Most people know they should review their finances annually. Expats — with multiple jurisdictions, currencies, property holdings, complex insurance arrangements, and evolving tax positions — need to take this more seriously than anyone. Yet the demands of international life (moving, settling in, building a social network, managing a career across time zones) mean that the annual financial review is the first thing that gets postponed. This guide provides a structured framework for the annual review every expatriate should conduct — whether you do it yourself, with an IFA, or with a combination of specialists.
When to Do Your Annual Review
The ideal time depends on your circumstances:
- UK tax-origin expats: Conduct your review in February–March, before the 31 January self-assessment deadline has passed (for the prior year) and before the 5 April year-end closes the current UK tax year. This lets you take year-end actions before it is too late.
- Calendar tax year countries (most of the world): Review in November–December to enable year-end planning before 31 December.
- Alternatively: Review on the anniversary of your departure or the anniversary of arriving in your current country — tying it to a meaningful personal milestone makes it more likely to actually happen.
Schedule it in your calendar as a recurring annual appointment, with a 3-day window blocked for gathering documents and a half-day meeting with your adviser.
Section 1: Tax Residency and Filing Obligations
This is the foundation. Everything else depends on where you are legally resident for tax purposes.
1.1 Count Your Days
UK Statutory Residence Test (SRT): The SRT is based primarily on day counting. How many days did you spend in the UK in the tax year just ended (6 April–5 April)?
- 183+ UK days in a year = almost certainly UK resident
- Fewer than 16 UK days = almost certainly non-resident (if you were not UK resident the prior year)
- Between these figures, the answer depends on your "ties" to the UK
Keep a contemporaneous diary or use an app (Nomad Tax, TaxCalc) to track UK days. Reconstructing retrospectively is difficult and HMRC is unsympathetic to honest errors made from poor records.
Your new country: How many days did you spend in your country of residence? Are you above or below the residency threshold? If you travel extensively, have you inadvertently triggered tax residency in a third country?
1.2 Review Your UK Filing Position
Do you have a UK self-assessment obligation for the year just ended? Common triggers for non-residents:
- UK rental income (any amount)
- UK employment income (some double-taxed periods)
- UK bank interest above your personal savings allowance
- Capital gains on UK property
Ensure returns are prepared and filed. Non-resident individuals with UK income may need to use the non-resident return (form SA100 plus supplementary pages).
1.3 Review Your New Country's Filing Position
Does your country of residence require an annual tax return? Many do, even for those with no local taxable income (Spain, France, many others). Check whether your tax adviser has filed on your behalf or whether you need to provide information.
1.4 Review Your DTA Position
Has anything changed that affects how your income is taxed under your applicable double taxation treaty? New types of income, changed circumstances, a UK property purchased or sold?
Section 2: Investment Portfolio Review
2.1 Performance and Asset Allocation
Review the performance of your investment portfolio against its benchmark and your own financial plan targets. Key questions:
- Is the return (net of fees) meeting your long-term planning assumptions?
- Has your asset allocation drifted materially from your target (e.g. equities now 80% when you intended 65%)?
- Are any individual holdings significantly over- or underweighted?
- Has your risk tolerance changed (new life event, approaching retirement, change in employment)?
2.2 Currency Alignment
Review the currency composition of your portfolio against your future liabilities:
- If you plan to retire in the UK, is your portfolio appropriately weighted in GBP?
- If you earn in USD and spend in a pegged currency (AED, SAR), are you holding adequate USD exposure?
- Has significant currency movement created an unintended misalignment?
2.3 Fees
Review what you are paying for investment management. Total fees (platform, fund, adviser, performance) above 2% annually are eroding returns significantly. As of 2026, a well-structured passive or blended portfolio on an offshore platform should cost 0.8–1.5% all-in for most HNW clients.
2.4 Tax Efficiency for Your Current Residency
Is your portfolio structured optimally for your current jurisdiction? A structure that was efficient for a UK resident (e.g. heavy use of UK-reporting funds for capital gains treatment) may not be optimal for a UAE resident (where no CGT applies, so offshore roll-up funds are efficient). Review with your adviser annually as your residency position evolves.
2.5 ISA and UK Tax-Sheltered Accounts
You cannot contribute to UK ISAs while non-resident, but existing ISAs can be retained and continue to shelter returns from UK tax. Check that your existing ISAs are still with a provider happy to maintain the account for a non-resident.
Section 3: Pension Review
3.1 UK State Pension — National Insurance Contributions
One of the most consistently overlooked wealth-building actions for UK expats: reviewing and topping up your National Insurance record with voluntary Class 2 (if self-employed abroad or in some other qualifying categories) or Class 3 contributions.
Check your NI record at HMRC's Personal Tax Account online portal. Gaps in your NI record are filled at modest cost:
- Class 3 (2026/27): approximately £18.40 per week, i.e. around £957 for a full year of contributions to fill a gap (Class 2, where available to those self-employed abroad, is considerably cheaper)
- One additional year of qualifying NI contributions adds roughly £350 per year (about £6.89 per week) to the full new State Pension at 2026/27 rates
- The break-even on filling a gap is typically around 3 years of pension — excellent value
Window: Normally you can only fill gaps for the past six tax years. The extended transitional window that allowed gaps back to April 2006 to be filled closed on 5 April 2025, so the standard six-year limit now applies — check your specific position with HMRC or a pension adviser before relying on any older year.
3.2 UK Private Pensions
Review your UK personal pension (SIPP or personal pension), workplace pensions, and any deferred defined benefit (final salary) scheme entitlements:
- Are you still making contributions? (You can contribute to a UK pension even as a non-resident, up to £3,600 per year, subject to residency rules)
- What is the current fund value? Is the investment strategy still appropriate for your time horizon?
- If you have a defined benefit pension: has your employer issued a current CETV (cash equivalent transfer value)? Has the scheme's funding position changed?
3.3 Pension Access Planning
If you are approaching 55 (or 57 from 2028, when the minimum pension access age increases), begin modelling how you will access your pension. Key questions:
- In which country will you be resident when you begin drawing?
- What does your applicable DTA say about UK pension taxation in that country?
- Is it more efficient to draw down while resident in a zero-tax jurisdiction (UAE, Qatar) than after returning to the UK?
- What is your strategy for the 25% tax-free cash element — take it all at once or use UFPLS (uncrystallised fund pension lump sum)?
Section 4: Insurance Review
4.1 International Private Medical Insurance (IPMI)
Review your health insurance policy:
- Has your premium increased? Is it still competitive? (IPMI premiums typically increase 5–10% annually for general medical inflation plus age-related loading)
- Have any circumstances changed that should be declared to your insurer (new conditions, change of location, family additions)?
- Are your planned countries of treatment still covered? (Some policies exclude specific countries)
- Is your medical evacuation cover adequate for your current location?
- If your employer provides cover, has the policy changed at renewal? Read the new schedule of benefits carefully — employers sometimes quietly reduce cover at renewal.
4.2 Life Insurance and Critical Illness
- Is your sum assured still appropriate for your circumstances? (Income, dependants, outstanding mortgage, lifestyle obligations may all have changed)
- Is the currency of the payout aligned with your dependants' needs?
- Has your insurer confirmed your non-UK residency is acceptable under the policy terms?
- Is your policy written in trust (for IHT and speed of payout purposes)?
4.3 Income Protection
- Are you covered for your current employment/self-employment status in your current country?
- Has your income changed materially (up or down), requiring a policy review?
4.4 Property Insurance
For any property you own (UK or overseas):
- Are premiums competitive at renewal?
- For UK rental property: is your landlord insurance still appropriate, and does it cover the period of any void (empty) times?
- For overseas property: is the sum insured keeping pace with rebuilding cost inflation?
Section 5: Property Review
5.1 UK Property
If you hold UK rental property:
- Review rental yield performance: are rents at market rate?
- Review the mortgage: is the rate competitive? Is an early repayment charge soon to expire, allowing a remortgage?
- Are your letting agents' fees and management charges competitive?
- Review capital position: has value increased? What is the current paper gain and what would the CGT be on sale?
- Consider whether the current CGT situation argues for crystallising the gain at current rates, particularly if UK CGT rates may increase in future budgets
5.2 Overseas Property
Review any overseas property:
- Is rental income being declared correctly in the relevant local jurisdiction?
- Is insurance up to date and sum insured appropriate?
- Is the property well-managed (maintenance, tenant quality)?
- Has the local market moved materially, suggesting a valuation update is appropriate for estate planning or CGT planning purposes?
Section 6: Estate Planning Review
6.1 Will Review
Review your will (or wills, if you have separate documents for different jurisdictions):
- Are your executors still appropriate (alive, willing, in accessible location)?
- Are your guardians for minor children still appropriate?
- Has the asset list changed materially (new property, new accounts, changed company ownership)?
- Have family circumstances changed (new child, death of a beneficiary, change in relationship)?
6.2 Inheritance Tax Exposure
Calculate your current estate value and review against IHT thresholds:
- Nil-rate band: £325,000 (frozen until at least April 2031 as of current plans)
- Residence nil-rate band: £175,000 (if residential property passes to direct descendants)
- Combined couples: up to £1 million available
Is your estate above these thresholds? If so, review your mitigation strategy: gifts, trusts, life assurance in trust, BPR qualifying investments.
6.3 Powers of Attorney
Are your UK Lasting Powers of Attorney (financial and health) still in place and registered with the Office of the Public Guardian? Are equivalent documents in place for your country of residence?
Section 7: Banking and Cash Management
- Is your offshore bank account relationship still appropriate? Has the minimum balance position changed?
- Are you paying competitive FX rates on regular currency conversions?
- Are your cash deposits earning reasonable interest? (In 2026, interest rates vary significantly across jurisdictions and providers)
- Is your emergency cash reserve appropriate? (6 months of living expenses is a typical rule of thumb; expats with less liquidity face more vulnerability to income disruption)
How Global Investments Can Help
The annual financial review is the most high-value use of your time as an expat. Our international wealth management team provides structured annual reviews for clients covering all the sections above:
- Tax and residency review — in conjunction with specialist tax advisers
- Investment portfolio review — performance, allocation, fees and tax efficiency
- Pension and retirement planning — NI, UK pension access strategy, drawdown modelling
- Insurance review — IPMI, life, property
- Property portfolio review — UK and international holdings
- Estate planning — will review, IHT exposure, succession planning
We recommend an annual review meeting of at least 2 hours with all relevant advisers present or coordinated. For complex situations (multiple jurisdictions, significant portfolios, business interests), a half-day working session may be more appropriate.
Contact us to schedule your annual review.
All information correct to the best of our knowledge as of June 2026. Tax thresholds, pension rules and regulations change. Nothing in this guide constitutes professional advice. Seek qualified advice tailored to your personal circumstances.
This guide is for general information only and does not constitute financial, legal or tax advice. Rules, fees and regulations change frequently; verify current requirements with a qualified adviser before acting.