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The Webber Group: Expat Wealth Management Services and Solutions

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España
Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid
The Webber Group: Expat Wealth Management Services and Solutions

Helping expats and other investors find the proper services to protect and grow their wealth.

Being an expat myself, I understand the challenges involved with moving to another country. I can assist with wealth management and planning so you can enjoy discovering new things about the exciting new place you're living in.

25/09/2026

Most people with a UK pension have never chosen how it's invested. It was set up automatically when they started a job, a retirement date was entered, and the pension has been quietly managing itself ever since based on that date and a set of assumptions nobody ever asked them about.

One of the most common of those assumptions is called a lifestyle strategy. As you get closer to your selected retirement date, the pension automatically moves your money out of investments that can grow and into cash and bonds that are considered safer. On the surface that sounds sensible. The problem is that this strategy was designed decades ago for a completely different world, one where most people retired at 65, bought an annuity with their pot, and that was that.

Most people retiring today don't do that. They keep their money invested and draw from it over decades. Which means moving it into low growth assets ten years before retirement isn't protecting them. It's quietly costing them a significant amount of money during the years when their pot is at its largest and compounding could be doing its most valuable work.

The numbers in a recent FT Adviser article make this pretty clear. Someone contributing £500 a month over 40 years could end up with nearly £984,000 if their fund grew at 6% throughout. If growth dropped to 2% in the final ten years because of an automatic lifestyle switch, that figure drops to around £557,000. That's over £426,000 lost not because of a market crash but because of a default setting nobody ever reviewed.

If you have a UK pension and have never specifically chosen how it's invested or checked what your selected retirement date actually is, that's worth looking at before October brings any further changes.

Book a free thirty minute call below and we can take a look at what your pension is actually doing.

22/09/2026

Titan Wealth, a major UK wealth management company backed by a US private equity firm, was found this week to be paying its advisors a bonus specifically for convincing clients to move onto higher fee structures. Not for better service, not for better returns. Just for getting clients to pay more. One compliance expert quoted in the Financial News article called it a future example of poor practice in an FCA guide.

The article is behind a paywall but the story is worth knowing about regardless.

This is the kind of thing most people assume doesn't happen at established, well known companies. The bigger the firm the more trustworthy it feels. This story suggests that assumption doesn't always hold up.

The question of how your advisor is paid matters as much as what they're telling you. If the way they earn their bonus depends on you spending more money, that's something you should know about before taking their advice. It's not an awkward question to ask and any legitimate advisor should answer it without hesitation.

I tell every client exactly how I'm paid. Standard commissions, fully disclosed, no incentive to move you anywhere that benefits me more than it benefits you. That's not just how I prefer to work. It's a regulatory requirement under the framework I operate within here in Spain and Portugal.

If you want to understand exactly how your current advisor is paid and whether that creates any conflict with your own interests, book a free call below.

21/09/2026

74% of British people living abroad have never reviewed their UK pension. Only 7% know where all of theirs actually are.

That's from a study of over 750 expats published today in the Daily Express. I answer these questions a lot and there are enough companies specifically dedicated to helping expats with this, like myself, that those numbers don't surprise me at all. Things get forgotten in the excitement of retirement or moving somewhere new and then just get left.

Most people I talk to have a rough idea that there's a pension somewhere from a job they had years ago. Maybe two. One from before they moved, one from after. Possibly a state pension they haven't thought about since they left. All of it sitting in the UK doing something, just not entirely clear what or whether it's actually doing it well.

Last week I had been talking about the October budget and why now is a better time than after to look at UK money. But before any of that conversation can happen you need to know what you actually have. You can't make a decision about something you can't find.

A thirty minute call is genuinely enough to start getting a clear picture. Not a commitment to do anything, just an honest look at what's there. Most people come out of it either relieved that things are in better shape than they feared or glad they finally know what needs sorting.

Full article in the first comment. Book a call below if any of this sounds familiar.

17/09/2026

October is less than a month away and if you have money sitting in the UK you should probably be paying closer attention to what's happening there than most people are right now.

The UK bond market is in a place it hasn't been since the Liz Truss disaster in 2022. The people and institutions that lend money to the UK government are getting nervous and starting to charge more for it. That's not a small thing. When that happens it usually means something bigger is coming and right now the something bigger looks a lot like a budget that hits people with UK assets hard.

The chancellor has been pretty clear that tax changes are coming in October. What exactly those changes look like nobody knows yet. What we do know from previous budgets that have gone badly for expats is that the window to do something closes fast. The rules around moving UK pensions abroad changed almost overnight a few years back and the people who had been meaning to sort it out found their options had mostly disappeared before they got around to it.

Currency moves, political instability, tax changes. All of it sits on top of whatever your money is supposedly doing over there. And none of it is moving in a direction that makes waiting the smart call right now.

Later is pretty much now.

Book a free thirty minute call below before October makes the decision for you.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

16/09/2026

If you have a UK pension and you live in Spain, this is the specific thing worth thinking about before October.

A few years back a budget changed the rules around moving UK pensions abroad almost overnight. People who had been planning to sort it out, who had it on the list, who were going to get to it when things settled down, suddenly found that the options they had been counting on were either gone or had gotten a lot more expensive. Some of them are still dealing with the fallout.

The hints coming out of the UK right now suggest something similar could be coming in October. Not necessarily the same thing but the direction is not great for people with money they are trying to move or restructure.

What a lot of British expats in Spain don't realise is that the pension they left behind in the UK is still set up for someone living in the UK. It's invested for someone spending in pounds, being managed for someone paying UK tax, and not doing a particularly great job for someone whose life is now entirely in euros. Getting it into something that actually fits where you live now takes a bit of time to set up properly, which is exactly why doing it before a budget rather than scrambling after one makes such a difference.

There are still good options available right now. That may not be true in November.

Book a free thirty minute call below and let's take a look at what you have before the window gets smaller.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

15/09/2026

If you still have money sitting in the UK, pay attention to this one.

The UK government's finances are in a difficult spot right now and it's starting to make the people and institutions who lend them money nervous in a way that hasn't happened since the Liz Truss disaster in 2022. Most of you will remember that period. Mortgage rates spiked, pension funds were in trouble, and it felt like everything was wobbling at once. We're not quite there again but some of the same warning signs are showing up.

On top of that, the chancellor has been dropping pretty clear hints that tax hikes are coming in the October budget. For expats living in Spain that's not just a UK problem. Changes to how pensions and savings are taxed can happen overnight and the window to do something before a budget lands is almost always shorter than people expect.

I saw this firsthand a few years back when a budget completely changed the rules around moving UK pensions abroad. People who had been planning to sort things out found the door had mostly closed before they got to it. Some got caught out simply because they had been waiting for the right moment and the right moment disappeared without much warning.

Nobody knows exactly what October is going to bring. But if you have a UK pension, ISA, or savings that you've been meaning to look at properly, now is a better time than after the budget to do it. Once the changes land the options tend to get a lot narrower.

Book a free thirty minute call below and let's take a look at your situation before it becomes urgent.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

04/09/2026

Even though summer is winding down, Spain is still beautiful and Friday is still one of the best days of the week. Last weekend before school starts again, another heat wave where I am, but it's still going to be a great one.

I'm lucky in what I do. Every day involves meeting new people, hearing their stories, figuring out where they are and where they want to be. Some of those conversations this week have been about some pretty serious stuff. People who realized too late that whoever they trusted with their money wasn't actually looking out for them.

Most of the time people come to me directly. But just as often someone gets in touch because they heard something from a friend or a family member or a colleague that didn't quite add up. An investment that sounds too good. A return that seems unrealistic. An advisor who gets defensive when asked basic questions. That instinct to check is almost always right and I'm always happy to be the second opinion.

So if something doesn't feel right about your own situation, book a call. And if you know someone else who is dealing with something that sounds a bit off, send them my way. First conversation is always free, no pressure, and I'll be upfront and give whoever it is a straight answer about what I actually think.

That's what this is for.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

03/09/2026

While posts this week sort of come across like a scare tactic, that's not the intention. Not every unregulated advisor is deliberately out to scam you. But the odds are not in your favor. When someone is operating without proper registration in Spain or Portugal, without the oversight, the compliance requirements, and the accountability that comes with it, the reasons for that are rarely good ones. Proper regulation is not difficult to obtain if you are genuinely committed to operating legitimately. The ones who haven't bothered to get it usually haven't bothered for a reason.

A properly regulated advisor might seem like they cost a little more upfront. In reality they are almost always considerably cheaper overall. What you are paying for is someone operating within a legal framework that protects you, that requires transparency about fees and commissions, and that gives you somewhere to go if something goes wrong. The alternative might look cheaper on the surface but one bad outcome wipes out years of apparent savings in an afternoon.

However, on the other hand, I am not the only regulated option available to expats in Spain and Portugal. There are other firms operating properly within the regulatory framework here and that is genuinely a good thing. The more legitimate options available to people the better.

What I would say is that the majority of regulated financial firms here are focused primarily on Spanish nationals. The specific situation of someone who has moved from the UK or Ireland, who may have pensions in multiple countries, assets in different currencies, and a completely different relationship with the Spanish tax system than someone born here, that requires a different kind of understanding. It is what I focus on specifically and it is genuinely a different conversation.

If you want to talk through your specific situation with someone who understands where you are coming from or just to get a second opinion on what someone is telling you, book a free call below.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

02/09/2026

This one hits close to home because it happened right here in Spain, on the Costa Blanca, about a month ago.

A British gestor, someone hired to handle tax payments and administrative paperwork for expat clients, was arrested after multiple people discovered he had been pocketing their money instead of passing it on to the Spanish treasury. People who thought their taxes were being handled properly were left with fines and debt to the tax office. One couple sent him €30,000 to cover a property transfer tax. It never reached the authorities.

A gestor and a financial advisor are different things. What I do involves investments, pensions, and wealth management rather than tax administration. But the warning here is exactly the same regardless of who is handling your money.

He was recommended. People trusted him because someone they knew had used him. He had a business, a local presence, he even stood in local elections. None of that meant their money was safe. There was no proper regulation or oversight behind any of it and when things went wrong there was nobody to hold accountable.

That pattern is not unique to gestors. It shows up across financial services here regularly. Someone local, someone who seems established, someone who comes recommended. Seeming trustworthy and being properly regulated are two completely different things and one does not guarantee the other.

If anyone is handling your money in any capacity here in Spain, the question worth asking is not whether you like them or whether a friend recommended them. It is whether they are properly registered and regulated in Spain specifically.

Here is the full story:

https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2026/07/29/excl-notorious-costa-blanca-advisor-leaves-expats-with-fines-and-debt-after-failing-to-pass-on-tens-of-thousands-in-tax-payments/

If you want to check whether whoever you are dealing with is properly set up, book a free call below. Happy to have a chat.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

01/09/2026

Yesterday's post got a lot of attention and a few people reached out asking about one thing specifically. The sophisticated investor loophole. So I want to explain what it actually means because it's important and it affects more people living here than most realise.

A sophisticated investor is technically someone who is experienced and comfortable in financial markets and has met certain criteria set by regulators. It sounds like a compliment. In practice the way some companies use it is anything but.

Here's what actually happens. You get approached by someone offering an investment. Before they tell you much about it they ask you to sign something confirming you are a sophisticated investor. Maybe you've dabbled in stocks, maybe you read the financial news, maybe you've just got a decent amount of savings. You sign it. Now the protections that exist for ordinary retail investors, the ones that exist specifically to protect people like you, no longer apply.

The reason some companies push this so hard is not to give you access to better investments. It's to shift the blame onto you if things go wrong. If you signed a document saying you understood the risks and were experienced enough to make the decision yourself, it becomes significantly harder to hold them accountable when the investment collapses.

It also means they can do less work. Less due diligence, less explanation, less paperwork. More commission for less effort with someone else carrying the risk.

If anyone has ever asked you to sign something describing yourself as a sophisticated or high net worth investor before properly explaining what you were investing in, that is worth revisiting.

Book a free thirty minute call below if you want to talk through anything you've already signed or been offered.

https://calendly.com/ben_webber/30min

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