As a financial adviser, I believe that I have a moral responsibility to protect the financial assets under my care, whether it be a $500 per month savings plan or a multi million dollar portfolio. I also believe that my professionalism must not be judged by how I invest on sunny days with clear blue skies, but also in the midst of storm and disaster.
This posting however, is not about investment mistakes created by best intentions with the consent of the investor but of greed blinding best advice to consequences.
Truth always will out. In the last week, I have heard of Tokyo investors who bought shares in individual unquoted companies, that at that time had yet to produce a single penny in profit and that have now fallen by the wayside. Additionally, we may all know of friends and colleagues who bought properties in Australia and the UK, who have recently been told to provide additional security to the lender or be in breach of contract, because the Aussie Dollar and British Pound are crashing against the almighty yen. Other offshore brokerages in Tokyo have even been borrowing or cashing in investment portfolios and savings plans in order to finance deposits for investment properties that are now deeply underwater. There is a fine line between risk and moral hazard.
I am becoming more convinced every day that a code of conduct is required for those that advise expatriates upon investment. Not a generic set of regulations to encompass the industry, for that will neither be effective, nor adhered to. Instead, a published set of ground rules from each brokerage, explaining their philosophy and how they intend to interact with and protect their clients. Many firms already do this, including my company Pinnacle. We provide a ‘Letter of Understanding’ for our clients to sign that explains costs and ramifications under different scenarios when investing in savings plans.
We do this because we know that by protecting our clients we are also protecting ourselves and that is surely the best kind of regulation.
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