting with a relatively new client tomorrow and this client came to us through a pension channel. So his pension only. Really great guy, really great guy. Be very successful in America. I’ve got a, a meeting with him to really drill down into stuff tomorrow and he sent me a summary of, of his other stuff. Basically what I’m seeing is classic what we’re talking about. There’s multiple advisors in there I think and there’s just a whole load of stuff including oh, the UK stuff is like in pounds. Thoughts of your world. I’m just seeing there’s just this prefix here and the prefix that I’m assuming he’s held since he before he moved here which means they’ve been held for 20 odd years. And I’m, and I’m, it’s weighing on me like how do I approach this conversation? Like how do I say? Like you’ve, you’ve got three people. Looks like you’ve got three different advisors here. U.S. pension, someone else in the U.S. someone else who got you all this stuff. But the problem is you’ve really got no strategy like a good cross. A good cross border person would have one not got this in the first place or to help you clear this up years ago. Yeah, like what, what’s how. But I also don’t want to just go in there and just like start lobbing bombs. Yeah, it’s hard. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:25:37 – 00:26:25]

It’s maybe one of the most challenging parts of a job I think especially being in this space is there’s this forever tension between the reality that we know. Right. The tax laws, the complexities versus this sense sometimes of finding out about these things and thinking, well, it’s not fair or I didn’t mean to. There’s no. We know that. Right. There was no. I’ve never taken the withdrawal. How many times have we heard that, oh, they haven’t done anything. Which is a perfectly valid. Would be a logical position. Right. But we know it’s just unfortunately not the case. So it’s, it’s, I think, to the extent we can, focusing on the solutions. Right. Of saying, look, this is unfortunate. And yes, you’re right, if it had been addressed 10, 15, 20 years ago, you would have been better off. But this is the issue. We need to solve it now. Right. Who do we need to bring in? Who do we need to work with to make sure that you get this issue resolved and potentially more importantly, that it’s not hanging over you. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:26:25 – 00:26:46]

Heading to a top 100%. Yeah, but sometimes, James, you don’t even get there. Sometimes people just, just don’t want to hear it. And I’m not saying this guy’s one of those, by the way, but they just. So I also see three advisors again. Sometimes there’s people truly believe that is the smart approach rather than having more diversifying and diversity. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:26:47 – 00:26:48]

Yeah. Save money. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:26:48 – 00:27:10]

One person who truly understands the whole thing and is a partner with you, they truly think having that silo over there, that silo over there and that’s, that is. That’s preferable. And I, and I just don’t want to get through that. That actually, that’s the opposite. Three competing advisors who don’t understand what’s going on and they don’t have any real oversight and it’s a, it’s a disaster. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:27:10 – 00:27:20]

It’s blinders on. Right on. That team doesn’t really see the full picture, isn’t able, you know, doesn’t have the capacity then to build a comprehensive plan. And we see it go sideways so often. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:27:20 – 00:27:48]

So it’s really. I want to, I want. This is a great guy and it’s weighing on me. How do I approach this? How do I like, how do I help him get to where he needs to be, which is like, he’s got stuff but no strategy and he’s sorry, there’s annuities in there. Right? There’s a new. In the states, multiple wow. Wow. There’s multiple annuities in there. There’s Pfix, there’s Property, llc, whatever that means. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:27:48 – 00:27:48]

Okay. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:27:48 – 00:28:16]

Under this other Advisory firm in the US The I think might be. Yeah. And I’m just thinking, right, okay, so this is like hugely problematic for me. Like, but how do I approach this in such a way without you know, just, just lobbing a bomb in there and people going to shut down? No, no, everything, until you came along, everything was fine. Yeah, right. Why are you bringing all this bad news? But to your point, like you, this is retirement planning. You don’t want to go into retirement with this hanging over you. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:28:16 – 00:28:17]

Totally. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:28:17 – 00:28:17]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:28:17 – 00:28:49]

I find annuities particularly find that again, another hangover. You find the commissions that the advisors made 20 years ago are still stitched into the contract. And so I immediately go to DPL to drop an A. And DPL are independent insurance brokers, work with RAs, keep your independence. But they will look at it on a non commission basis for you and just say that that policy we can 1035 exchange, which is basically in species annuity transfer to another annuity, strip out the commission. Good rates now. So it’s a good time to do it. So that’s a real value add for clients. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:28:50 – 00:29:01]

We use a similar company called llis Low Load Insurance Services. They’ve been on the part a couple of times. And there are exceptions. There are exceptions, but general rule. I absolutely hate annuities here. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:29:02 – 00:29:03]

It’s just terrible. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:29:03 – 00:29:10]

Where we, when we grew up in the uk, right. An annuity was such a simple thing, an immediate annuity. You gave an insurance company a gob of money. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:29:10 – 00:29:10]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:29:10 – 00:29:24]

And they gave you, they gave you it back over time. But when I was in the industry starting out, interest rates were nothing. So no one was doing annuities. But they were still super easy to understand. Come over here. And they are a whole different beast. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:29:24 – 00:29:24]

It’s crazy. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:29:24 – 00:30:09]

And obviously there are, there are uses for them. Like if you’ve got a massive inheritance tax or estate planning estate tax exposure you want to mitigate against. I believe there’s good uses for them for, for long term care riders. I think that can be a good place. But I can promise you, I was gonna say 9 times out of 10, 99 times out of 100 when we see them, they are not used for those basis. They have been sold on a future income rider that is savagely expensive and never ever what when we open up the hood on it and do the, do the due diligence, it’s never what the clients think it is. It’s never as good as they think it is. And they are just expensive and opaque and inflexible. And I hate Them. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:30:09 – 00:30:10]

Yeah, tell us how you really feel. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:30:12 – 00:30:12]

Exactly. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:30:12 – 00:30:42]

It’s. We were chatting a bit about sort of cultural differences and financial differences. Obviously everyone here is my accent, I’m American. You know, in some ways I came up in that environment. I know the complexity of this. But that point is such a clear one, right. Where 99 times out of 100, I’d maybe even go 100% of the time. If you were to ask a client or a person who has one of these, can you explain how this works? Can you explain how that guaranteed base rider works? What’s that income rider costing each year? Never do they have a clear picture. And it’s usually never, never as good. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:30:42 – 00:30:55]

As what they’re hoping to tell you what it is. We’ll look at it and we’re like, actually it’s not. That’s not what that’s. That is a number. And you’ve anchored on a number. Yeah, but one. But there’s more to it than that. And once you factor in, everything else is not as good as that. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:30:55 – 00:30:56]

Yeah, yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:30:56 – 00:31:38]

It’s really tough. And I think ultimately in the UK it was a. They go in waves, right? It depends on whether the gilt yields and the interest rates are a certain time where you get a good rate for the annuity, but once you’re in, you’re. You can’t get out. Whereas here there’s a whole marketplace, right. And you can move it around, all the functions, the riders, all that stuff. And I think it purely comes down to this agency theory, you know, the agent principal conflict, which is simply, you know, if someone knows more than me and they’re selling something and they’re going to make a commission, who’s going to win out of that relationship, right? And it’s tough because we’re in that sector where commission’s always been the way to pay advisors. And it’s now getting a lot better, a lot more growth in the independent space. I think really that’s kind of what we’re leading into here, which is all good for the clients. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:31:39 – 00:32:43]

I’m excited to announce that Expat wealth has its first sponsor, the Global Financial Planning Institute. The GFPI exists to provide education, community tools, resources and ongoing research for financial planners and other advanced financial professionals working with international and cross border clients in the US and Americans abroad. I’m a GFP Institute fellow and I’ve put all our employees through their GFPI programs when they join us. I’ve met some great people. I’ve learned a ton. It’s a genuine Community of internationally minded folk doing their best to serve their clients properly and critically sharing what they know in the oftentimes challenging and ambiguous US cross border environment. And as anyone in this sector will tell you, you’re always learning. So if you work with international clients and or Americans abroad, or if this is an area you’re looking to get into, check out the gfpi@www.gfp.in stute you will be glad you did and I hope to see you there soon. You mentioned you are the token American here. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:32:44 – 00:32:45]

I’ll speak for all my country. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:32:45 – 00:32:51]

Miles and I have just, if you’ve just thrown the towel in, we’re like, we’re Brits, we’re just going to try and work with Brits. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:32:51 – 00:32:51]

What? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:32:51 – 00:32:57]

You’ve worked with Americans though, now you’ve worked with Brits and you are, I think I might have mentioned that you are a partner in the firm now. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:32:58 – 00:33:02]

Last time you said esteemed partner. I don’t know, I’ve lost that since the last record. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:33:04 – 00:33:10]

Yeah, it’s all downhill. So what’s it like working with Brits versus Americans in your experience? 

 

James Boyle:

[00:33:10 – 00:35:05]

You know, you alluded to something earlier, I think, and we’ve talked about that. The people that we work with, especially right. Expats. So let’s say, let’s start there with sort of expats versus a sort of domestic client. This thirst for adventure, this willingness to try new things, Open mindedness, open mindedness. Part of that translates into and you know, sort of reflecting that or contrasting that against this, this us, this American ideal, which is work, work, work, work forever. There’s no ceiling to your consumption. It’s consume and then drop dead. That is so different. And a breath of fresh air for working with Brits, working with expats specifically, where you know, they get to 60, 65, 67 and they say, look, I have a sailboat I want to do. We want to slow travel. We’ve clients that slow travel. We want to learn new languages, we want to spend time in Europe six months out of the year. And we know, you know, we’ve run hopefully with our help. Right. With our guidance. But we were confident in the plan. We can see that this is a feasible way to spend the next 5, 10, 15 years of our lives. You see that much more rarely on the US side where it’s kind of, there’s this inertia, there’s this momentum of living in this environment for 45, 50 years, working hard your entire life. You get to 70, 72, 75 some cases. And you go, well, I don’t really know what my life would look like outside of work, so I’m just going to keep working. And then the classic story of like you get the retirement dinner and key and three months later they’re laying you out in the slab. So, you know, it’s. That is such a critical difference, I think. And part of what makes our jobs, in my opinion, fun. Right. Because that is the exciting part of, okay, let’s think about what’s next. Right. And retirement doesn’t mean kicking your feet up on the Lazy Boy adventures. It’s adventures. It’s travel. It’s, you know, spending time with grandkids. It’s all those things. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:35:05 – 00:35:07]

I am kind of in awe of the American work ethic though. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:35:07 – 00:35:08]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:35:08 – 00:35:27]

You know, coming from, coming from the UK and Europe where many, many wonderful things, but we just do not have the same work ethic. And there’s definitely some downsides to it, but like, holy crap, does it create like, you know, the results speak for themselves. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:35:27 – 00:35:27]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:35:27 – 00:35:32]

America is a powerhouse because people work so damn hard. Yeah. And take so many risks. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:35:32 – 00:35:33]

Yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:35:33 – 00:35:54]

Sometimes it’s about striking the balance Right. Between the two. And we do that all the time. Right. It’s finding that pathway of how can I live the lifestyle I want to live without making undue sacrifices. Right. But in a way that’s not putting my future financial security at risk. Right. It’s such a critical balance to define between those two extremes. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:35:54 – 00:36:02]

What’s it like on a day to day basis? What’s like dealing with Brits versus Americans? I will just say to your point, for me it’s dramatically different working with expatriate Brits. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:02 – 00:36:03]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:03 – 00:36:14]

Versus when I was an advisor working with local Brits who were nice. But there is just, I agree. That open mindedness, that sense of adventure, that, that fun plans. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:36:14 – 00:36:14]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:14 – 00:36:23]

Yeah. And I enjoy working with expats more than I work. I enjoyed working with just like, you know, local folk. But what’s it like? What’s the American versus Brit like? 

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:23 – 00:36:28]

We’re entering such a controversial territory. You can see. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:28 – 00:36:29]

Yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:29 – 00:36:33]

I need like a rag here. You know, one of the things that has struck me. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:34 – 00:36:34]

Controversial. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:34 – 00:36:35]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:35 – 00:36:36]

We need the clicks. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:37 – 00:36:44]

I’ll say, I’ll say. I’ll say two things here and one pro and one con. Should I start with bad first? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:36:44 – 00:36:44]

Always bad first. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:36:44 – 00:37:29]

Bad news bad first. I think sometimes there is a hesitation to act from Brits that I see conservative American clients. Yes. They might be suspicious up front or they want to know sort of, you know, what’s going on here and how am I getting, you know, how am I getting. Where’s the bill? Right. And what does that mean to me? But once they’ve made a decision and feel comfortable and confident, they’re going to. They’re going full force. Right. That’s sort of that American sort of brashness where I find that working with Brits and again, it’s expats. So it’s a bit of a different lens, but a tendency to let inertia drive decision making, where it’s, you know, you mentioned earlier about ISIS or Pfix or pensions, feeling like, I’m not going to worry about that. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:37:29 – 00:37:29]

It wasn’t a problem. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:37:29 – 00:37:30]

Right. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:37:31 – 00:37:34]

Just let’s just, you know, put that. Supposed to push that down in the hole. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:37:34 – 00:37:34]

Yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:37:34 – 00:37:37]

And that’s a real challenging uphill battle to have. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:37:37 – 00:37:37]

Right. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:37:37 – 00:38:48]

Because now we have to present, as we’ve talked about these problems and how to solve them. So that, that, that sort of status quo I find a bit more embedded with the British clients, frankly, though we’ve had this conversation recently. Brits are way less arrogant, I find, much more humble. They’re sort of willing to listen to you and open and engage in the conversation and talk about sort of what we do and what their situation is and what they’re hoping to do. Whereas in my old past lives as an American advisor working with Americans and domestic clients, there’s much more of a confrontational tint to the conversation. There’s this sort of. This sort of. I know better. Yeah. Competitive. Yeah, that might be a way to put it. I know better. And coming at it from an adversarial perspective almost, and then having to overcome that. So in some ways, maybe those are two sides of the same coin. Right. This kind of defensive sort of brashness from Americans versus a more sort of, I don’t know, status quo, anodyne approach from the, from the Brits. And then let me just say this to anyone listening, potential clients, I love working with Brits. You guys are the best clients ever. Come on in, the door is open. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:38:48 – 00:38:49]

This is edit number three, by the way. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:38:49 – 00:38:51]

Yeah, this is where we’re entering. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:38:51 – 00:39:24]

Tell you something. I has been a breath of fresh air for me and you tell me. I’m interested to know if you found the same. And is this still the same in the UK is. Brits in America are far more open to stock market investing and harnessing the power of the stock market much to their own benefit, whereas in the UK is. It’s all you used to get was our property or rental property. And no amount of, like, evidence that that was not necessarily the best path forward. The amount of work involved, the liquidity, the poor returns. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:39:24 – 00:39:24]

Yeah, absolutely. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:39:24 – 00:39:32]

You know, but it was just so embedded in the mentality of Britain to, like, try and be a, you know, buy to less. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:39:33 – 00:39:33]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:39:33 – 00:39:44]

Try and have as many as possible to their detriment. Just being able to, like, get people and keep people invested in the stock market has been. It’s been really been a breath of fresh air for me. Have you found the same? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:39:44 – 00:40:27]

I found the same and I think it comes from a place of just a miss selling culture in the UK and I think over the years, what. We had 250,000 advisors in the UK back in the 80s. Now today it’s like 34,000. It’s crazy. And it’s because of retail distribution, review, taking more exams, stripping out commissions, all that stuff. And to come back to the annuities, everyone made commission as a financial advisor back in the 80s and that led to the endowment, miss selling, all that with profit stuff. And it just left financial advice with a really bad name. Everyone just thought, I don’t want to go near a financial advisor. This guy. In the us estate agents have a good name. In the uk, they don’t. They’re alongside financial advisors. It’s a cultural thing and it’s. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:40:27 – 00:40:33]

It’s sad. You know, they’ve had similar things here, though. They’ve had annuity scandals. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:40:34 – 00:40:35]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:40:35 – 00:40:41]

They’ve had, you know, just going off movies. It seems that everyone was flinging penny stocks. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:40:41 – 00:40:41]

Yes. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:40:42 – 00:40:43]

In the 80s. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:40:44 – 00:40:44]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:40:44 – 00:40:57]

So. But like, they seem to not have been burnt by it. They just. Here in America, they just believe in the power of the stock market, which. And they have. And they’re right to. And just the fact that you can access it for almost no cost. Full liquidity. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:40:57 – 00:40:58]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:40:58 – 00:41:00]

It’s just. That is just the gift that keeps on giving. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:41:00 – 00:41:00]

Well, they just. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:41:00 – 00:41:05]

So many Brits have sat out. Oh, it’s a con. Yeah, it’s a con. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:41:05 – 00:41:06]

The house always wins. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:41:06 – 00:41:08]

Yeah. It’s literally not a con. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:41:08 – 00:41:08]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:41:08 – 00:41:13]

It’s the exact opposite of a con is everyone getting up and it’s a. It’s not a big scam. It’s everyone getting up in the morning and wanting it to succeed. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:41:13 – 00:41:14]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:41:14 – 00:41:14]

This is. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:41:15 – 00:41:44]

Again, it comes back to the point you’re. You’re making on culture. Like Americans, they don’t want to look back and look at negatives, whereas as Brits, I think we like to dwell and, and punish ourselves and self Deprecate, which is part of the culture in some ways quite funny. But when you beating yourself up for years, you’re losing out. You’d be more American. You like, go and make some money, go make a success. Stop looking back over your shoulder. I think that’s what we, we’re dealing with. And then you get the blend of the expat in America and you must get the, the hybrid, you know, American Brit. Yeah, it’s fun. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:41:44 – 00:41:46]

Yeah, it is. We like it. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:41:46 – 00:41:46]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:41:46 – 00:42:01]

I have to talk about it too often, if anyone, the three regular listeners. And I’m rolling right here he goes again. But I do really, I do love working with expats. It’s really good. And I enjoy hanging out with expats. I enjoy, it’s just, it’s just more fun. Yeah, yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:42:01 – 00:42:52]

When we have, you know, we’ve talked about planning. Right. In this planning led approach, when you can have a meeting with a client where planning has, has taken up, you know, has expanded to fill 95% of the meeting, those are in our estimation the most satisfying, the most productive, the most engaging. Because that is obviously the other things are important. Right. Everything else that goes into that ultimate plan. What’s driving all these conversations and decisions is critical. But outlining what that looks like. Right. Talking about lifestyle, talking about what are the trips coming up and what is that cruise you mentioned and what are the grandkids doing and how are you thinking about gifting and all these things. Those are the things that are real life consequence of having a plan in place that you can believe in and follow. And like you said, it just makes those conversations so much more fun and rewarding. Right. For us and ideally for the client as well. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:42:52 – 00:42:53]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:42:53 – 00:43:10]

And that comes back to that plan first culture. You know, ultimately I, I more I speak to you guys, the more I’ve been doing the job, like it’s getting a read on the client, their goals, goal based planning. Once you’re there and you plug the investment in the back end, it’s a win win. If you lead with the investment, where are you going? Like you’re in the dark. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:43:10 – 00:43:10]

Yep. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:43:10 – 00:43:11]

So yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:43:11 – 00:43:25]

Yeah. Making decisions in a vacuum. It’s. And you know, alluded to this earlier, historically that’s what the industry focused on. Right. It was investment management. It was. And you still see it, plenty of it. So sometimes it’s a conversation where you’re flipping those perceptions as well. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:43:25 – 00:43:25]

Right. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:43:25 – 00:43:28]

Where you’re talking about. Okay. Actually that’s secondary to the other things. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:43:28 – 00:43:38]

We, you know, in firms lead with investments do they like meetings? Just them getting up and talk and yapping about GDP and I’ve seen. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:43:38 – 00:43:39]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:43:41 – 00:43:49]

What soul destroying. Making up stuff. Yeah. About making, sending, you know, in a noble future. Yeah. And have a crystal ball every time you see someone. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:43:50 – 00:43:59]

And it’s usually in my experience couched in that sort of mystique, if you will. Right, yeah. Charts and numbers and cash flows and. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:43:59 – 00:43:59]

Yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:43:59 – 00:44:14]

And I could talk, you know, Tom blue in the face about what we. Where we see the price of oil in three months and GDP and, and you know, ultimately comes down to not only is it viable. Right. Does this mean anything but what does it mean to me in my life? And usually the answer is or we’re not interested. Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:44:14 – 00:44:15]

If that was my job, I would hate that. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:44:15 – 00:44:16]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:44:16 – 00:44:24]

Not only do I find that insanely dull, but. And pointless. But just the just I’d just be dead inside. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:44:24 – 00:44:24]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:44:24 – 00:44:25]

Just you. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:44:25 – 00:44:25]

You know. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:44:26 – 00:44:35]

You know they say also the best days, the ones where you wake up, you work hard and you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Every day I’d just be like, well that was pointless. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:44:35 – 00:44:35]

Right. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:44:36 – 00:44:43]

You know, I just yapped nonsense about, I don’t know anything about to convince people to keep their money with me. That’d be horrible. I’d hate that. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:44:43 – 00:44:44]

Yeah, I agree. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:44:44 – 00:45:02]

I think, you know, we, we talk a lot about demographic shifts and I think that’s going away. You know, I don’t think it will ever die out completely but, but certainly we work with and continue to work with younger demographics. Right. 30S, 40s, trying to get established in the US and I know that anecdotally. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:45:02 – 00:45:06]

I have that, I have that San Francisco firm on the phone. They say. Yeah, they say you’re wrong. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:45:06 – 00:45:23]

Yeah, that’s true. Yeah that’s true. And sometimes it’s becomes an interesting battle but you know, I, I think that, that as demography, demography shift clients and prospective clients will expect more and more in, in that planning space. Right. What we think of as comprehensive. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:45:23 – 00:45:26]

Yeah. But then the next generation is just going to want an AI agent. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:45:29 – 00:45:36]

Pretty soon it’ll be three laptops around the microphones. We’ll be on my AI avatar. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:45:36 – 00:45:39]

AI Some financial planning. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:45:39 – 00:45:41]

It’s, what’s the, it’s AI is all the way down. Right. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:45:41 – 00:45:42]

So. Yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:45:42 – 00:45:44]

Yeah. Barring that, what do we think? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:45:44 – 00:45:54]

What, what are we thinking? Like I, I, I think, yeah. You know there’s every threat from robos to broke. You know. Human financial advisors have always pro. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:45:54 – 00:45:55]

Good. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:45:55 – 00:46:19]

Yeah, good. Human financial advisors always prospered. I think cross border is Insulated even more because even if they, even if they cracked the domestics thing with AI and people don’t want humans at all, there’s still the, the cross border is a whole another level above that and the complexities. But you know, is that. Are you, Where’d you see. Are you worried that you’re gonna get replaced by. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:46:20 – 00:46:26]

I think for mass affluent people, like people up to say a million, couple of million, it’s a legit threat. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:46:26 – 00:46:31]

Yeah. Well, also good because most of these people don’t have, don’t have anything on the flip side. Positive. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:46:31 – 00:47:09]

Yeah, absolutely. It’s a little bit like saying, oh, commission’s all bad. Well, it’s not for people who haven’t got much money because they can’t afford to pay that independent advisor. So there’s always courses for courses and I think AI will definitely serve those people. I think a lot of the big banks have already spotted that and they’re pumping money into people under half a million. They’re just going to speak to an AI agent and that’s fine because it’ll get pretty sophisticated. But as soon as you get the AI agent telling you that the pension commencement lump sum, the 25% in the UK is taxable in the US always, we know that that’s not strictly true. I think that’s the problem with AI, it makes mistakes. It’s very sure of itself. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:47:10 – 00:47:21]

You touched the burning stove there. We nearly got through a whole podcast and Brits in America without talking about 25%. All right, so should we just go there? 

 

James Boyle:

[00:47:21 – 00:47:21]

Should we go? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:47:24 – 00:47:28]

Because that is, that’s the thing we get asked the most about. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:47:28 – 00:47:28]

It’s the biggest. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:47:28 – 00:47:38]

Is my 25 tax free lump sum. That’s tax free in the UK. Is it tax free in America, Miles? Is it tax free in America? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:47:38 – 00:48:04]

Massive disclaimer. Well, yes and no. I mean basically, if you go to some accountants and the thing is we’re not tax advisors and that’s a major point to bear here. It’s taxable and then you go to other advisors who are very expensive cross border people and it’s not. So the bottom line for me is always lead the conversation with a personal tax advice from a cross border accountant. Don’t rely on the Internet, don’t rely on your friends. Always speak to some good people about your situation. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:48:04 – 00:48:17]

It depends. And people don’t like to hear that answer. People want a definitive yes or no and they want to be told yes or no. And they get kind of. Sometimes people get a bit annoyed at us that we can’t give them a yes or no. The irony is, you know, if you want a definitive, I’d say no. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:48:17 – 00:48:19]

Yeah, it’s the safest. Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:48:19 – 00:49:41]

If you want definitive no. The fact there is some ambiguity and the fact there is opinions differ amongst true cross border professionals and their domestic counterparts is a good thing because that means if you’re so inclined, you can take a defensible and legitimate position. Different tax advisors will have different strategies and different tax advisors will tell you differently. Some say you can take it as a lump sum, some say you’re safer taking as a periodic payment. Some won’t do it, you know, so it’s, you know, that ambiguity is actually a good thing, but people don’t like it. People want a yes or no answer. I’m also. People want yes no answer from, from us for free. So then they can do their own taxes or tell their local person to do it this way and not incur any more costs, which I get, but you know, I want. Recently we had someone we introduced to a cross border tax advisor. Hadn’t been reporting the pensions, had a SIP, wasn’t doing 3520 either. Tax advisor said definitely should be reporting them on FBAR and you should probably be doing 35:20 as well. Yeah, this guy sent back a, you know, a full data dump from Chat GPT. Chat GPT. Why did it anyway? To the tax advisor who wasn’t paying? Because he wanted it to say basically, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re right, fine. Just said you should speak to a tax attorney. But he got the answer. But he won’t have done. Yeah, he got the answer he wanted. ChatGPT told him you’re fine, no problem, he’s not. But that’s what, that’s what you got told. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:49:41 – 00:49:59]

Part of that too. It’s going to dip into our pick and mix here a bit. I’ll spoil what I’m going to talk about. But a lot of these large language, large language models are trained in such a way that they’re meant to be affirmative. Right. So if you pestered enough, they’re going to echo back what you want to hear and that is incredibly dangerous. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:49:59 – 00:49:59]

So true. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:49:59 – 00:50:06]

Because I don’t think if you are sat in a court with the IRS on the other side of the table, you know, pulling up your Chat GB logs. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:50:06 – 00:50:16]

Yeah, you’re right, I misspoke. I shouldn’t have done that and say, yeah, we change from Chat GB to Claude. Half of the reason. Just the way Chat GPT responded to me annoyed the hell Out. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:50:16 – 00:50:19]

Yeah, it’s too positive. It’s like you don’t want to spend. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:50:19 – 00:50:24]

Time with very American attitude too. A lot of times, you know, this sort of affirmative, upbeat. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:50:24 – 00:50:48]

Well, it’s got a memory. It’s got a hugely long memory. Let imagine if you were plugging stuff into ChatGPT like we all do, right. And then your kid got hold of your phone and started putting stuff into their chatgpt through your account. I mean, you’ve got splend of craziness going along in the AI head, like. Yeah, totally agree. Like, it’s. It’s a real risk. Risk, particularly for intricate things. And I think ultimately, like, we just got to stick clients in the right direction. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:50:48 – 00:51:05]

Yeah, yeah. Right. Well, we’ve covered about three of the things we had on our list, but we’re coming up on the hour, so should we. Unless there’s anything else people feel we should. We definitely should add leave on the high of pcls. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:51:05 – 00:51:05]

Yeah, yeah. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:51:05 – 00:51:08]

Perfect. Gets the most engagement. Should we do. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:51:08 – 00:51:14]

Pick a mix. So pick a mix. Should we start with you? I guess you give, I guess some time to prepare on the spot. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:51:14 – 00:51:15]

Yeah, exactly. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:51:15 – 00:51:54]

What’s segue to. So I’m reading a book called Empire of AI. Nice writer by the name of Karen Howe. She’s. I think she’s a freelance journalist, but. But has written for Wall Street Journal and, you know, pretty incredible pedigree when it comes to AI companies. So she released this book, I think it was May of last year. So it’s all very up to date. Someone sometimes shockingly up to date, knowing how long it could take for, you know, book to. To get to publishing. It’s sort of two things and I’m still only about a third of the way through. First of all, it’s very well written and engaging. It’s a deep dive into OpenAI in particular and Sam Altman as a kind of character as well. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:51:54 – 00:51:56]

Is this the billionaire Sam Altman? 

 

James Boyle:

[00:51:56 – 00:53:13]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And also sort of AI in general and the current trajectory of AI with these large language models and how they operate. And a really sort of fascinating lens into what feels like to the layman, which I certainly am. We don’t know the technical workings of how these things operate. It feels like, well, this is the only track. It’s the inevitable track. But when you start to unpeel, you sort of peel back the layers of how we arrived here and Elon Musk’s involvement. And how did OpenAI come about and why was chatgpt the first to be released And Google’s Gemini response to that and things like that. First of all, the massive egos that go into all these things and the really human sort of battles that enter it, and this acknowledgment that in a lot of ways these aren’t really an inevitable sort of evolution of what AI means. And with these stated goals of we’re going to reach AGI, artificial general intelligence and what does that mean and what does that look like all while burning, I mean, tens and tens of billions of dollars every year and the untold economic and environmental effects of all models. Really interesting. If you have any interest in kind of where AI is right now, I would recommend it. It gives a good view into how we got here. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:53:13 – 00:54:04]

Kate was telling me at the weekend, apparently there is a massive spike in interest from matchmakers. So two matchmakers from tech bros for tradwives, all the successful tech bros. I’m hearing this from secondhand for my wife, but are interested in one, you know, these trad wives who are going to stay at home and be. Be submissive. And we commented, isn’t it crazy the. The arc of tech, how quickly it’s tech’s gone, tech as a sector and as the people involved it have gone from to being really sinister gone for me, like, oh, wow, you guys have like come out of nowhere to like be successful. Like, wow, well done. Now it’s like, oh, I think the. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:54:04 – 00:54:09]

Curtain’s been drawn back a lot, especially some of these massive, like I said, personalities. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:54:09 – 00:54:15]

I don’t know. Yeah, it’s not cool. Yeah, not cool. What about you, Miles? What are you reading, watching, listening to at the moment? 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:54:15 – 00:55:10]

Well, it’s more watching and listening. I’m not the biggest of readers, I got to be honest, got quite a lot going on with three kids, etc. So I mainly read kids books, which is, which is fun. But the things I have been listening to and watching. So Diary of a CEO really like Stephen Bartlett, you probably know him quite well. And ultimately talking about ancient civilizations. Have you heard all about this like 20, 30,000 years ago? Like the theory is I was his latest ones was talking to a guy who’s really specialist in it and do the pyramids and how basically back then people were way more sophisticated than we gave them credit for. And the theory is, which is quite controversial, that they all got wiped out. So these cataclysmic events. And it’s basically shown in this younger Dryas principle, which is basically like a huge asteroid that came a little bit like the dinosaurs, but it was kind of a second one that broke up and destroyed civilization about 15, 20,000 years ago. So it’s super interesting. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:10 – 00:55:11]

I’ve never heard of that. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:55:11 – 00:55:14]

Have you not? It’s fascinating. And you can definitely say, oh, so this is. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:55:14 – 00:55:14]

This is. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:14 – 00:55:19]

This predates the Egyptians by like 7 or 8,000 years. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:55:19 – 00:55:22]

Massive. Yeah, yeah. It’s just insane. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:22 – 00:55:23]

And the sorts of things, by the way. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:55:23 – 00:55:24]

No, no, I don’t know. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:25 – 00:55:33]

Do you know, you know, the Cleo. The pyramids are closer to Cleopatra. We are closer to Cleopatra than Cleopatra was to the. The pyramids. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:55:33 – 00:55:36]

That’s how these things blow my mind. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:55:36 – 00:55:50]

How can they build them with. Yeah, you know, the wheel. I mean, what was the situation? Virtually nothing going on. They shifted these huge bits of rock. But ultimately, yeah, it’s. When you look at more of the evidence and there’s rock, I think it’s in Arizona, there’s like a black line. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:51 – 00:55:52]

Well, that’s from the asteroid. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:55:52 – 00:55:52]

Yes. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:52 – 00:55:55]

That killed the kt. The KT boundary. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:55:55 – 00:55:57]

I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:57 – 00:55:58]

It’s incredibly interesting. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:55:58 – 00:55:59]

It’s ridiculous. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:55:59 – 00:56:02]

Yeah, that’s from. That’s from the. The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:02 – 00:56:03]

There’s another one as well. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:56:03 – 00:56:04]

Oh, there’s another one. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:04 – 00:56:04]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:56:04 – 00:56:06]

The K T boundary is the dinosaur one. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:06 – 00:56:07]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:56:07 – 00:56:19]

And you can literally see this line here below that is pre dinosaurs. Above that is exactly this whole, like, you know, sent all the ash into the air and they eventually, like, came down and suffocated everyone who was dead. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:19 – 00:56:19]

Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:56:19 – 00:56:20]

And then just settled. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:20 – 00:56:33]

Yeah, yeah. And they find in the ash there’s another one. Yeah. So as I understand it, I’m no expert, but basically in that rock layer, the ash layer, there’s like glass. Bits of glass. And that’s because it was so hot. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:56:33 – 00:56:33]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:33 – 00:56:35]

Things were turning to glass. Like it was. It’s insane. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:56:35 – 00:56:36]

Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:56:36 – 00:56:51]

So, yeah, the theory is, and it is very controversial, a lot of archaeologists are like, yeah, whatever, and they’re trying to disprove stuff, but ultimately there were civilizations, very sophisticated, they got wiped out. And there’s been in several of them, apparently. So anyway, I’d love that. I love that. It’s a bit of escapism, isn’t it? It’s fascinating. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:56:51 – 00:56:53]

Yeah. That kind of stuff’s fun to watch. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:56:53 – 00:57:37]

You know, I love podcasts, Right. I listen to podcasts all the time. I now have a podcast. I love them so much. It’s two. Part two of the biggest podcasts in the world that I can’t. I just don’t do. And it’s. And it’s Rogan. Oh, right. And Diary of a CEO, I think. Diverse. Yeah. I think it’s because I was aware of something about this from Manchester. Yeah. He had a company in Manchester, so I was aware of him well before Diaries and before he did this Diary of CEO where he has a guest. He used to do it from like his bedroom at like 3 in the morning. Solo episodes. I listened to a load of them and there’s just ever something I just can’t. I don’t know. I just. I don’t. I don’t listen. I don’t watch. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know. But also Rogan, I can’t. I can’t bring myself to. To watch and listen to Rogan. Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:57:37 – 00:58:06]

Because of Rogan’s. He has some really good guests. Right. But he’s. He’s quite open. He’s like. The biggest hits I get. Are you. The UFO loves the tons of people on UFOs. And obviously he gets more hits, makes more money. I mean, I’m not going to speculate on the truth. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he gets like. I think it was that guy in the 80s. I’ve gotten his name now. He said he used to work on spacecraft. Forgotten his name. Anyway, he had like 16 million views that one episode. He was like. It was like way more than Trump when Trump came on. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:58:06 – 00:58:14]

Okay, okay, maybe we should. That’s what we should talk about next. UFOs. Yeah, you know, maybe that’s how we drive. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:58:15 – 00:58:16]

Disclosure. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:58:16 – 00:58:19]

I just saw that. Did you. Did I like it? Did you not. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:58:19 – 00:58:21]

It didn’t get very good reviews. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:58:21 – 00:58:22]

No. Yeah, it wasn’t a fan. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:58:22 – 00:58:23]

But it’s a movie. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:58:23 – 00:58:24]

Spielberg’s latest. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:58:24 – 00:58:25]

Oh, yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:58:25 – 00:58:25]

Okay. Okay. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:58:25 – 00:58:27]

He lost his fastball, if I’m allowed to say. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:58:27 – 00:59:42]

Well, I. I just finished a book called Young Stalin by Simon Sharma and now I’m reading the. The what? He wrote it first and then he wrote Young. Young Stalin. But the main book, which is called Stalin and the Court of the Reds are. Which is shaping up to be one of the best books I’ve ever read. Excellent. Interesting. Stalin. Stalin. I actually studied the Russian revolution at a level history. He was. Trotsky described him as a gray blur and that kind of, I think captures. I was aware of all the history around him. He just. And the, The. The crimes he committed against humanity is so savage and it was so kind of taciturn and. And can you think of a single Starling quote? Right. And you just. He’s almost like a gray blur. Like, you know, this guy did all this stuff but you. And ruled the Soviet Union with an iron fist for so long. But you don’t really know anything about the man. And, and I kind of, I kind of made the mistake of thinking he was very one dimensional. Obviously he’s not. Fascinating character and there’s loads more to it. And it’s just been, I mean on this journey of learning about him and his life and how he achieved this level of power and, and how it got very twisted and went very dark and it’s, it’s a great read. I’m enjoying it. 

 

James Boyle:

[00:59:42 – 00:59:43]

What’s the author’s name? 

 

Richard Taylor:

[00:59:43 – 00:59:44]

Simon Sharma. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[00:59:45 – 01:00:03]

Isn’t it true it’s. Didn’t Stalin responsible for more deaths and Hitler but ultimately was the reason World War II ended the way like I think statistics. I mean it’s just scary. The Russians fired more artillery into Berlin in the. I think the closing two weeks of the war and the allies did the entire. 

 

James Boyle:

[01:00:03 – 01:00:04]

Wow. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[01:00:04 – 01:00:08]

Pre that like Adam, the Russian army was just insane. Yeah. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[01:00:08 – 01:00:10]

The losses they suffered were. 

 

James Boyle:

[01:00:10 – 01:00:10]

Yeah. Yeah. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[01:00:10 – 01:00:11]

Insane. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[01:00:11 – 01:00:17]

Yeah. All right, shall we. Should we leave it there on the hour? Well, Miles, thank you for joining us. 

 

Miles Sharp:

[01:00:17 – 01:00:19]

Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure. Yeah. Great to see you guys. 

 

Richard Taylor:

[01:00:19 – 01:01:41]

If any of you have any questions, we have a new mailbox expat wealth@plan first wealth.com. Email us your questions. Might be a PCLS. It might be about pensions. ISAs moving here. Email us your questions. If we can answer them, we’ll answer them. James, I’ll answer them together. If we can’t, we’ll bring someone on the show to answer your questions. So please don’t be shy. Expat wealth. Planfirstwealth.com email us your questions and we’ll answer them on the show. All right folks, that’s another episode of Expat wealth under our belts. Thank you for listening. I appreciate it and I appreciate you. If you’re enjoying the show and would like to support, support the mission which is to help ambitious expats thrive in America and ask you to subscribe to the POD wherever you listen and also consider leaving a rating and review. This stuff really does matter. Please help us get this information to the people who need it. That is to your fellow expats. Just a quick reminder that this show is brought to you by Plan First Wealth. We are a US based financial planner and wealth manager and we help successful American and international families living across the US to make the most of their opportunity and ultimately to retire happier. If you’d like to know more about how we might be able to help you. You can find us on our website, www.planfirstwealth.com or you can look me up on LinkedIn. Do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. As always, thank you to the podcast guys for their help producing this episode and the entire show. See you next week.