Posted by design on October 19th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
I spend most of my time sitting in front of multiple monitors (five, actually) in an effort to maintain the burgeoning CogentHedge database and the analytical platform it supports. My wife, on the other hand, flits around the USA developing business for a leading internet information provider. She recently made an interesting observation that hotel rooms are becoming increasing difficult to come by because of an apparent influx of Canadian and European visitors. The US has become a very cheap tourist destination.
This can’t be good for US Dollar-denominated investments, right? Not necessarily.
More and more of the larger (and not so large) fund groups are structuring their investment entities to offer multiple currency classes within the same strategy. While this may not have much benefit for programs investing in smaller American companies, the differences in returns can be dramatic where large multinationals (whose value tends to be anchored to non-US assets and non-Dollar based revenue) and non-US investments are concerned. A quick run through the CogentHedge database will show that the Dollar denominated classes substantially outperform those denominated in Euro, Sterling, CHF, Canadian Dollar, Rupee or other major currencies for programs investing globally or regionally away from the USA. Ten years ago, many multi-currency class funds simply hedged currencies to maintain parity between the classes; in these times, that would be a very difficult – and risky – balancing act.
Of course, for an investor the question is whether the differential in returns would justify holding Dollars. The short answer: Probably not. While I might not be as oriented toward ‘Gloom and Doom’ as the inimitable Marc Faber (I was about to launch a fund for him when Black Monday hit - which, by the way, was October 19, 1987 - so not even he is impervious to the exigencies of the real world), I think it is fair to predict that the American economy (and financial markets) have yet to face up to the repercussions from the past six years of this country spending like a drunken sailor (my apologies to any drunken sailors out there). Even if another Jimmy Carter comes into the Presidency in some 460 days (http://endofbush.xerratus.com/) there will still be a hefty price to pay the piper.
Cogent hedge 18th Oct 07
Posted by design on October 19th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
Posted by design on September 14th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
In the last few days the severe constrictions in the short term inter-bank funding process seem to have disappeared, allowing most financial institutions to regain access to overnight liquidity, but the longer multi-month market is still seeing high demand with few lenders. This is only the most immediate of the issues that has brought the global financial system to this precarious state. Two other critical areas of concern, the backlog of funding commitments that are being held by major banks for large private equity transactions, and the longer-term rise in real estate foreclosures, are still growing in severity. Fear, which has been expressed as an unwillingness to accept the credit of other counterparties, still dominates the market. Even though the Federal Reserve, the ECB, and the Bank of England have made some changes to counteract the freeze up in the money markets, they must continue to react to the repercussions of this fear in the weeks ahead, and the outcome is still uncertain.
The next critical event will occur next Tuesday at 2:15 PM in Washington, when the FOMC announces its decision and comments around that decision. Our cycles tell us that there is a very good chance that the decision will not be greeted with joy. Most likely, the overnight markets will tighten temporarily and equity markets will drop. Although this might be a short setback, there is a possibility that the crisis will get much bigger. If the setback in the overnight market is compounded with a failure of the banks to unload some of their private equity commitments because the Bond market is still inoperative, the crisis could flare up again, dwarfing the mid-August climax. This could force the Fed and the other central banks to go much further to overcome the crisis, but the odds strongly favor their eventual success. This whole affair could be over in days and it will definitely be over in a matter of weeks – according to our cycles, no more than seven.
Although the current situation in the global financial markets is tumultuous, with several major crises brewing and interacting, the threatening storm clouds could dissipate miraculously – and quickly – allowing a bright new day to begin. After the central banks have done their work, supplying liquidity and lowering rates, the equity markets will rally again, the carry trade will come back to life, and the price of most commodities will rise strongly. Let the good times roll, again, but these good times will look somewhat different than the last bout of good times. This one will not include houses – especially in the US – and will see the European and North American equity markets trail those in Asia and in the developing world. If you think of the current bout of equity market weakness as similar to that in 1970 (US) and in 1987 (Japan), then the next rally should be like the climb to new highs in 1973 (US) and the jump to 40,000 by 1989 (Japan). After these peaks, the final ones for many years, the markets entered traumatic downtrends that more than retraced the whole upmoves in the preceding years. Accompanying these further bubbles will be a weak dollar as the drop in US rates and the expanding dollar liquidity, which is fueling the rally, will put the dollar under severe pressure in the next year or two.
Posted by design on September 3rd, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
By Brian Tracy
The Law of Investing - investigate before you invest. This is one of the most important of all the laws of money. You should spend at least as much time studying a particular investment as you do earning the money to put into that particular investment.
Check Every Detail
Never let yourself be rushed into parting with money. You have worked too hard to earn it and taken too long to accumulate it. Investigate every aspect of the investment well before you make any commitment. Ask for full and complete disclosure of every detail. Demand honest, accurate and adequate information on any investment of any kind. If you have any doubt or misgivings at all, you will probably be better off keeping your money in the bank or in a money market investment account than you would be speculating or taking the risk of losing it.
Money is Easy to Lose
The first corollary of the Law of Investing is: “The only thing easy about money is losing it.” It is hard to make money in a competitive market but losing it is one of the easiest things you can ever do. A Japanese proverb says, “Making money is like digging with a nail, while losing money is like pouring water on the sand.”
The Best Rule of All
The second corollary of this law comes from the self-made billionaire, Marvin Davis, who was asked about his rules for making money in an interview in Forbes Magazine.He said that he has one simple rule and it is, “Don’t lose money.” He said that if there is a possibility that you will lose your money, don’t part with it in the first place. This principal is so important that you should write it down and put it where you can see it. Read it and reread it over and over. Time Equals Money
Think of your money as if it were a piece of your life. You have to exchange a certain number of hours, weeks and even years of your time in order to generate a certain amount of money for savings or investment. That time is irreplaceable. It is a part of your precious life that is gone forever. If all you do is hold on to the money, rather than losing it, that alone can assure that you achieve financial security. Don’t lose money.
Be Smart About Investing
The third corollary of the Law of Investing says: “If you think you can afford to lose a little, you’re going to end up losing a lot.”There is something about the attitude of a person who feels that he has enough money that he can afford to risk losing a little. You remember the old saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” There’s another saying, “When a man with experience meets a man with money, the man with the money is going to end up with the experience and the man with the experience is going to end up with the money.” Always ask yourself what would happen if you lost one hundred percent of your money in a prospective investment. Could you handle that? If you could not, don’t make the investment in the first place. Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:First, think back over the various financial mistakes you have made in your life. What did they have in common? What can you learn from them? Accurate diagnosis is half the cure.Second, invest only in things that you fully understand and believe in. Take investment advice only from people who are financially successful from taking their own advice. Play it safe. It’s better to hold onto your money rather than to take a chance of losing it, along with all the time it took you to earn it.
Posted by design on July 30th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
By Sylvia Pfeifer and Iain Dey, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 2:36am BST 30/07/2007
The moment many feared and predicted finally came on Thursday, when shares took their biggest tumble since the dark days of 2003. In this series of articles, we look at what the wider knock-on effects are and find it’s not all bad news.
· Comment: FTSE giants have nothing to fear
· The era of mega deals is over
· ‘Everything bad is happening’
· Affordability key to the fate of builders
· Asia dismisses memories
· Picking up blue chips
On Thursday the party ended. The buyout bubble which has helped fuel share prices around the world finally burst last week after equity markets woke up to the growing problems in the debt markets.
In London, the FTSE100 index endured its worst week since January 2003, finishing down 5.6 per cent on the week at 6,215.2. In the US, it was the worst week for the stock market in nearly five years, the S&P 500 index dropping almost 5 per cent. There were also heavy falls in Asian stock markets while those in Europe were also lower.
Thursday’s trading session is being billed as the most volatile in UK history. IG Group, the world’s biggest spread-betting firm, recorded more than 87,000 trades, averaging 61 a minute. IG’s system is used by traders as a hedging tool - high trading volumes mean high volatility. The trading figures beat a previous record of 76,000 trades notched up in February this year, as the market dipped into its last corrective phase.
On Friday, Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, said: “We are seeing a reassessment of risk and that is leading to a market adjustment.”
So is it the end of the bull market? Assessing the carnage late last week, the consensus from market commentators was that while there has been a repricing of risk, this is - not yet - the end of the bull market that we have witnessed for the past few years.
Teun Draaisma, the head of European equity strategy at Morgan Stanley, says: “It’s turning into a very normal bull market correction. . . it’s a pause in the on-going bull market. Financial crises like this are very serious but they don’t end the real economic cycle.”
His counterpart at Goldman Sachs, Georgina Taylor, a European portfolio strategist at the bank, agrees. “We are still believers in the longer-run structural bull market. However, the equity market is vulnerable to a repricing of risk more broadly,” she says.
“You can’t expect the same returns that we have enjoyed in the recent past to continue. But it is important to remember that we are just coming back to more normal levels. We’re currently seeing a repricing of that over-benign environment we’ve had for the last couple of years.”
Below we assess what the market rout means for the different sectors; what lies in store for consumers and whether it really is the end of the buyout boom? Conversely, is now the time to get back into the market?
John Studzinski, the global head of M&A advisory at Blackstone, one of the world’s largest private equity groups, is firmly in the camp of those who think it is not time to panic.
“There is a real bottleneck of deals that needs to be funded but I regard it as a traffic jam today. It’s not as if the highway has blown up,” he says.
Posted by design on April 20th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
After yesteday’s Asian Market tumble:
read this March article below:- www.jigsawwealth.com
A market correction is coming, this time for real By William Rhodes
Published: March 29 2007 03:00 | Last updated: March 29 2007 03:00 The recent market turmoil should not have been un-expected. We are living in an increasingly interdependent world. Times have been good, even with the volatility of the past few weeks sparked by the Shanghai market and then fuelled by the subprime sector in the US. We have been living in extraordinary times in a global “Goldilocks” economy - not too hot, not too cold. The macro-economy still looks pretty good but the shaking of the trees over the past few weeks has, it is to be hoped, awakened investors and lenders to the risks in the marketplace.
High growth in emerging markets continues, as exemplified by the tremendous growth in China and India. Western and eastern Europe are growing. The Russian economy, driven by energy, has been strengthened well beyond what was expected a few years ago. The Middle Eastern oil-exporting countries are going through a boom fuelled by oil and gas: it is different from earlier periods of high oil prices because this time a substantial amount of the money is staying in the region, rather than being invested elsewhere as in the 1970s. Africa is in many ways going through something of an economic renaissance. The Japanese economy also has improved and the US locomotive has continued, maintaining good growth of more than 3 per cent in 2006 notwithstanding the downward revision of fourth-quarter growth from 3.5 to 2.2 per cent.
However, much of the good news has come as a result of extraordinary levels of liquidity pouring into opportunities around the globe. To a large extent this is due to the Federal Reserve’s expansionary monetary policies early in the decade and the US administration’s fiscal stimulus. The yen carry trade has also facilitated the buoyant expansion of investments and leverage evident everywhere today. The low spreads, the tremendous build-up of liquidity, the reach for yield and the lack of differentiation among borrowers have stimulated both dynamic growth and some real concerns. Pockets of excess are becoming harder to ignore. Problems in the housing and mortgage area such as the subprime sector in the US are one such example of excess that should come as no surprise. As lenders and investors inevitably become more discriminating, liquidity will recede and a number of problems will surface. Too many countries and companies with vastly different risk profiles are still commanding similar pricing.
It has been my experience that periods of economic expansion tend to last between five and seven years. We are entering the sixth year of expansion in the US. Against that background, I believe that over the next 12 months a market correction will occur and this time it will be a real correction. I said as much last spring during the Inter-American Development Bank meetings in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Soon afterwards, in May 2006, the markets did experience a correction but it was so mild and short-lived that it was in a way less effective than no correction at all. I say that because it left the inexperienced with the impression that it would be smooth sailing from there on. Market developments in the past few weeks should be seen as a warning. What has been evident for a number of months is that, in the US, we are seeing lagging inflation and slower growth. Whether this means that we are going to have to fend off recessionary tendencies is not yet clear. However, what is clear to me is that in the next year a material correction in the markets will occur.
During the last big adjustment that started in July 1997 in Thailand and spread to a number of Asian economies including South Korea, followed by Russia in 1998 - and led ultimately to the bail-out of Long Term Capital Management, the US hedge fund - a number of today’s large market operat-ors were not yet in the mix. Today, hedge funds, private equity and those involved in credit derivatives play important, and as yet largely untested, roles. The primary worry of many who make or regulate the market is not inflation or growth or interest rates, but instead the coming adjustment and the possible destabilising effect these new players could have on the functioning of international markets as liquidity recedes. It is also possible that they could provide relief for markets that face shortages of liquidity.
Either way, this clearly is the time to exercise greater prudence in lending and in investing and to resist any temptation to relax standards. The writer is senior vice-chairman of Citigroup, and chairman, president and chief executive of Citibank www.jigsawealth.com pjeffreys@jigsawwealth.com
Posted by design on April 16th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
They say that ‘to be forewarned is to be forearmed’ and so the best way to get rid of the main pitfalls when buying property abroad once and for all is to be forewarned about all of them so that you can prepare and guard against them. In this guide to the top ten buying abroad mistakes and hazards that you could possibly encounter we will outline the potential pitfalls and show you how to guard against them so that one buying property abroad experience is safe, pleasant and secure.
1) Overstretching yourself financially – before you even begin seriously looking for a place to live, holiday or retire abroad you need to sit down and work out exactly how much money you have and are in a position to spend on a property abroad. If you are going to be relying on an overseas mortgage or on a re-mortgage of your principal residence speak to lenders about how much you will have to play with and ensure you can keep up monthly repayments. You do not want to overstretch yourself financially speaking by taking on a relatively illiquid asset in the form of a piece of real estate overseas. 2) Not using an independent solicitor - not only do you need a lawyer or solicitor representing your interests when you buy abroad but you need one who is independent of the vendor, sales agent or developer and you need one who is experienced in conveyancing. Preferably use a local lawyer who speaks English or be prepared to pay for a translator. There is a lot that can go wrong during a property transaction and your independent solicitor is the one who will protect you.
3) Assuming everyone is honest - do not assume that just because someone says they are an estate agent, a lawyer, a surveyor or the rightful owner of a property that they are telling you the truth! Check each and everyone’s credentials, qualifications and licenses and insist on seeing proof of a buyer’s right to sell or insist that your solicitor researches their right before you part with any cash. 4) Buying pretty much sight unseen - some people are happy buying off plan after seeing the location their property will be built and similar examples of a developer’s work – fine - but other people buy off the internet reserving a house or apartment without even meeting with the developer or vendor or visiting the country! If you enter into such a dodgy arrangement chances are incredibly high that things will go very badly wrong for you.
5) Being overeager to part with cash - do not sign a contract, pay a deposit or agree to anything until you and your lawyer are happy with everything! Some people are pressured into putting down a non-refundable holding deposit before they are emotionally ready and before their lawyer has ascertained that all is in order with the property and the vendor’s right to sell it…take your time, do not rush into anything, the world is not going to run out of real estate any time soon. 6) Looking at the price not the quality - if something looks like a bargain you can bet your bottom dollar that there’s a catch! Additionally, don’t be trying to get too much for your budget; where you find a home that seems to have it all for a very low price it’s highly likely the build quality is shoddy or there is some unseen issue with the property, the land or the title deeds.
7) Cutting corners - if you’re buying a property abroad that requires remodelling or renovation don’t cut corners when it comes to getting in proper surveyors, architects and builders…the money you save you will spend over and over in the long run when you have to patch up shoddy workmanship and get new people in to finish a badly left job. If a job such as a renovation project is worth doing, then it is actually worth doing properly. 8) Forgetting buying and ongoing costs - the price of a property is not the only money you will have to pay out when buying a home abroad. You will have solicitor’s fees, agent’s fees, taxes and additional expenses when buying - and then ongoing there will be things like property taxes and rates to pay as well as anything from management fees for the upkeep of communal areas, insurance, service charges etc., etc…don’t forget about all of these expenses and try and get a feel for what they will be before you buy so you can ensure you are not overstretching yourself financially.
9) Forgetting about ongoing accessibility - while you may easily and cheaply have access to a given location today thanks to a single budget airline reaching a remote airstrip near your home, what if that company closes the route or goes bankrupt…have a back up plan and ensure a property is always going to have decent accessibility otherwise you’ll never visit it and it will become a millstone around your neck that you cannot enjoy or even resell. 10) Putting off making a will - and finally, the laws of succession differ from nation to nation so you have to speak to a lawyer before even committing to buy to ensure you’ll be able to will your new home as you so wish. Having understood that your needs and wishes can be met and fulfilled, get a will drawn up immediately to secure the ongoing interests of your heirs.
Jigsaw has been assisting client’s in financing their property purchase, drop us an email if you would like to discuss same at onlineadvice@jigsawwealth.com
Posted by design on March 26th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
Uncle Bill’s Portfolio
Hilaire Belloc tells us what a rich man’s investment portfolio looked like a hundred years ago. The portfolio (as enthusiasts for “Cautionary Verses”, that essential pedagogical aid, will instantly recall) belongs to John Vavassour de Quentin Jones’ uncle and is the fortune that John Vavassour de Quentin forfeits through his fondness for throwing stones. For those unfamiliar with this important lesson, what happens is that, missing the greenhouse which is his target, the unfortunate youth hits his uncle who is asleep in his bath chair. He is promptly disinherited in favour of Miss Charming his uncle’s nurse.
Uncle Bill;
He had a lot of stocks and shares
And half a street in Buenos Aires,
A bank in Rio, and a line
Of Steamers to the Argentine.
And options more than I can tell,
And bits of Canada as well;
He even had a mortgage on
The house inhabited by John.
Latin America and Canada had been the boom investments of the prior twenty years and naturally made up a big part of portfolios. Canada made it, but Latin America, despite its recent renaissance, saw investment values wiped out several times over the next century (mortgages, on the other hand, are now an enormous asset class). The hundred years since Miss Charming inherited have seen a lot of innovations in finance. Some, usually facilitated by technology, have been very useful - others less so. After a long period during which financial optimists have been triumphant it is time for some intelligent pessimism.
If Uncle Bill had access to what we have today he would have had the advantage of comparing his portfolio to an index of some sort. That index would have reflected the rise in Latin American values over the previous fifteen years. It would, of course, correspondingly have had nothing to say about the future collapse of Argentina. Equity indices arithmetically reward success. Positive survivor bias, the process by which Bethlehem Steel has fallen in value relative to Microsoft and therefore has progressively made up less of the index is what gives equity indices much of their upside bias. Over time this systematic selection of survivors has made equity indices hard to beat for most investors.
What works in his favour over the long run, however, can work against the investor in the short run. All equity investors remember the tech boom – it is, and is likely to remain, the formative experience for a whole generation. Towards the end the stock market index turned from friend to foe – a portfolio which had provided excellent performance over the long run came to reflect in extreme form the investment fashions of the day. When the crash came it was only outstanding performance by the unfashionable components that saved the day. The same pattern is seen in each cycle – at its peak the Tokyo stock market accounted for 76% of non US market capitalisation - that proportion is now below 10%. Where investors are able to make positive choices the effect is often even more extreme. At the trough of the stock market in 1982 the median “balanced” UK fund had 55% of its assets in equities, by the time of the market peak in 1987 that proportion was over 80%.
The current market and economic cycle has been particularly dependent on growth in credit and credit derivatives. A boom in US housing construction, home values and cash out mortgage financing has driven the US expansion. Through the mechanism of its large current account deficit the US has pulled along the rest of the world economy. Increased availability of mortgage finance has played an important role. Given that the US has been a rich country with a highly developed financial system throughout , it is reasonable to assume that the rise in home ownership in the last few years has been attributable to the increased availability of mortgage finance to poorer quality borrowers – the boom in sub prime lending.
Bond market indices have, of course, reflected the growth in corporate issuance and therefore of sub prime lending. A process which begins by describing an expanding investment universe ends up by perversely legitimising a large investment exposure. This has given rise to the same phenomenon observed in equity indices in 1999/2000. The share of poor quality investments has increased while their heavy representation in the “benchmark” index has comes to provide a false sense of comfort.
In this case other elements of investment fashion have also come into play. The extreme volatility of equity markets in the 2000-2003 period created a demand for investments which had less “mark to market” risk. “Private equity”, for example, promises common stock returns without a requirement to value the portfolio so frequently. Most mortgage backed and CDO securities also meet this criterion; they are infrequently traded so can be justifiably “marked to model” a process which usually involves reference to their formal credit rating. Credit rating agencies change their opinion fairly infrequently (and usually well after the event), something else which apparently confers stability.
Creating, packaging and repackaging mortgages has been an area of feverish activity over the last few years – for evidence one need only look at the growth of investment banks’ profits from this source. In the process a vast number of securities have been created. Rating these securities is itself a big business. Given that this boom is unprecedented, historical default experience (the main basis for evaluating default risk) is probably misleading. Moreover, and the 2000 experience in equity markets again comes to mind, there is an obvious vested interest in playing up the opportunities and downplaying the risks.
The environment of the last few years has been very unusual in that it has combined strong economic growth (the longest and strongest global expansion on record) with low interest rates. The substitution of rises in wealth for rises in income (largely through rapidly rising house prices) and the recycling of Asian surpluses through the quasi fixed exchange rate system operated by the US and China has meant that low interest rates are both cause and effect of the current boom. The end of the boom in US housing and the very rapid onset of credit collapse in sub prime marks the end of these conditions.
Posted by design on February 28th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
“Trust a Man that says believe me, never believe a Man that says trust me”
The concept of protecting and securing assets by placing them within a trust structure dates back to the 11th century and today those who offer wealth management services often find that the utilisation of an offshore trust is fundamental to protecting their client’s confidentiality and asset security.
Because assets held within an offshore trust are held under the name of the trustee rather than the settlor the settlor’s privacy is protected, furthermore a trust document is not a public document therefore the assets within the trust and beneficiaries of the trust are also protected.
Wealth management used to be a term used to define the careful investment of an individual’s financial assets, nowadays however wealth management has far more to do with asset protection because not only has the world become a far more litigious place but international governments are becoming greedier and finding more and more ways to extract taxation and restrict freedom.
An offshore trust structure can be useful to an individual wishing to remove assets away from the reach of unfair litigation for example and because a trust removes a layer of transparency it can be harder for someone to decide whether or not an individual is a financially interesting target to sue.
Those who have substantial business and personal assets often find that an offshore trust structure is essential to their personal wealth management needs and also for the protection and security of their business.
An offshore trust can also help with ongoing tax planning and estate tax planning but care must be taken to ensure that the settlor who wishes to establish the trust does not create a taxable action by placing assets within the trust structure. Offshore trusts and taxation are incredibly specialist areas of expertise and careful selection of a trust company, trustees and offshore jurisdiction are essential for the individual to ensure their actions are legal, tax efficient and appropriate for their requirements.
Anyone considering establishing an offshore trust would be wise to seek professional advice and assistance. Trust law is complex and because assets placed within an offshore trust are placed outside the direct reach of the settlor it is essential that the trust is structured perfectly for the settlor according to his direct wishes and requirements.
Posted by design on February 27th, 2007 — Posted in Investment resources
Jigsaw is proud to be one of a very few internationally focused licenced Financial Advisers based in Singapore and because of this we very much hope to assist in ensuring clients of ours and other similar businesses here in Singapore do not fall foul of possible disadvantageous advice being given to individuals who somehow end up dealing with advisers that are not regulated to conduct business here and in many cases not regulated to do business anywhere.
Below is the invester alert list provided via the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)Consumer portal. This list is not exustive as there are many of these unlicenced brokers out there but this might help in pointing one in the right direction:
http://www.moneysense.gov.sg/check_our_list/Consumer_Portal_IAL.html
Those of you that might already use an adviser outside of Singapore, it is worth noting that this adviser is commiting an offence under the financial services act (FAA) in continuing to deal with you. You might ask yourself, if my adviser is commiting an offence in this manner, is it possible there might be other areas that offences are being commited. Please remember; it is highly unlikely that you will have any grounds for recourse if you deal with an entity that is not being regulated…
Lastly, I would warn you to be extremely careful in dealing with someone that states that they are licenced or will be shortly if they are not on the following diectory at the MAS site:
http://www.mas.gov.sg/frames/directory/index.htm
It is an offence for any company to act in the capacity of offering financial advice in Singapore to ANY resident or any nationality resident here. If a company is not able to show you their licence (which quite frankly would not be a problem for anyone on the website list) they will commit an offence by discussing services with you. Until their licence is granted they are not permitted to offer services in Singapore.
BEWARE! The are a number of these company’s out there and if you are unsure you should ask for the information above and have a second opinion from a licenced business here.
To search for a licenced business, just click on the above link and scroll down to FA Licence. There are numerous company’s here although if you are of an international focus one simple way to find someone to talk to would be to open the page for each company and check the name of the directors/principals. It is fairly normal that internationally focused businesses are being run by international persons. This is not in every case but a general rule of thumb.
Happy investing.