AMSTERDAM – Nearly three-quarters of expats in Europe have invested offshore, according to a new study.
And a similar percentage claim to have either matched (46 percent) or outperformed the stock markets (33 percent).
But the number of expats who think markets will grow in the next year has slumped to 53 percent compared to 82 percent in February, when the survey was last undertaken, and 28 percent in March 2003.
The survey, carried out in October for shares brokerage service Internaxx, also found that 85 percent of people questioned require their main investment providers to give access to international equities and 73 percent claim to have a more international outlook than other investors.
The study found expat investors expose themselves to a more diversified portfolio than domestic investors. On top of investing in stocks from their ‘home’ countries, expats also put money into tech shares, commodities, US stocks and shares in the countries in which they are living.
Almost 70 percent of expat investors worldwide have placed assets offshore – a figure that has dropped since the first Internaxx survey for 2002/2003. Of expats in Europe, 74 percent have assets offshore. Switzerland and Luxembourg came out top for investor confidence, followed by the Isle of Man, Guernsey and the Cayman Islands.
Reasons for investing offshore were tax efficiency (cited by 72 percent), confidentiality (54 percent), and pricing and value (49 percent).
Nine out of 10 expats questioned cited the internet as their main information provider – up from 41 percent two years ago.
Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) do not pay for advice, preferring to do their own research using the internet and English-language media.
The survey questioned 200 expat investors based in the UK, Continental Europe and the Middle East during October.
Source: Expatica
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