There is 24/7 online access.

Of course. We never sell your data to third parties.

In the early days, it tends to be very frequent, as things are new to people and often people ask questions.

Over time, I usually communicate with clients once a month via email or WhatsApp. Everybody also get invited to client events, such my event with Shark Tank/Dragon’s Den star Kevin O’Leary.

I always try to tailor investments to what an individual is looking for – assuming they are realistic. A conservative 65-year-old might be looking for 4%-5% per year, whilst a younger investor could be willing to take a bigger risk to get double-digit returns.

It depends on your country of residence. Most can apply but a few can’t. For example, American residents (both expats and Americans living in the US) can’t apply for most services, even though I have partnered with an SEC-regulated firm for such cases.

I don’t hold the money of new clients personally . I use third party investment platforms. I am the advisor and not holding money directly. This avoids conflicts of interests.

From speaking to my clients, there are two main reasons people become my clients.

Either they have been introduced by an existing client, and they are reassured by the returns and consistent communication.

There are also many clients who find me from Quora, Google and other sources.

Many private equity, hedge funds and private banks charge 2% a year + 20% of profits and don’t give clients access to high-net-worth millions (like downside protection) unless the person is investing millions.

Most banks also offer an “off the peg solution”, which isn’t tailored to your needs, hold the money and make investment choices and/or only offer their own investment funds. The latter two can be conflicts of interest.

Many banks also close down closer accounts if you move overseas, or at least stop you adding new money.

Beyond that, for larger client portfolios especially, the banks overcharge.

They often charge a percentage fee on top of their already high fees for trading.

So, if you trade $1,000,0000 of Apple shares or Vanguard index funds, that flat fee could be $1,000-$5,000 if the charges are 0.1% or 0.5% for the trade.

With most of the platforms I use, you are charged as little as $20-$40 per trade, regardless of the size.

In addition to that, there are discounts for clients that invest larger amounts of money and stay for longer periods of time.

Added to the lower fees, portability and enhanced investment choices, this is what differentiates us from the banks.

Firstly, I don’t need to compete on cost, given how many people reach out to me.

The fees for new clients will also be increased in the coming months, which should act as a good incentive to get in now, before I update this section of the website.

The fees depend on the product and solution. For the purposes of this answer though, let’s focus on most lump sum cases.

On accounts below $500,000 (USD) I charge at least a 1% per year management fee on the account value. Above $500,000 there are sizeable discounts, and huge ones above $1m.

There are also discounts for clients that stay long-term. For example, let’s say a client has $200,000 to invest.

In this case, i will often charge 1% for the first 8 years, and then after that, average fees will fall to 0.1%-0.3% per year including for my advice.

As the portfolio should have grown beyond 200k in 8 years assuming markets have done well, this is a steal, as you could be paying 0.2% on 350k or 400k.

For clients looking for shorter-term structures (say five years) the fees are usually slightly higher.

Existing clients also get discounts on certain assets, which further increases the value proposition.

It has been possible for me to negotiate with fund providers to charge 0%-1% for assets, which usually cost 5%, as they are high-net-worth solutions.

My fees reward long-term clients and incentive people to stay for a long time but reducing them over time.

For monthly accounts, the net fees are typically between 1.15%-1.9% per year.

There are also platform fees which i can’t control.

Regardless of the size of the account, fees will never be below 0.5% per year of account value, and aren’t negotiable.

No.

Most likely they will keep increasing due to rising demand.

Each solution is tailored to you and your risk appetite. Some clients are invested entirely in ETFs or fixed returns.

Others are invested in assets that most people can’t get access to directly unless they are multi-millionaires.

On question 22, I gave some recent examples and fact sheets for assets we have traded into.

I have clients in more than 100 countries and 5 continents for a simple reason; I can be incredibly efficient online due to technology.

Clients come in all shapes and sizes; expats and locals and in different industries.

The majority of my clients are either expats, due to the cross-border nature of what I do, or locals who plan to become expats or want to avoid currency depreciation in their own countries.

The later point is pertinent for my clients based in Latin America, Africa and some parts of Asia.

Yes of course. Countless on Linkedin and on Youtube. Most of these recommendations are also for the investments platforms that I typically offer clients.

Your investment is safe as i never hold money and other staff members can take over.

Yes, I do. My model gives the client access to platforms which don’t restrict you to one specific fund house.

We aren’t tax advisors and can’t foresee the future and how taxes will change. With specific product providers, we have partnered with some tax advisors who can help our clients with tax minimization – including inheritance tax planning.

In general, some people overthink tax, though.

This is because

1. The tax rules could change in your country of tax residency when you sell your investment, and you can’t always future-proof that.

2. Your country of tax residency might change in the future

3. In the vast majority of tax systems in the world, you are taxed when you make a gain and not when your account is going up

4. Neither you nor we can control what tax laws will be in the future . So, there is no point in worrying about something we can’t control. It makes sense to carefully consider how to withdraw tax efficiently at the end of the account once the laws are known.

5. Capital gains is a good problem to have. Paying capital gains or dividend taxes due to a significant gain is better than getting a smaller increase and paying little tax!

Most of our investment solutions are in 0% capital environments, which means neither we nor the investment provider charges you tax.

If you also live in a 0% capital gains environment (like in many Middle Eastern countries), or in a country which doesn’t tax international income or overseas capital gains, that usually means you don’t need to pay tax – but again we aren’t a tax advisory service.

With that being said, we look for where we can find a tax-efficient structure. For example, if an insurance company regulates the investments for British expats living overseas, there are often tax advantages when you return home.

Anybody who is low-trust, inefficient and unreasonable in how they use my time.

My model is simple. I produce a lot of content for my readers and followers on my website and third-party websites, such as CNN, Forbes and CNBC.

Therefore, people who become my clients already trust my expertise, which makes the process easier.

We don’t do FX trading or Bitcoin. We don’t advise that gold should be a big part of your portfolio either.

On the lump sum accounts it is possible to buy Bitcoin ETFs and other cryptocurrencies, but buying is at your own risk.

I only have two clients in these ETFs. Both wanted it themselves, only hold a maximum of 5% of the portfolio in it and understand that it isn’t my advice to get into it.

If you want to fund your investments with crypto, and then sell out to buy into the diversified portfolios I recommend, then it is possible on the lump sum accounts only.

The biggest mistakes are often:
1. Caring about irrelevant things. For instance, in terms of the investment platforms, we deal with some which are regulated as investment companies, and others which are insurers.

However, that makes no difference to the returns, as the same funds and ETFs are used. It is merely a regulation issue.

2. Reading too much into the third-party vehicles I suggest. The platforms I suggest will naturally have some good, and bad, reviews.

That is because some advisory companies write negative reviews on solutions for self-interested reasons and the performance is down to the advisors who use the solution, so your millage will naturally vary.

Most of my client recommendations on LinkedIn are connected to the platforms I am suggesting, and most happy clients recommend the advisor and not the investment platform/solution, so it is a mistake to read too much into this point.

Ultimately, I am the driver of the vehicle. A good driver can get you from A to B in a Bentley or the cheapest car out there.

Accidents are usually caused by the driver, and not the machine.

So, negative online reviews for solutions are usually due to bad drivers (bad advisors) or have just been written for self-interested reasons.

An example of this is Moventum in Luxembourg, which is one of the many platforms we use. There are mixed online reviews, but all my clients have been happy with it

Each investment opportunity is tailored to the individual investor, so I can’t give out whole portfolios here. However, the following investments have been used in the past and most of them will be used for a portion of clients’ portfolios in the future:

1.BlackRock managed index funds

2. Vanguard S&P500 index.

3. iShares NASDAQ 100 UCITS ETF

I can also give investors access to professional funds, which are usually reserved for ultra-high-net-worth investors, often at discounted prices.

Some of these investments have averaged 12%-20% per annum.

This PDF shows three recent examples of such investments we have made for clients.

Whilst past returns are no guarantee of future ones, many of my clients see these assets as being a crucial part of their diversification strategy.

Most funds and ETFs follow a UCITS structure – a European regulated structure. This is considered the gold standard of fund regulation, and can be bought on most platforms even if they are domiciled outside the EU.

99% of my clients want me to make the trades as your time is money and most people are confused by finance.

In a small number of cases, clients have approached us because they can’t get access to solutions like Vanguard in their home country, and they make their own trades, and we just help with admin and occasional support.

This isn’t recommended for most clients unless you really know what you are doing.

No. There’s a lot of free guidance I put out there for people who don’t have the money to become my client.

Yes, the CII for financial planning and insurance. You can search here.

Yes.

In reality, few people ask such questions these days. We are in a digital world and living through a pandemic.

The answer is no. I don’t have the time considering my clients live in over 100 countries. I do, however, occasionally meet existing clients when I happen to be where they are.

For example, my interview with Tom in Germany was done in Germany on a face-to-face basis, but he was my client for months, and we never planned to meet.

A few are afraid about what happens if something happens to my health, and other unlikely events that we can’t always control like markets and future tax rates, as I explain on the video below:

I have also created an article on the common investment fears people have.

The information provided on this page alleviates most people’s concerns.