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Blevins Franks International tax and wealth management advice Blevins Franks is a leading financial advisory group to UK nationals moving to and living in Europe. Dating back to 1975, today we have long-established offices in the UK, Spain, France, Portugal, Cyprus and Malta.
Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind regarding their long-term financial security, and reassurance that their estate planning is structured to deliver their wishes for family and heirs. Our highly experienced advisers have a deep understanding of the local tax regimes and the financial planning needs of expatriates living in the countries we operate in.
Our service and advice are highly personalised and based upon your circumstances, family situation, needs, objectives, future plans and risk tolerance. We can help you make the most of your wealth in the most tax-efficient way, by providing integrated advice covering:
Tax planning – minimising tax on income, capital gains, pensions, wealth and inheritances. Investments – protecting your wealth through an investment strategy designed to suit your circumstances and goals. Estate planning – ensuring your assets go to the right hands at the right time, with as little tax as possible. Pensions – exploring your options for your UK pension funds, including the tax implications in each country, to provide long-term financial security.
Reviews 117
Iain Chester
Mar 15,2024My wife and I have been clients of Blevins Franks since 2006, initially in Spain where we had excellent service before moving to the UK where the service level dropped off somewhat. However, since we have moved to our present Private Client Manager (Mark Leaney) things have improved dramatically. Our interactions with our PCM are clear and concise and actions taken are now actually acted upon. Long may this continue.
stephen graham
Mar 09,2024The online criticism of Blevins Franks has rather taken me aback. Were they all written by the same person under a number of pseudonyms? Were they written by friends of someone, cajoled into using social media to denigrate a firm they felt badly served by? Social media is a minefield. For ourselves, Blevins Franks, and their predecessors in France, Siddalls, have served us well for 20 years. We have dealt with three people in the main, ably assisted by a number of colleagues, and genuinely feel that they all worked conscientiously and consistently in our best interests, always promptly and effectively. We simply do not recognise the critical comments in those postings. Stephen G H
Michael W Esthop
Mar 07,2024We became clients of Blevins Franks in 2007 when we relocated to Spain, and continued our relationship some years later when we moved to France. In 2015 we came back to the UK. During the period abroad we were fortunate to develop wonderful relationships with our respective Client Service Managers, who made our moves from a fiscal perspective with great ease and problem free. When we relocated back to the UK in 2015 we met our new Client Service Manager, and in the passage of time we are yet again fortunate to have someone from BF with a wonderful breadth of knowledge and pinpoint understanding of our fiscal requirements. We continue to enjoy the excellent service, advice and fiscal management that has been so successful over the years. Thank you Blevins Franks for providing such a wealth of talent, and we hope our present relationship with Duncan Sandbrook, our Client Service Manager, will continue for many years to come.
Alexander
Mar 07,2024I am retired in France and my brother introduced me to Blevins Franks based on the recommendations of several his colleagues who had retired to mainland Europe and were clients of Blevins. Before engaging with them, I asked their advice on an index-linked, deferred final salary pension with a large multinational company. Several other wealth companies were urging me to transfer the funds to their schemes to improve my returns. Uniquely, Blevins Franks told me to leave it where it was as it would be difficult to beat the fund performance. This turned out to be excellent advice. I decided to choose them to set up an assurance vie and they started by testing our risk acceptance, which was quite cautious. Last year our adviser suggested a review of risk acceptance and we agreed to move to a slightly higher level of risk. We now have annual reviews with our client adviser and our fund is delivering according to our projected future needs, so we are happy with the performance. A previous adviser was less proactive, but that has been rectified. Blevins have also provided useful advice on inheritance (wills and Power of Attorney ) and changes in tax laws. They also helped us to find an excellent accountant who has been invaluable in helping us to file tax returns .
Glynis parley
Mar 06,2024I have been with Blevins Franks in Cyprus since 2009 and have always found the staff pleasant, respectful and knowledgeable with help for my finances in respect of Cypriot law and taxation. I would certainly recommend them to anyone.
Tim Walsh
Mar 06,2024Our new client account manager, Catrina, is a breath of fresh affair since replacing her predecessor. Our investment and pension portfolio lost significant value at the outset of our relationship in 2021 which has been very concerning. But we are now more confident that with Catrina's pro-active, professional approach supported by an efficient admin team, we will see steadily improving performances.
L A Bonnar
Mar 05,2024My wife and myself have been clients of BF, Cyprus for the past 15 years and feel very satisfied with the advice supplied (Lou Cunningham) and the staff in Cyprus, plus the technical support from (Roxzanna Bartolo) and staff in Malta. The details, clarity and courtesy from each person has been excellent throughout during several major decision making situations for us.
Richard Thwaites
Mar 01,2024We have been clients of Blevins Franks Malta for over ten years. During this time we have always been satisfied with their good and clear advice. We have always found the staff very helpful and friendly, always willing to help whatever it might be.
John Valenzia
Mar 01,2024When I transferred my pension to a QROP, BF negotiated an additional amount than the one proposed by my UK company before I involved BF. I have received excellent personal contact on a yearly basis by BF representatives and the funds in my portfolio have given the returns that meet my expectations.
Dave Barney
Feb 28,2024We have been Blevins Franks clients in London for four years now. We have always received consistently good information and advice from our advisor, Jason. We meet regularly and we find that he really understands our situation and financial goals. At our last meeting he came well prepared for the agenda that we’d agreed. We discussed at length our current position and our new goals for the medium and long term. This resulted in clear analysis and advice for us to mull over before we slightly adjust the balance and risk of our portfolio. Our whole strategy over the years has been carefully and systematically planned with Jason, so that his regular reviews and advice seem to progress naturally as our circumstances and the markets continue to change. We are very happy with our investments and the help Jason and Blevins Franks continue to give.
Julie Laverock
Feb 17,2024Just a big thank you to the BF team in Tenerife. My parents have been long-standing clients of 20+ years. They gave superb guidance and support following my father's passing in 2021. Their financial advice will mean my mother can enjoy many more years in the sun!
ann gwilym
Jan 20,2024I have been a client of Blevins Franks for 20 years at the Estepona office headed by Mr Bowern of the firm. Mr Bowern has a new Client Manager named Alfonso Sanz Lucia. I had an important matter that needed seeing to, and Alfonso explained everything clearly to me in a very helpful way. He gave me good advice and then put the process necessary into action very quickly. Alfonso has a particularly pleasant manner and I’m a very happy client.
Ray
Jan 11,2024Blevins Franks are a mean, slick,lovely to meet you, coffee offering, glossy brochure, plush office,sales machine who are only concerned with ony one thing, their bottom line - forget the clients. You only have to pass through Bergerac Airport to realise that. Surprised they don't rename it in their honour. We signed up to a 'Privee Select' accumulation fund recommended by BF. Despite our low to medium risk status 5 years later we were left with a toxic mix of a negative return and high fees. We initially trusted the 'experts' completely but after a slump of 20.99% in performance in 2022 we undertook our own research. Prior to this whenever we raised any concerns we were told world events were to blame and we must be patient. To our horror we discovered the fund enthusiastically championed by BF was a Turkey. Practically bottom of the pile in all categories, apart from expense, from the beginning. Furthermore we have yet to find any positive feedback from anyone for this fund(except BF or course). During all this time NOT ONCE did BF flag up any concerns and seem surprised when we pointed out the quality of the fund. We complained and were treated like small fry, and eventually only offered a very modest refund in return for waiving our rights to take any further action. When we informed them we had to dip into our contingency fund we were told 'that is what it is there for' Why should we support their incompetence - how arrogant . Instead of sitting back and enjoying our retirement we have been left fretting about our future. NEVER AGAIN.
Célia
Jan 10,2024We had a French Assurance Vie with Blevins Franks. We left France in August and obviously need to transfer these funds to the UK. We told BF in July about our move. Since then things have dragged on slowly and we are still waiting for a report on what we can do with the funds. No contact from our advisor since his last email early December. We don't know what is the state of our fnds now.
Diane Bentley
Jan 01,2024Unfortunately my husband and I's move to Blevins Franks has been disappointing. Just like the other reviewer BF had our money for 9 years in a QROPS with little growth. I was determined to find out why - cost, or poorly performing funds? Almost all our money had been put into Russell Funds and our adviser was either clueless, or didn't want to tell us the true costs of running the QROPS A DSAR revealed that cheaper options than Russell's were hidden from us and the BF trustees suggested that our investment growth data should be massaged in order that it 'didn't look as bad as she thinks' I complained to our area manager and BF chose to contravene Data Protection and share this information with a Partnership Director from another jurisdiction. In error he sent out an internal e-mail that we should not have had sight of and failed to successfully recall it. Instead of a swift apology when I raised the matter, he bullied and threatened me with legal action on 3 occasions from his UK office on the BF company server. My complaint about him was then passed over to their legal team who found my complaint to be without merit We too will shortly be in the process of leaving them because we feel our pensions will be unsustainable under their care. Exit fees from BF trustees are shocking, as is their internal correspondence which suggests they do not have your best interests in mind In summary this company does not provide value for money, nor in our experience do they act in the professional manner we would expect from a financial company in charge of our investments. E-mails available upon request
Stephen
Aug 25,2023I've had a terrible experience with Blevins Franks and I would strongly advise people NOT to use them. I invested my pension pot into a QROPS with them 5.5 years ago and it is worth exactly the same today as it was 5 years ago. I made quite a lot of noise with them telling them I was unhappy with their service and they eventually decided to terminate our relationship giving me 1 moths notice to find an alternative pension provider as they said I was rude. They then made it incredibly difficult to move the pension pot due to their over zealous due diligence. They are only interested in extracting their fees and couldn't care less about their clients. They are all smiles at the start but once they have your money they almost NEVER call you to check you are happy with their service and they make it very difficult to get your money out once they have it. They are very much an 'old boys club' type of organisation, not innovative in any way and stuck in the 1980's. Don't go near them.
28 St James's Square, St. James's, SW1Y 4JH, London, GB
https://www.blevinsfranks.com/
Austin
Mar 22,2024They have applied their experience and knowledge to help us make informed decisions that are to our advantage. Without their input we would have missed great opportunities to safeguard and improve our financial well being. Stephen has explained complex matters in a straight forward and friendly manner