Carla Smart is a Chartered Financial Planner with over 15 years’ experience helping internationally mobile clients secure their financial futures. Her career spans three continents and multiple international markets, giving her a practical understanding of how complex financial systems intersect across borders.
Carla Smart is a Chartered Financial Planner with over 15 years’ experience helping internationally mobile clients secure their financial futures. Her career spans three continents and multiple international markets, giving her a practical understanding of how complex financial systems intersect across borders.
Her professional focus is on delivering clear, personalised financial guidance that enables clients to make confident, long-term decisions about their wealth, retirement and pensions. Her experience across the UK, Swiss and French financial and pension systems makes her particularly well placed to support clients with cross-jurisdictional planning needs.
What sets Carla apart
Carla provides advice across all major areasof personal financial planning, including:
Alongside her work as a financial planner, Carla is Group Head of Pensions, where she provides strategic oversight and technical support on pension matters across the firm. In this role, she supports advisers and clients with complex pension considerations, helps ensure advice remains technically robust and consistent, and contributes specialist insight to client discussions, particularly where cross-border pensions are involved.
FAQs
How does the Swiss pension system work for expatriates?
The Swiss pension system is based on three pillars: state provision, occupational pensions and private savings. How an individual is affected depends mainly on whether they are employed in Switzerland, their residency status and how long they expect to remain in the country. For internationally mobile individuals, understanding how pension contributions and benefits are treated when moving between countries is an important part of long-term planning.
Can I keep my UK pension if I live in Switzerland?
UK pensions are generally retained when someone moves to Switzerland, and residency alone does not affect ownership of the pension. How the pension is managed, accessed and taxed will depend on the type of pension and individual circumstances. Cross-border considerations often play a role in how a UK pension fits into an overall retirement plan.
What should I consider before transferring a pension overseas?
Pension transfers involve complex regulatory, tax and long-term planning considerations. Factors such as the type of pension, future residency plans, investment options and potential tax treatment should all be carefully reviewed before any decision is made.
How does pension planning fit into an overall financial plan?
Pension planning is a core part of long-term financial planning and should be considered alongside income, savings, investments, tax planning and future lifestyle goals. Taking a holistic approach helps ensure that retirement planning supports wider financial objectives, particularly for internationally mobile individuals.
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