16,500 millionaires left the UK in 2025, marking a record outflow, as Headway Wealth underscores the importance of independent advice for internationally mobile individuals.
Durham, UK - May 22, 2026 - As the UK records a historic outflow of high-net-worth individuals, Headway Wealth is pointing to the growing need for independent, FCA-regulated cross-border financial planning for internationally mobile clients. Driven by the abolition of non-dom tax status, which was formally enacted in April 2025, alongside sweeping inheritance tax reforms and a tax burden at its highest level since the 1940s, the departure of high-net-worth individuals accelerated sharply through last year. According to Henley & Partners’ Private Wealth Migration Report, the UK recorded the largest net outflow of millionaires of any country in history in 2025, more than double the number that left China in the same period.
Popular destinations like Milan, Geneva, Singapore, Miami, Sydney, and several southern European cities are absorbing much of this mobile wealth. These are not retirees chasing lower living costs. They are founders, executives, and investors, many still economically active, with deeply interwoven UK and international financial lives. For this group, moving abroad often introduces new planning considerations rather than simplifying existing ones. Pensions, ISAs, investment portfolios, property, and trusts remain behind.
Managing those assets from abroad, across multiple tax jurisdictions simultaneously, demands specialist knowledge across UK and international planning considerations. Many of these assets, particularly UK pension schemes, require FCA authorisation before any advice can be given, regardless of where the client now lives.
“The complexity doesn’t end when someone boards a plane,” says Hamzah Shalchi, Director of Headway Wealth. “In many ways, it starts there. These individuals need someone who can give them a genuinely unbiased view of their whole financial picture, tax, pensions, investments, succession, and who will coordinate every specialist required to manage it properly. That is what we built Headway Wealth to do.”
Independent Advice for Cross-Border Financial Lives
Headway Wealth is an independent, FCA-regulated financial planning firm built precisely for this challenge. Unlike many cross-border competitors, it carries no product affiliations or provider ties. Advice is driven entirely by client need, not commercial incentive. The firm works with a network of partner solicitors and accountants, bringing in tax advisers, lawyers, and other specialists as each individual situation demands. It is a consultative model that treats the financial planner as the coordinator of a wider professional team, someone who ensures that every moving part – whether that is a pension transfer, an offshore bond, a UK property portfolio, or a cross-border trust structure, is considered in the round and not in isolation.
That joined-up approach matters more than ever in a market where the cross-border advice landscape remains fragmented. Many advisers operate in a single jurisdiction and pass clients between firms when circumstances change. Others adopt a siloed model with no single professional holding a unified view of the client’s full financial picture. Without a coordinated approach, clients may be exposed to double taxation, missed planning opportunities, inheritance tax issues, and structures that may not work effectively across jurisdictions.
Supporting Internationally Mobile Clients
Headway’s client base spans the full arc of international mobility. The firm advises those preparing to leave the UK and needing comprehensive pre-departure planning, those already overseas managing retained UK assets, and those considering repatriation who face their own distinct set of tax, domicile, and pension considerations. No two situations are alike, and the firm’s approach reflects that.
“The internationally mobile individuals we work with are often managing financial lives that span multiple countries, each with their own tax rules, pension frameworks, and legal structures,” says Elliott Parkhouse, Director of Headway Wealth. “What they need is not a collection of advisers working in separate silos. They need one team that holds the whole picture, understands how each jurisdiction interacts with the others, and can act in their interest across all of them. That is the service we provide.”
That breadth of coverage, spanning the UK, the United States, the UAE, Europe, and a growing number of other jurisdictions, means Headway can follow its clients wherever they choose to go, maintaining continuity of advice rather than forcing disruptive handovers each time a postcode changes.
With 165,000 millionaires projected to relocate globally in 2026 and no sign of the UK’s structural tax pressures easing, the demand for genuinely independent, holistic cross-border financial planning has never been greater. For Headway Wealth, it is an opportunity to demonstrate what this kind of advice can look like when it is done properly.
To learn more about Headway Wealth’s cross-border financial planning services, visit https://headwaywealth.com/.
ABOUT HEADWAY WEALTH
Headway Wealth is an independent, FCA-regulated financial planning firm specialising in holistic wealth management for clients with UK and international financial interests. The firm serves clients across the UK, USA, UAE, Europe and beyond, supported by a network of specialist solicitors and accountants.
Disclaimer: This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, legal, or pension advice. Readers should seek advice from a qualified professional before making financial decisions. Headway Wealth is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Statistics sourced from Henley & Partners / New World Wealth Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025 (published June 2025). Millionaire migration figures are estimates based on modelled data.
