I left investment banking for financial advice, and then the UK for Dubai, with a suitcase. A lot of my clients have made a move like that. Some never have.
I look after individuals, families and business owners, some whose whole life is in the UK or the UAE, and plenty whose money, family and future sit in more than one country. People who moved for work and stayed, whose children will grow up somewhere else again. The questions are the same everywhere. Where should the money sit? What happens to the family if I'm not here? And how do we hand it on without the taxman, or two of them, taking the first slice?
You deal with me. I keep the number of clients I look after small enough that I know each one without opening a file, and most of them came because another client sent them. When something needs a lawyer or a tax specialist, I bring one in, yours or one I trust, and I stay in the room.
What I tell my own sisters is what I'll tell you. Keep it simple. Own things in the right names. Insure the person the family can't afford to lose. And don't pay anyone for complexity you don't understand.
My clients are spread around the world, so most of what we do happens on a call and a shared screen, with a private dashboard that shows you everything you own, live, in one place. When I'm in your city, we meet.
Ari Vinotharajah
- I won't sell you something you can't explain back to me.
- I never hold your money. It stays in your name, on a regulated platform.
- The first conversation costs nothing.
- I answer my own WhatsApp.
- You won't be handed to a junior. I don't have one.