The Isle of Man's wealth management community is calling for a clear strategy to exploit what are, and could be, the benefits from the UK's vote in June to quit the European Union.

A recent roundtable discussion held around the challenges and opportunities presented by the UK vote to quit the European Union heard that the Isle of Man is well-placed to benefit so long as a clear strategy is in place.

The seminar, organised by Boston Multi Family Office, an Isle of Man-headquartered group, heard that Brexit may pull the UK apart into different regional fragments, giving the Isle of Man an opening to pick up business although it could also face tougher competition for inward investment.

There are particular opportunities in areas relating to privacy and tax, Bruce Elliott, a director at Boston Multi Family Office, said. “Google and Facebook are being challenged in Europe, they are being bullied by the EU,” he said, referring to attacks on low-tax deals carved out by these US firms in jurisdictions such as Luxembourg and Ireland. “Twenty per cent of our economy here is now eGaming related and that’s because we were friendly to eGaming when others were not. I want to take one step ahead of the UK and EU, not just ride along in parallel with them, and now that means proactively legislating to set ourselves apart in areas like data protection, data sovereignty, and the internet of things: areas where companies are concerned about the direction the EU is going.”

The event was chaired by Boston CEO Alex Fray, attendees at the event included Tom Richards, MD of Thomas Miller Investment (Isle of Man), Steve Brennan, CEO of the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission, Dick Welsh, Director of the Isle of Man Ship Registry, John McGowan, CEO of MAC Group, John Spellman, Director of Finance at the Department of Economic Development, Nick Verardi, Director of Bramden Investments and Greg Jones, Director of Tax from KPMG. Also attending from Boston were Katherine Ellis, Phil Knop, Alex McNee, and Bruce Elliott.

Discussion covered a number of topics including the type of model the UK may adopt in its relationship with the EU, threats such as skills shortages emanating from cessation of free movement of people, and financial concerns arising from the potential impacts on VAT and increasing competition from the City of London.

(Boston Multi Family Office is one of the sponsors of WealthBriefing's own Breakfast Briefing event around the subject of Brexit, held yesterday, in central London. For more details about this event, sponsors and speakers, see here. A brief report on the event will be published here in due course.)