Soaring demand for specialist financial advice by returning UK expats is fuelling deVere United Kingdom’s ambitious expansion plans, one of its senior managers says.

Soaring demand for specialist financial advice by returning UK expats is fuelling deVere UK's ambitious expansion plans, says Kevin White, the deVere Group’s UK-based managing partner.

At present, deVere UK has eight consultants but White recently told this publication that he “wants to get to 50 in the next 12 to 18 months” and insists that “only the most talented, results-driven advisors will be selected”.

deVere is, according to White, one of the very few examples of a global IFA, offering services to clients wherever they are in the world. While the larger private banks can - or claim - to be able to offer a similar geographic range of support, White says few advisory businesses (it is not a bank) can match it. And many IFA businesses, he said, tend to be nationally focused and tend not to be interested in cross-border client business. But if deVere's business model continues to expand at its current rate, it may spawn emulators.

White, who has run the UK operation for the firm since it was established in the country more than four years ago, said the company will relocate to larger City of London premises, before opening a further two offices in the north of England over the next 12 months.

“This is an exciting stage in our corporate growth as we forge ahead with these strategic UK openings ahead of the RDR deadline,” he said, referring to the Retail Distribution Review programme of official reforms to the wealth management sector.

“In many ways, deVere UK's expansion is bucking the trend as many IFAs are looking to leave the industry before the UK’s regulator [the Financial Services Authority] rolls out RDR,” White said.

Pricing, expansion

Depending on their level of investable assets, deVere’s clients are charged up to 3 per cent (as a percentage of AuM) when opening an account, and 1 per cent annually thereafter.

“At present, our business development is driven by an increasing number of expats who are coming back to the UK, even if it’s just for a few years, and who are seeking specialist advice from an established firm that is already RDR-compliant,” White continued.

“Currently, on average, there are about 40 deVere Group clients returning to the UK a month.”

To successfully manage the growing demand, and the new offices, White says that additional UK-based IFAs will be recruited. 

“As we provide all our clients with bespoke financial advice to reach and exceed their financial objectives, we’re looking to take on extra consultants. Our existing team wouldn’t have sufficient time to dedicate to, say, 150 clients each,” he said, before suggesting that around 50 clients per advisor is the maximum one can serve “to a world-class standard”.

UK is expanding faster

The UK division is, according to White, growing disproportionately more than the deVere Group as a whole due to “client needs that exist.”  “The deVere Group only handles investments, whereas the deVere UK handles other issues, ranging from mortgage advice to currency management issues,” he said.

However, it is not just the UK arm that is expanding – far from it. Earlier this year, the deVere Group as a whole, which has more than 60,000 clients and $8 billion under management, announced that it is to launch a further 12 offices globally this year and has plans to have 100 worldwide within the next five years.

“At deVere we’re industry leaders in wealth solutions for returning expats and for those who continue to live outside their country of origin. 

“We believe that being closer to our clients is better - and the globe-spanning expansion plans demonstrate deVere’s commitment to offering world-class financial advice to our clients wherever they choose to live in the world,” he said. “deVere clients are looking for a truly international service. For example, they could be someone who is posted to New York but who then is transferred to Moscow; or a British national who is returning to the UK from Spain,” said White.

US presence

To illustrate his point, White highlights the firm’s growing presence in the US, where it has offices in New York’s landmark Chrysler Building, and in the heart of Miami’s financial district, plus plans to inaugurate a new base imminently in Houston, Texas.  

“We’re a global organisation with a local presence,” he concludes.

This may sound a bit like a cliche, but one has the sense that White really means it.