Green, who heads western Europe for the international advisory company founded by father Nigel Green, said he expects to use the experience deVere has acquired in fee-only jurisdictions to help facilitate the switch.
“It is essential that there is complete transparency and full disclosure on charges from the start,” Green told International Adviser.
“Any agreements should disclose how charges are made, how much will be charged, the service expectations, and the levels of protection.
“I think it is likely that, moving forward, many more jurisdictions will become fee-based. This is a trend that is happening globally and I think will happen here within the next five to 10 years.
“As a global group, our organisation already has a strong presence in many of the world’s fee-based jurisdictions.
“As such, we’re already considerably ‘ahead of the curve’ with the international financial services space in this regard.”
Growth priority
Since Green took over the western European business deVere has treated the region as a growth priority, he said.
“The business focus on Europe intensified because of the increasingly healthy European economy; the growing demand for our specialist advice from an increasing number of expats and internationals in Europe; and because we wanted to address the ‘financial advice’ gap that has been created by a high number of IFAs leaving the market,” explains Green.
Since May deVere has reopened in Madrid, the Algarve and Vienna and plans to grow in South of France, Barcelona Germany and Switzerland in 2018.
Hiring Advisers
“Our continuing expansion in western Europe is opening up new and extremely rewarding career opportunities for talented advisers and support staff to work within a growing, responsible global organisation,” said Green.
“We have taken on 30 staff across the region to cope with client demand in line with our expansion. We expect this number to double before the end of February 2018.”
Feeding this growth, apart from strengthening European economies, is the expat dream that is still “alive and well – and perhaps stronger than ever before”, according to Green.
He predicts the EU and UK will maintain the status quo on expats’ rights after Brexit but in either case the factors underpinning expat migration will remain strong.
In fact, Green has found that Brexit has boosted demand for advice from expats troubled by the uncertainty.
