::Le Mag Group:: Rob Hesketh's Finance Article

Rob Hesketh's Finance Article, Oct 04

Strange times indeed. We live in what can best be described as a difficult financial climate. How difficult? Well, if you listen to Alistair Darling’s reported remarks, worse than the three day week; worse than Dennis Healey and the Gnomes of Zurich; worse than the ’87 crash and the ’92 exit from the ERM. Pretty bad then

Oh to be poor I hear you say. Pardon? Well the pure fact is that having money can be a pain in the neck. If there is anything worse than being poor it’s being wealthy and living in fear of becoming poor. How are we supposed to preserve and perpetuate wealth?
The answer lies in judgement and trust. You have to judge who to trust, and then trust in the judgement of others. This is not easy. In fact it is extremely difficult. Especially in times such as these. There are no easy options for the UK expatriate over here with a few hundred thousand euros in relatively liquid assets such as stocks and shares, PEPs and ISAs or bank deposits.
The chances are that you will have trimmed down your banking relationships in the UK to a minimum. You may be congratulating yourselves on having sold your UK property before the slump in the housing market. Either way, you still have a problem. The mattress is, I trust, not an option. It is amazing how difficult it can be to open UK bank accounts when you live in France, so the deposit protection scheme isn’t going to be much help. Bonds? Equities? Commodities? Don’t ask me. I don’t know which is going to lose you the least, or do I mean make you the most?
Do not expect too much from people like me. I cannot wave a magic wand and conjure up the answers to these questions out of thin air. What I can do is underline the basic facts of financial life here in France. I can tell you all about products such as Assurance Vie, and the benefits that accrue from these types of investment. I can organise insurance products and mortgages, credit crunch allowing. Most important of all I can stress the basic safeguards such as spreading your risk; making sure that you place your trust where it is most likely to be rewarded, and don’t take unnecessary risks. What I can’t do is guarantee that these sensible moves will ultimately protect you from loss.
There is a price to be paid for success. It comes with varying degrees of worry. I think it is a price worth paying; worth working for. Choose your partners carefully.
If you have any questions on this, or any other subject, please don’t hesitate to contact me, Rob Hesketh by phone on 0468 247758 or mobile 0631 787647 or by mail at rob.hesketh@spectrum-ifa.com. You can find out more about Spectrum on www.spectrum-ifa.com and about France-Financial on www.france-financial.com