AES International

Greg celebrates one year with the Financial Life Management team at AES today!

He has a real talent for seeing the bigger picture, weighing different perspectives before landing on the solution that's best for the client.

This past year, Greg played a pivotal role in the successful launch of the new client portal and app. He drove the project forward from the outset, always making himself available to offer support, training, and practical solutions whenever challenges came up. His knowledge, responsiveness, and determination to deliver made a real difference to clients and the wider team alike.

He approaches complex problems with a calm, solution-focused mindset, always willing to roll up his sleeves, dig into the details, and find the best way forward. That balance of strategic thinking and swift ex*****on has set a strong example for everyone around him.

Thank you, Greg, for a brilliant first year – here's to what comes next.

From 6 April 2027, unused UK pension funds fall within your estate for inheritance tax purposes. For British expatriates in Dubai who have treated the pension as the one asset best left untouched, that changes the calculation.

The pension review that matters now is about sequencing. What to draw, when to draw it, and what the tax position looks like at each stage.

Three questions are worth answering before any withdrawal decision.

1. "Is an NT (No Tax) code in place before I take income?"

2. "How long have I been non-UK resident, and does the five-year rule still apply?"

3. "What happens to the pension I don't draw down?"

None of these questions has a universal answer. They depend on when you left the UK, whether you'll go back, and what the pension has to fund across several decades and possibly several countries.

They also can't be answered in isolation. Sequencing a pension without reference to the property, the portfolio, the succession position and where you intend to be living in 15 years produces an answer that's technically correct and practically wrong.

Purpose. Plan. Portfolio. The order matters, and it starts with where you want to retire and what income gets you there.

Your AES review begins with understanding your purpose and what the money is actually for, taking into account the nuances and complexities of building a life across borders.

You've probably fixed a retirement age in your head, and it's likely been sitting there for years without being tested against the numbers.

The date is set by conditions, not a birthday: what you actually spend each month, what changes once the mortgage goes, what you can access and when, and whether the plan still holds when markets fall.

Ten signs that date may already have moved: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0xZYc20

Here's what to check before you switch health insurance brokers in the UAE.

Switching your corporate health insurance provider feels risky. That's exactly why so many companies stay put, even when they know their current setup isn't working.

The fear is understandable. Disruption to employees. A gap in cover. Losing claims history. Starting again from scratch.

But staying with the wrong partner has a cost too. It shows up in rising premiums, poor claims support, and a plan that isn't being actively managed.

If you're considering a move, here's what actually matters.

1. Claims support.
Ask how claims are handled when something goes wrong. Is there a real person who advocates for your employees, or does the work fall back on your HR team? This is where most relationships are won or lost.

2. Insurer access.
A good partner brings you options you couldn't get on your own, and the leverage to challenge terms. Ask how many insurers they work with and how they negotiate on your behalf.

3. Employee disruption.
A well-managed transition should be almost invisible to your people. Ask exactly how the switch is handled, how continuity of cover is protected and how employees are communicated with.

4. Ongoing management.
The biggest question of all. Will someone manage your plan year-round, or only at renewal? The difference determines whether your costs stay under control.

If your current setup isn't giving you the support you expect, it's worth finding out where you stand.
Take our Corporate Healthcare Assessment: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0xXPyZ0

Some people just have a natural gift for making others feel understood – and Johanna Espanola is one of them. Today marks two years of her bringing that gift to AES.

Johanna has quickly become a key member of the financial life management team. Her willingness to learn and her commitment to making sure clients receive the very best service have been invaluable from the start. Every interaction is shaped by real care, so clients always feel valued and genuinely understood.

That natural ability to connect with people and understand what they need has been a real asset to the team. Whether she's supporting a client or working alongside colleagues, she brings a thoughtful, caring approach that makes a difference to everyone around her.

Analytical and attentive, she takes the time to understand each person as an individual – and it's that combination of genuine warmth and careful thinking that sets her apart.

Thank you, Johanna, for two brilliant years of care, dedication, and teamwork.

Jennifer Galang leads the way she always has – by example, every single day. And today, we're celebrating eight years of her at AES!

Jen doesn't just manage tasks; she genuinely supports and develops the people around her. She takes the time to give honest, constructive feedback and explains things in a way that helps people learn and grow – not just professionally, but as individuals.

That dedication extends to clients too. Whether it's a long-standing relationship or someone brand new, Jen consistently goes the extra mile, no matter how complex the situation.

She also knows the value of harmony, steering conversations towards solutions and earning the trust of clients and colleagues alike because she always follows through.

Organised, fair-minded, and never afraid to make a call when it counts.

Thank you, Jen, for eight years of keeping things moving and bringing out the best in everyone around you.

Ask seven AI tools the same financial planning question and you get seven different answers.

That's what researchers found when they tested ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, DeepSeek, Gemini, Meta AI and Perplexity on three ordinary questions.

1) How much to hold in emergency savings
2) What to draw down in retirement
3) How to split a portfolio

The answers varied enormously depending on which tool was asked.
They ran the same prompts again, changing only the race and gender of the person described. Some tools gave the same answer every time. Others didn't.

One put a household into a far more cautious portfolio than an otherwise identical one, purely on the basis of the demographic detail. Bias, the researchers said, rather than any financial reason.

Every tool sounded equally certain throughout.
Nothing in how the advice was delivered gave any clue it might be wrong.

None of this makes the technology a bad thing. These tools are remarkable, and they are excellent for understanding a concept or drafting something. But an AI model works with what it is given, and the expensive gaps in a financial life sit in the questions nobody thought to ask. The concern is the weight placed on answers drawn from an incomplete picture.

An AI owes you no fiduciary duty. Nothing obliges it to act in your interests. There's no file, no reasoning on record, and nobody to go back to.

A fiduciary has to put your interests ahead of their own, and can be held to it. The advice is documented. The conflicts are disclosed. The reasoning is written down, so it can be questioned, defended, and revisited when your circumstances change.

That's the difference between getting an answer based on a prompt, and being guided by a fiduciary financial life manager. Any LLM can give you the first. Guidance is a different thing entirely.

An answer also ends when the chat window closes. Financial success is determined less by what you know than by what you do, and keep doing. The real value of a fiduciary financial life manager sits there: raising your awareness of what the money is for, then helping you act on it, with someone answerable for the outcome.

Your insurance renewal is three weeks away. The broker sends a spreadsheet comparing two or three plans on price. You pick the cheapest. Everyone moves on.

Six months later, a senior employee's surgery claim gets declined for a reason buried on page 47 of the policy wording. Nobody flagged it. Nobody even read it.

This is the pattern we see across dozens of companies in the UAE every year. The broker who placed the policy and the broker who supports your people through it are rarely the same person.

1. "How many insurers did you approach, and why did you rule the others out?"

This is your policy market comparison, and most people never ask for it. One quote with no reason behind it means they went for speed. A short list with a reason for each choice means someone tested the market for you.
Two plans can cost the same and still be miles apart.

2. "When a claim gets declined, what do you actually do next?"

Forwarding the rejection email to your HR team isn't advocacy. You want to know who calls the insurer, what they argue, and how often it works.
Then do the insurance coverage evaluation before you sign, not after. Ask which exclusions are most likely to hit your staff, and ask them to show you where each one sits in the policy. Waiting periods, pre-existing conditions, treatment outside the network. When a claim gets turned down, the reason was almost always there in writing. Someone just never read it.

3. "What did our claims data do last year, and what does that mean for this renewal?"

This is the broker performance review nobody runs. If they can't answer from memory, they're managing a transaction. If they can, you can act on next year's cost instead of just paying it.

When to ask

At least six weeks before renewal, not six days. Six weeks out, you have time to test the market. Six days out, the choice has been made for you.

Health cover is often the second biggest people cost in a business. It's worth an afternoon. The broker who placed your policy should still be standing beside your people long after the paperwork is signed. To learn more about claims advocacy, visit: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0xKgF80