London & Capital says its recently created immigration investment and wealth planning division has so far captured a sizeable chunk of business from foreigners seeking to tap the new UK visa system for HNW individuals.

London & Capital says its recently-minted immigration investment and wealth planning division has so far captured a sizeable chunk of business from foreigners taking advantage of the new UK visa system for high net worth investors.

Around 470 foreign nationals successfully applied to enter the UK on a "Tier 1 investor visa’" in 2012 (source: Home Office). Such investors must deposit at least £1 million ($1.5 million), to be invested in gilts, UK bonds or UK equities. London & Capital said that since it created its speciality division last November, it has met around 180 professionals, in turn generating a pipeline of around 30 investor visa cases at varying stages of completion – equating to around 6 per cent of the market based on 2012 figures.

“An advantage of a firm like London & Capital is that we all sit about 25 feet from each other so depending on what sort of issue comes up we can deal with it by talking to the right person. The team here is new but the processes we apply are not,"  Mark Estcourt, head of immigration, who joined the firm last autumn, told this publication in a telephone interview.

Two thirds of London and Capital’s clients are from overseas so the firm is well used to dealing with cross-border and international client issues as a matter of course, he said.

“The [business area] was spotted by Daniel Freedman, managing partner. He noted that clients were talking about investors visas so we did some due diligence on that marketplace. We have made rapid progress since," said Estcourt, describing a firm that has $3.4 billion of assets, according to latest disclosed data.

Estcourt, a veteran of the wealth management sector, joined London & Capital in autumn last year; his background includes the creation and sale of two wealth management firms: Cavesham Buchanan and Cavendish Young. His appointment, and the type of business his unit provides, is a part, he says, of the kind of bespoke, highly-specialised services that distinguishes London & Capital.

In a separate statement about the business unit, he said: “The prevailing global economic and political climate, allied to the attractions of an established education, health and legal system, means growing numbers of families see the UK as a safe haven. As a result we are seeing a new market emerge, those seeking a Tier 1 investor visa presenting firms with the right experience, some exciting AuM-growth opportunities. With US resident non-doms and Green Card holders accounting for as much as a third of our firm’s overall revenues today, we are well placed to service the investment requirements of international families. Many organisations have shied away from this market, and we have underlined once more our commitment to working with international families,” Estcourt added.

How it works

“A client can come to us with an investment visa already in his pocket, or they contact us from whatever country they are in and ask to be taken on as a client," Estcourt said. “When you apply for a visa, the Home Office does certain checks but it does not check through the source of a person’s wealth,” he said.

“They [Home Office] want to see where the money is but verifying the source of money is something left up to the financial services industry, such as for the purpose of anti-money laundering. We spend a lot of time looking at the background of a client and his/her money. We have a 'comprehensive and detailed risk assessment process'," he said.

“We had a Chinese lady with a factory in Mainland China and headquarters in Hong Kong who was looking to come to the UK because the factory makes parts for a European manufacturer. She wanted to pay herself a dividend from the Hong Kong business; we needed to look at her company accounts and be satisfied about the details,” Estcourt said.

He pointed out that, for the purpose of visas, the 90-day period in which visa applications must be completed will start either from the day a person has entered the UK or from the day that a passport was stamped.