Financial

Hiring Continues In The Middle East Wealth Management Bonanza

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Despite chilly global credit markets, the Middle Eastern wealth management arena is a recruitment hotspot. Firms are busily hiring senior executives to spearhead new wealth management teams. For example, Merrill Lynch recently appointed Mazin Al-Shakarchi as a financial advisor covering Qatar from the Bahrain office. HSBC Bank Middle East has appointed Walid Boustany to the role of executive director, strategic investments, Middle East & North Africa. He will be responsible for HSBC’s strategic planning across the region. Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has appointed Fadi Abuali as co-head of its Middle East private wealth management business, alongside current head Farid Pasha.

And there is more: the Central Bank of Bahrain has approved Douglas Hansen-Luke as Robeco’s new chief executive for the Middle East. Mr Hansen-Luke formerly worked in senior positions for ABN Amro Asset Management in Asia, Europe and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank has appointed Shaikh Salman bin Ahmad Al Khalifa as managing director, group business development.

The rash of appointments seen in recent years will continue, barring an unlikely collapse in demand for wealth management, Professor Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create-Research, a UK consultancy on the investment management industry, told WealthBriefing.

Wealth managers are going into the Middle East in a big way, said Professor Rajan. This is a high-margin business to be in as banks get fees right along the value chain, he said. But although the region is lucrative, making money is not easy. Local investors typically punish poor investment performance quickly – often far faster than is the case with European or US clients, said Professor Rajan.

The real issue is to understand the client mindset. Client money [in the Middle East] isn’t sticky at all. When performance is bad they ask for a rebate, which is how it should be. If [wealth managers] can survive in the Middle East, they can survive anywhere, he added.

Barclays Wealth, for example, has every intention of doing more than just survive in the region. As an illustration of its ambitions, Barclays is moving into a new 14,000 square feet office in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which will be a hub for the firm’s operations in the region. Operating currently in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Barclays Wealth is also planning to make its Doha Qatar office operational this year.

Barclays Wealth leadership believes that the Middle East is a core area of growth. A substantial investment in human resources and capabilities and a rigorous expansion plan will lead to a substantial increase in the scope of operations, Soha Nashaat, managing director, head of Middle East, North Africa & Turkey for Barclays Wealth, told WealthBriefing.
Like Professor Rajan, Ms Nashaat says wealth management firms entering the Middle East from outside the region must understand the local culture if they are to make a success of their business. For example, more than 70 per cent of businesses are family-owned, which requires managers to forge long-term connections.

Wealth managers must understand and cater to the regional trends such as the dominance of family offices, Ms Nashaat said. Investors tend to be intolerant of risk and hold a high proportion of assets in cash and in offshore locations, she added.

Middle Eastern clients put great stress on strong relationships with investment advisors and dislike high turnover in staff, a factor that wealth managers must consider in their staff recruitment and retention plans, Stuart Crocker, chief executive, Emirates Platform and Southern Gulf States, HSBC Private Bank told WealthBriefing.

People don’t like seeing relationship managers moving on every two or three years to other banks, he said. His own bank, part of the HSBC banking group, serves clients both from local Middle Eastern locations as well as from its teams of specialists in Geneva.

The general background for wealth managers is certainly favourable. The investable assets of HNW individuals will rise by 50 per cent between 2006 and 2010, according to Barclays Wealth data.

The number of HNW individuals rose by 11.9 per cent in 2006 from a year before, according to the latest Merrill Lynch/Capgemini World Wealth Report issued last June. Wealth management intermediaries have only started to manage a significant share of assets in the region. Research from Zurich International Life, for example, reveals that expats living in the Middle East prefer to rely on their own judgment or friends and family when purchasing financial products. The survey showed that fewer than one in ten expats would enlist a financial advisor, either in their country of domicile or residence, to help them make the financial decisions. Financial advisors have a vast untapped market to go for.

While researchers like PricewaterhouseCoopers have warned that wealth management firms face a skills bottleneck, hiring staff for Middle Eastern slots is being helped by a benign tax regime and attractive pay packages.

Private bankers in tax-free Dubai earn 25 per cent more than their peers in Geneva and almost 40 per cent more than colleagues in London, according to a recent survey by Dubai-based headhunter Dunn Consultancy FZ-LLC.

Excluding bonuses, private bankers in Dubai with at least 10 years experience receive an average salary of $276,500 with allowances, compared with pre-tax earnings of $221,900 in Geneva and $199,100 in London, it found.

The economics of wealth management in the Middle East certainly look compelling. For the time being at least, the toughest challenge for players in the region is keeping up with the pace.

Bring Change, Donate For Special Occasion

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Each of us like to do something different on our special days then why not choose to donate for special occasion? There are innumerable occasions we celebrate during the year. Be it birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, festivals, success parties and the list goes on. During these times we spend lavishly because we are capable of spending so much but would it hurt our pockets if we decide to spend some amount from our budget for the benefit of the underserved children? Hope not!

Donation for special occasion does not mean one has to contribute lump sum of money to a non-profit organisation in India or abroad. It is the intent and the potential behind the donation that counts. For example: if a donor donates Rs. 750 for special occasion towards The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a non-profit organisation in India implementing the mid-day meal scheme, then the donor is actually taking care of a child’s school lunch for one whole year. How? The operational and administrative efficiency of Akshaya Patra allows the NGO to provide one wholesome meal per day to a child at a cost of just Rs. 750 for one whole year. This non-profit organisation in India has been implementing the mid-day meal scheme since 2000. Today, it serves freshly cooked nutritious mid-day meals to 1.4 million children across the entire country, every day.
As a transparency and accountability policy, this non-profit organisation in India regularly publishes its Annual Report for each financial year. Along with reporting the achievements, developments and plans for the next year, it religiously publishes all its audited financial statements and reports for its stakeholders. It accounts all the grants, subsidies and donations it has received to implement the mid-day meal scheme and how the fund was utilised. In the financial year 2013-14, Akshaya Patra’s programme-wise break-up of cost is, 84% for the mid-day meal programme, 12% for programme management and 4 % for fund raising and communications. Among various communication awards, Akshaya Patra has become the first NGO to have been inducted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s (ICAI) Hall of Fame as a result of being the recipient of the Gold Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting for five consecutive years – a true testimony to the Foundation’s transparent model of operation.

The beneficiaries of this non-profit organisation in India are young hearts studying in Government schools. They are children who cross all barriers to come to school because of their strong determination to change the future. The success stories will introduce you to children from across India who despite all odds has their dreams and aspirations just like any other child growing up amidst comforts. When you choose to donate for special occasion, you are actually acting upon to change one or more of these lives.

Donate for special occasion. The significance of charity will certainly give a new meaning to your celebration.

Financial Plan is Important So Why Many of us Don’t Have One

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We all love to dream about the future we want, but many of us do not like the idea of organizing our finances and preparing a financial plan. It seems that our dream of our future is the fun part, but planning sounds like tedious and boring work. This is evident by the fact that 65% of individuals do not have a financial plan.

A study found that the benefit of having a financial plan is very significant. On average, individuals who had a plan for retirement had two and half times more assets in their retirement than those who did not have a plan. Having a plan is only part of the success equation because working with an advisor and having a financial plan shows that there is a nine to ten times increase in assets than with those who do not work with an advisor and have a financial plan.

This may explain why one third of individuals consider winning the lottery as one of their financial strategies to achieving their financial goals. So why do most of us not have a plan? It cant be because of a lack of awareness since there are many financial institutions that are advertising the importance of planning. There is also a lot of information and material on the subject with millions of results on Google. So when it comes to Financial Planning why is it that we are not prepared? Well here is a list of the three myths that I have experienced people saying.

Myth of Time: In todays fast paced life we are all starved for time. We are so busy in our everyday activities that we feel that taking time for planning is not available. When it comes to planning there is an upfront commitment of time in identifying your life goals and putting together an action to achieve them, but once you complete these steps then it is just a matter of monitoring your progress as time goes on. The time commitment is minimal compared to the return you get by working with an advisor and having a plan done as noted above.

Myth of Knowledge: The financial world, especially today, may seem too complicated with all the information out there. We are exposed to a lot of information and financial lingo. If you start by telling yourself that it is not too complicated and too hard, then you have no excuse not to do it. You may consider participating in a seminar or a workshop. You can start reading books that talk about financial matters. Soon you will learn that the financial world is not complicated once you learn some of the basics.

The Myth of Wealth: I dont have enough savings to worry about a financial plan. If you have savings then you have enough. Having a plan will help you decide not only where you should put your money, it will also help to define the why. I have learned that the why is more important than the how and where. When it comes to planning you need to start somewhere. Dont think that just because you think you dont have enough you should not have a plan. A Financial Plan will help you define the goals and dreams you want to accomplish.

Is The Eurozone Falling Apart

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The Eurozone is also called the Euro area because of what it stands for. This union is made of 17 countries, members of the European Union which agreed to adopt the same currency and the same legal tender. This turns the Eurozone into a monetary and economic union. When the Eurozone was established back in 1999 it represented one of the first things that pointed out towards the tendency of globalization. Is this tendency no longer wanted? Do European leaders no longer want to be united under the same currency? Or is the Euro the cause of the current financial problems and maintaining this union can no longer be profitable or safe?

All these questions started to worry leaders from the Eurozone and not only. Even though the 17 countries that are part of this union are the ones directly involved and affected by a possible falling apart, the other European countries or states from other continents are very likely to suffer from the consequences of such a breakup too.

Most financial specialists say that the main cause of a possible Eurozone crash is the huge debts many of the 17 countries cannot pay back. The fact that Greece was threatened by a default and that only another loan was able to postpone what some consider the inevitable makes things even worse. Analysts say that this financial crisis resembles the incurable diseases called cancer. If it is ignored it doesnt go away. Instead it spreads until the patient dies. If the patient is the Eurozone, only an intense treatment can save the Euro and the economies of the states that adhered to it.

There are some investors who speculate that the end of the Eurozone is close and try to find ways of making money out of this crush. Some of the financial analysts say that it is because of these people who speculate for their own interest that the Euro is threatened and that the Eurozone can fall apart. In spite of that, there are obvious signs that things are not as they should be and that the common currency might cause more problems than help.

Investors get scared of all the negative news they hear and try to do their best to preserve their wealth. Many of them fear that keeping money in banks is not a good solution and choose to invest in assets that have high intrinsic value. Many of them choose to invest in gold or other precious metals that are the only hard assets that seemed to increase their value these days. They are making the right decisions since buying gold has, is and will always be a profitable investment.

Monthly Billing Software Versus Manual Billing

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Dealing with business either small or big makes no difference. It needs strict compliance when it comes to cash finances. You should be kin of the in and out of your money. You have to be firmed when it comes to decision making and dealing with clients needs. But, this does not mean that you have to be stiffed in accommodating your customers or clients concerns. What we are talking here is the cash flow or finances. We all know that you can not run any kind of business without proper accounting.

Traditionally, this is done through manual billing process. Typically, it is practiced even at this present situation. Why? It is because people have heard the so-called monthly billing software but were not familiar on how to use the process. Maybe they are not aware how it is being run and how it is done. But, in todays situation we can say that billing or invoice software is better that manual billing. We are not saying that manual billing is no longer important. What we emphasize here is the advantages given to us of this billing software.

Reality shows that in preparing invoices and billings are time consuming. Monthly billing software is more innovative and easier to use and manage. You will have accurate records of your rates as well as the rates of your customers at a given time. You can easily monitor the status of the things paid and unpaid. You can have flexible time to contact your customers or clients. It is less error free compared to manual billing. In addition to this, in manual procedures if the statements are lost, it will take time to recover the data. Another thing is that you will have to wait for a long period of time because it will undergo the usual process again.

Probably, there is a need to educate more people who engaged in business about the uses of this software. Although it has been advertised in various websites but profound knowledge of the uses and purposes are still needed. This will release all the doubts and queries regarding the security and accuracy in using it. In order to stop people from keep on wondering how it truly works is to explain to them accurately.

As we mentioned the advantages, the said software is also applicable for music teachers. It would be easier for them to adjust their work schedules and administration of their finances. Since, time is very important to them as teachers they should opt for the monthly billing software. They can charge rates and collect the same to their client at the most convenient time. Unlike in manual billing that they have to do it manually so there will be great possibility of committing mistakes and errors.

Further, it would help them maintain their clients and improve the quality of their music lessons. Instead of spending hours in listing, computing and recording of the data, they can concentrate more on their lessons. And with this, efficiency and promptness in performing their tasks are no longer an issue to their profession.

Furthermore, when it comes to money matters, you can eliminate any conflict with your clients or customers. It is because you can present the data or invoice neatly and accurately.