Offshore Private Banking, Investment Funds & Fund Services
Ahhh, nice luxurious exotic places. Places where you might spend a small fortune to buy a small apartment which has a nice view and close proximity to the sea or a lake. (Indeed that's not the case for all offshore locations,)
Monaco, Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Switzerland, Guernsey, British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Ireland, Malta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Wyoming, Cyprus, Netherland Antilles, Seychelles etc etc.
All of these locations are famous destinations for HNWI & UHNWI, for Fund incorporation & distribution (Mutual Funds, HFs, PEs, VCs etc), for securitization purposes, for shipping and so on and so forth. Some of these locations are purely offshore and some onshore with some offshore-like characteristics or benefits.
If you are fortunate enough to become a Portfolio Manager, you will very likely have to deal with such issues. For example, a newly formed US multi-manager fund during its fundraising and launching process might want to open its doors to European investors; where would it be ideally incorporated within Europe? Ireland? Luxembourg? Guernsey? London? Paris??
You are working in PWM in Monaco and a US client has expressed his interest to gain exposure in agriculture in Africa, an increasingly popular investment over the last few years. Your client also happens to be doing a lot of business in the EU and has a French residency, as he owns an early 20th century villa in the French Riviera. Would you seek to adivse him a Lux domiciled South African agriculture fund which invests in land in Uganda?
Sounds funny, weird or even dodgy? It's pretty real.
Share your thoughts, criticisms and ideas!
