Else Beekman
You won’t see his diplomas and certificates. Peter Dougherty doesn’t display them. You won’t see that Peter is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor® in the United States and holds an MBA in finance there. Nor will you see that in Spain, he is certified as a European Financial Advisor as well as a European Financial Planner and holds a master’s degree in Spanish taxation.
This is a story about Peter Dougherty, Financial Planner at BISSAN Wealth Management in Spain. However, he prefers talking about his clients rather than himself. After all, helping clients is the reason he studied diligently to earn his numerous financial credentials.
“I want to learn from my clients,” says Mr. Dougherty, “hear about their goals and dreams. Our mission at BISSAN Wealth Management is to translate each client’s wishes, goals, and dreams into numbers: dollars or euros. That allows us – given their salary, spending, investments, and savings – to determine if and how these goals can be financed.”
A “goal-based investing”-approach’
BISSAN’s successful approach is known as “goal-based investing”, which is a financial planning strategy that aligns investment decisions with specific, personal financial goals, instead of focusing solely on maximising returns or beating the market.
Retirement in Spain: the financial advisor who can help
BISSAN assists clients in identifying financial goals like retirement or buying a home. Each of these goals is matched with a specific investment portfolio based on time horizon, risk, and return needed to meet the goal. That allows the firm to measure how well a client is on track to achieve each specific goal, not how the portfolio’s performance is tracking versus a market index. This frequently leads to better results because the emphasis is on long-term outcomes, which helps BISSAN’s clients stay focused during market volatility.
As Mr. Dougherty says, “financial planning has an additional level of difficulty for Americans living in Spain because of differing investment, tax, and retirement rules. Typically, these Americans continue to face U.S. tax obligations in addition to Spanish tax obligations. Their investment options are limited because non-U.S. mutual funds and even some pensions are taxed unfavorably by the IRS.
Further, Spain may tax their IRA/401K distributions differently than the U.S. does, while Spanish pensions offer tax deferral locally but not under IRS tax rules. At BISSAN Wealth Management, we help clients navigate these complexities without losing sight of the importance of intelligent, global financial planning.”
Cross-border U.S./Spain investment challenges
Peter Dougherty is a Financial Planner at BISSAN Wealth Management. There, he counsels Americans and other English-speaking expats living in Spain. He is also the author of two books focused on overcoming cross-border U.S./Spain finance and investment challenges. “The Dougherty Code: Secrets of Financial Planning in Spain Revealed” and “La Hoja de Ruta Fiscal y Financiera para los españoles en EE.UU.”, written in Spanish.
In its review of his first book, “The Dougherty Code”, professional book reviewer BookViral says “Dougherty has a genuine desire to improve the financial health of his clients.”
His second book – “La Hoja de Ruta Fiscal y Financiera” – received the Literary Titan Book Award. Recipients of this award are “commended for their ability to transform complex topics into accessible and compelling narratives that captivate readers and enhance our understanding.”
To schedule a free consultation with Peter Dougherty, click here.
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