Associate Membership is predominantly aimed at lawyers, accountants and tax experts but can also encompass finance and mortgage specialists, para-planners and any relevant professionals.
Feifa chief executive Paul Stanfield said: “We have seen – and, in fact, been encouraging – a growing trend of professionals working together to assist such clients in the most thorough and expert manner. Financial advisers from one country working with advisers, solicitors, accountants and tax experts in another.
“Our Associate Membership creates a formal framework for this to work more effectively, and provide an environment in which the most appropriate, tailored and wide-ranging advice can be delivered.”
According to Feifa, the UK has one of the most internationally diverse populations in the world. In fact, in 2011, 7.5 million people, 13% of the resident population of England and Wales, were born outside its shores.
On the other side of the coin, over five million UK passport holders are now said to reside abroad.
Figures which don’t even take into account many of the eight million US citizens who are living somewhere other than their country of birth, or the various other expatriates around the globe.
“Taken together, we are not only looking at upwards of 12 million people who have moved to a country other than their birth, but an increasing number of their descendants, family and heirs who are also affected by these changes,” Feifa chairman John Westwood (pictured) said.
“In short, more and more clients – especially the wealthier ones who are more likely to need a financial planner – have assets, income or liabilities in more than one jurisdiction.”
Restricted numbers
Associate Memberships will be limited in number and availability.
“It won’t make any sense for us to have, for instance, dozens of legal experts in Spain all becoming Associates. We will look to form a small number of beneficial relationships, in each professional sphere, in as many countries as possible,” Stanfield said.
Feifa is a non-profit trade association and its membership operates in around 30 European countries as well as, in some cases, other regions of the world.
Core members are english-speaking financial advisory businesses and advisers, active across Europe which advise on assets in excess of €5bn (£4.4bn, $5.97bn).
Associate Members will be professionals in other fields, whose skills and expertise can ‘dovetail’ with those advisers to provide truly holistic advice to clients.
