Ex-pat-centric wealth managers focus on different global regions. Independent wealth-management firm Tally-Ho Ventures has franchised the operational side of Belgravia Intervest, its non-European distribution arm, to Affinity Trust, a Luxembourg-based wealth manager. The deal calls for Affinity to pay Tally-Ho $6 million over five years, with an option to buy the division at the end of that term.

Tally-Ho caters to high-net-worth individuals – most of them expatriates – and small institutions. The Luxembourg-based firm has 13 offices and it’s authorized to operate in 23 countries. It has about $1 billion under administration.

There were about 25 million expatriate workers in 2004, according to surveys by consultancy Ernst & Young, which expects that figure grow by about 15% a year through the next several years. And, though overseas positions can be well paid, few companies’ benefit packages are as generous as they were a decade ago. As a result many overseas workers – including some executives – have to look to their own financial-planning and health-care needs. Meanwhile Capgemini, another consultancy, says that more and more high-net-worth couples are moving overseas to retire.

By another name

The agreement with Affinity is Tally-Ho’s first flirtation with the franchising model, which Tally-Ho CEO Peter Smith calls “an excellent vehicle” to leverage the Belgravia Intervest brand and an opportunity to generate “tremendous” gross margin growth.

The move also fits Affinity’s plans to grow as an ex-pat wealth manager. But where Tally-Ho sees Europe and the Middle East as its primary markets, Affinity is setting its sights on fast-developing third-world economies.

CEO Roy Childs anticipates “building our franchise by double-digit percentages over the next year.”

Tally-Ho was called Belgravia Intervest until 2004, when, in a bid to secure a U.S. stock listing, it bought all the shares in a threadbare U.S. comedy-film company called Tally-Ho, thereby making itself a wholly owned subsidiary of that shell. Smith tells FWR that he will apply to take Tally-Ho from an over-the-counter issue to the Nasdaq sometime this year – and that he plans to ditch the Tally-Ho name as soon as possible and put “Belgravia Intervest” back at the core of the firm’s branding.

Belgravia Intervest was formed in 2002 when Belgravia Group International merged with the Intervest Group. Smith had founded Belgravia in 1994, as he moved from the London Stock Exchange into offshore financial services. The Intervest Group was formed a year later through a combination of Lazard Holdings, a Bahamas company, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia-based Arabian Brokers International. – FWR

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