Category: Expatriate
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The shrinking world of advisers
“If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen are defrocked, shouldn’t it follow that cowboys should be deranged?”The world for financial advisers and their clients has changed drastically over the last 10 years. Ten years ago in the United Kingdom, the newly formed Personal Investment Authority, which then became the Financial Services Authority, introduced minimum standards for…
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Silicon Valley’s Risky Complacency
Innovation is not a birthright — it requires continuous effort to renew and reinvigorate, something startups in China and India understand Last year, we were sitting across from a prominent Indian business executive in one of Bangalore’s leading software companies. In the middle of the conversation, his body tensed and, looking intently at us, he…
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Expatriate Workers and Us!
“You don’t know how it feels to be a foreigner in this country, unless you live like one. It is unbearable!” said my Arab scuba diving trainer. I was shocked and since then, I have become more sensitive and observant. Sad to say, he was right. I tell you why. Before the oil boom of…
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‘Now is the time to invest offshore’
With the rand looking vulnerable, now is the opportune time to invest offshore, even though global markets are experiencing a soft patch, Mark Appleton, chief investment officer at Barnard Jacobs Mellet (BJM) Private Client Services, said in a statement on Monday. According to Appleton, softer international economic indicators have led to a downgrade in expected…
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The untold positive story about Malaysia
The following is the text of the speech by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. IT is always an honour and a privilege to speak before such an important audience as is gathered here today. As investors, fund managers and market analysts, you are all thought to be leaders and opinion-shapers who greatly influence investment…
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Building a nest egg online
According to predictions from the Forrester Research Centre, the number of Europeans using online brokerage services to build a nest egg will almost double from 5 million in 2003 to nearly 10 million by 2007. Both traditional banks as well as online brokers have been getting more business since the financial market rebounded as of…
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Tax advantages and new investment opportunities
Moving abroad can be a daunting process, and for many expatriates, finding a safe home and tax advantages for their savings is a top priority. Most high street banks in the UK have offshore subsidiaries that can provide a range of accounts tailored to suit the needs of expatriates, combining competitive rates of interest with…
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Becoming Swiss no longer costs a fortune
The Swiss government on Monday decided that a modification of the law on nationality would come into force on January 1, 2006. Explaining the new procedure, the justice and police ministry said that cantons and municipalities would only be allowed to charge for the real processing costs. Charges in the thousands of francs would no…
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Citizenship and Passport
Citizenship can be loosely defined as the legal relationship between a person and the sovereign nation in which he or she lives, a status defined by the law of that nation, conferring or limiting a person’s duties and rights. The most common means of acquiring citizenship is by birth within the borders of a nation.…