Although deVere, like most companies, reviews its business all the time, it has now become such a large scale operation, with offices in such a wide range of very different markets that are all developing at different rates. Mike Coady, a director of deVere, said: “it seemed a good time to step back and look at which markets we want to be in, and invest in, and which we might not.”
Coady and company founder and chief executive Nigel Green will oversee the review, which is expected to be completed by mid-September or possibly earlier, Coady added.
According to Coady, the review will examine “every aspect of the business and will analyse on-going industry and regulatory trends, with the objective of creating a detailed and robust road-map to further strengthen our position as the ‘go-to’ advisory firm for international investors and expatriates worldwide”.
Coady said the growth of regulations covering financial services globally was among the reasons a comprehensive review seemed called for.
This growth in regulation was also behind the creation of two key new roles at the company, in the areas of compliance and regulation and technical services Coady said.
Two existing deVere executives have been promoted to the roles, with the mandate of setting up departments underneath them.
They are Colm Donnelly, who has been named European head of compliance and regulatory policy, and Nigel Smith, who is taking on the new role of European head of technical services.
Donnelly, who will remain based in London, had been compliance manager at deVere UK, while Nigel Smith, who came to the company recently, has been involved in technical support to advisers as well as helping out with various product designs and approvals, Coady said.
Smith will continue to be based at the company’s administrative offices in Malta.
Donnelly, an advanced financial planner and compliance expert, joined the deVere Group recently after 27 years working in the UK for such companies as Deloitte, Positive Solutions, Nat West Bank and KPMG. Donnelly is a trained lawyer and also holds a number of financial services-related qualifications from the Chartered Insurance Institute which cover taxation and trusts, pensions and financial planning.
Smith is a chartered financial planner who is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP), and a winner of the Isle of Man Insurance and Financial Services Institute’s Glyn Gilbert Award. He has been with deVere since 2011.
