Portfolio Review Software for UK Financial Advisers: ISAs, Reporting Funds and Costs and Charges

Published 31 October 2026 by Steffan Kharmaaiarvi, founder

A UK portfolio review has a familiar rhythm: value the ISA, the SIPP and the general investment account, see what the taxable account will cost the client this year, record the ongoing-service review and send the annual costs and charges. It gets harder when a client holds offshore funds, has just arrived, is a US citizen, or owns European shares whose withholding may be reclaimable. This note is for independent financial advisers and small firms in the UK: the questions those reviews raise, what Borderfolio for Advisors screens, a worked example and where it stops. The figures are screening estimates for professional review, not tax advice.

Who it is for

Independent financial advisers and boutique wealth firms in the UK, especially those with internationally mobile clients: new arrivals, returning expats, US citizens in London, and clients holding US-domiciled ETFs or European shares. Borderfolio is a review and cross-border intelligence layer beside your back office, platforms and planning tools. It is not a CRM or a consolidation-and-billing platform, and it never recommends or trades.

The questions a UK review raises

• Which accounts are sheltered? ISA, Lifetime ISA and SIPP holdings sit outside UK tax on income and gains; the general investment account does not.
• Does each offshore fund have reporting status? Without it, a gain is an offshore income gain, taxed as income.
• How much of the allowances will the taxable account use? In 2026-27 the dividend allowance is GBP 500 and the CGT annual exempt amount GBP 3,000.
• Is the client a new arrival? The 4-year foreign income and gains (FIG) regime changes what is taxed in the first years.
• What does the client actually pay? The ex-post costs and charges statement has to show it, in money and as a percentage.
• Is the ongoing service evidenced? Under Consumer Duty, a review that is not recorded is hard to show.
• What does a proposed switch cost before it pays anything back?

What Borderfolio screens for a UK resident

The United Kingdom is one of the residences covered in depth; countries and coverage lists what that includes. Each item states its source and limits.

• ISA, Lifetime ISA and SIPP as wrappers. Set on the account, they are calculated at the wrapper's rates in every figure. US withholding inside an ISA is shown as the final cost it is. See tax wrappers.
• Reporting fund status by ISIN. Each offshore fund a UK resident holds is checked against HMRC's list of reporting funds, and the list's date is shown. UK funds and shares are not checked; holdings in an ISA or pension are noted. See UK reporting fund status.
• Annual allowances. Expected dividends in accounts without a wrapper against the GBP 500 dividend allowance, and unrealised gains against the GBP 3,000 CGT annual exempt amount, as a planning prompt. See the dividend allowance, CGT exempt amount and bed and ISA.
• The 4-year FIG window. When the profile's "resident since" falls in the client's first four UK tax years, the window and the years left are shown.
• Costs and charges. An annual ex-post statement following COBS 16A and MiFID II Delegated Regulation 2017/565 Art. 50(9): dealing costs from confirmed transactions, your own advice and platform figures where entered, estimates labelled as such, totals withheld while a line is missing, and third-party payments disclosed apart. See costs and charges.
• Ongoing-service review records. Each review is recorded against the client, so the evidence of the ongoing service sits with the portfolio it covers.
• European withholding. Withholding by Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy on directly held shares, what may be reclaimable and by when. Claims closing within six months appear in a firm-wide due list on the Overview. See cross-border findings.
• US persons in the UK. Cost under the Section 104 pool in GBP beside cost in USD, first in, first out, plus a PFIC screen and the FBAR and Form 8938 thresholds. See portfolio software for advisors to US citizens abroad.
• Scenarios. Current against proposed holdings, with a PRIIPs note when the proposal buys a US-domiciled fund, and the one-off cost of the switch: capital gains tax at the rate on file, dealing at the account's average commission, and how many years the yearly change takes to repay it. See scenarios and proposal scenarios.

A worked example

Illustrative round figures, not a real client. A UK resident has an ISA and a general investment account (GIA). The GIA's funds are expected to pay GBP 2,000 of dividends this tax year and carry GBP 10,000 of unrealised gains. The capital gains rate on file is 24%.

• Allowances. GBP 1,500 of expected dividends above the GBP 500 allowance, and GBP 7,000 of gains above the GBP 3,000 exempt amount if all were realised. A prompt for a bed-and-ISA conversation, not a computation of the tax due.
• Reporting status. One GIA fund is a US-domiciled ETF. Its ISIN is checked against HMRC's list; if it is not there, a future gain would be taxed as income, which changes the arithmetic above.
• A proposed switch. Replacing one GIA holding sells a position with a GBP 8,000 gain. The cost of the switch reads: CGT at 24%, GBP 1,920; dealing for the sale and the purchase at the account's average GBP 10, GBP 20; total GBP 1,940. If the comparison shows the client keeping GBP 120 a year more after tax and fund fees, the payback is about 16 years at today's figures. The exempt amount is not applied to that cost, so the real tax may be lower, and the scenario says so.

What it does not do

• It computes no tax return and no tax for the year: the allowances are prompts.
• UK inheritance tax and the long-term residence rules are not modelled. For the FIG window, the ten prior years of non-residence are not on file and need confirming.
• The cost of a switch does not apply annual allowances or losses elsewhere in the year, and a currency change is not modelled.
• European withholding is modelled on directly held shares of six source countries only; withholding inside funds is not.
• It does not recommend, rebalance or trade. The cross-border documentation lists every limit.

How it fits beside your existing systems

Borderfolio for Advisors is a cross-border intelligence layer, not a replacement for your CRM, platform, back office or planning software. Client data reaches it in two ways today. Brokerage statements are uploaded as PDF, CSV, XLSX or images: exports from 15 brokers are read by format-specific parsers, other statements go through an extraction model, and every import is reviewed before anything is confirmed (importing statements). Accounts at Interactive Brokers (Flex) and Freedom24 can instead be connected to the broker's read-only API; synced holdings land unconfirmed and go through the same review (connect a broker). Connections to adviser systems such as Intelliflo and NDEX are in development and are not live.

Your back office keeps the client record and your platform keeps custody; Borderfolio adds the cross-border review, the costs and charges statement and a client-ready PDF built from a stored snapshot, with your commentary in its own section (reports).

Frequently asked questions

Does Borderfolio check HMRC's reporting fund list?

Yes. For a UK-resident client, each offshore fund is checked by ISIN against HMRC's list of reporting funds, and the list's date is shown. UK-domiciled funds and shares are not checked.

Does it produce the annual costs and charges statement?

It prepares the ex-post statement for a calendar year following COBS 16A and MiFID II Art. 50(9), with each line's source. Totals are withheld while a needed line is missing, and the statement is stored as a report with its PDF.

Does it apply the dividend allowance and the CGT exempt amount?

As planning prompts on accounts without a wrapper: expected dividends against GBP 500 and unrealised gains against GBP 3,000 for 2026-27. It does not compute the client's tax for the year.

Does it replace my back-office system?

No. It sits beside it, reading statements and broker syncs. Integrations with adviser systems such as Intelliflo are in development and are not live.