stevenpoole9

We’ve just had a ‘phone call from a Mr. Garath Davies from DeMontford Financial services. We met them at one of the immigration shows at Sandown Racecourse. As we are off to Brisbane in 6 weeks or so he has advised us to arrange a meeting with them so they can advise us on any tax, pension and other financial queries we might have. They are currently holding these consultations and seminars in Birmingham later this month, hence the ‘phone call. They are charging us 95 GBP for the consultation. I don’t mind the charge if it saves me money and I don’t get ripped off here or in Oz. Does anyone have any experience of DeMontford, good or bad, that I can use to judge their previous performance with people in a similar position to ourselves? Any advise from previous clients, or prospective ones, would be extremely useful because I don’t want to sit through some bloke talking rubbish for an hour and be charged 95 quid for the privilege. HELP. Cheers, Steve.

Centurion

Steve - £95 in my opinion is a complete rip off. Most tax lawyers are very happy to talk through your general circumstances before starting the process of actually instructing them. Seemed a bit odd to me although I have no experience in dealing the company you mention.

Grayling

Steve

Do a search.

try GLD

G

Grayling

Too late

Looks like all the GLD bits are missing

G

AnitaB

Hi

We were supposed to be meeting with them this weekend but cancelled last week. My hubby felt he was quite pushy but no mention was ever made of a charge for the consultation in the paperwork they sent us.
As our pensions are not exactly huge we are going to prepare the paperwork to transfer before we go and probably do it ourselves. We are going to Oz on 12th October for a reccie so will speak to someone when we are there about the transfer. Obviously this would not work for everyone and depends on your age, the value and number of pensions you have.

It is certainly worth taking professional advise but I would not recommend paying for the initial consultation. If the advise they give is taken then they will earn a fee for the transfer and they will inform you of this.

I would be interested to know their thoughts on continuing to pay class 2 NI contributions to maintain your entitlement to full UK pension.
If you do go, let us know how you get on.

Cheers

AnitaB

stevenpoole9

couldn't get a result on the search. Hopefully someone can offer me some advice.

Cheetah7

One word 'No'

And I am being serious.

Ask your bank if they do free pensions and financial advise because most do.

Shop around for advise and dont let them keep calling you.

Your money and your future - your choice.

stevenpoole9

We were more worried about the Capital Gains Tax that he said we would have to pay on the equity we've made on our house. Like yourselves our pensions are quite small, so that's not a major concern. I just don't want to lose thousands of $'s because I didn't sort stuff out before we went.

Grayling

Steve

this is all I can find

start here:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256725

G

Centurion

Good find by Grayling on that other post - scary lot the financial advisers. Just a completely unprofessional opinion but Capital Gains Tax is not payable on the sale of your principal home. Basically if your selling your one and only house then you take the money as I understand it.

stevenpoole9

Thanks it seems we could have made a costly mistake. I will see if i can get some info from our bank.

diddy

Is this the bloke threatening legal action a while back against the site or was that a different one?

Alex Hall

I met up with him and found him overly pushy and condescending.. and I work in the I.T./Financial Services industry.

Try chatting to Darrion Pohl from Prism Xpats or some of the others listed in this thread... http://www.prism.advisernet.co.uk/

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=291128

hth

Alex

stevenpoole9

Grayling, thanks very much for the link, it made quite intresting reading to say the least. People on here seem to have a VERY low opinion of Mr. Davies I can only assume that this opinion has been earned in some way. I'm about to contact my bank manager & see what he can sort out for me and also have a word with HIFX who did my bond transfer to QTC, in Queensland. It sounds like Mr. Davies is using scare tactics to worry poor, ignorant souls like myself. Once again thanks for the link it may well have saved me quite a few quid/dollars...Cheers, Steve.

Grayling

There have been several threads in the past but I assume that they have been deleted

It is important to take specialist advice though as there are tax implications for any investments left in the UK. And any other overseas income.

Good luck

G