High Net Worth Finance Insights: Recent Episodes
Enness
Podcasts from the world’s leading mortgage broker for prominent, high profile, high net worth individuals.
In this episode with Toby Johncox, head of mortgage sales for Enness Global mortgages, he looks at how sentiment has changed towards investing in purchasing property in the UK. There have been quite drastic changes recently on private or super-prime London assets with appetite sky high. The market is hot even with interest rate rises and people are still very interested in buying in London.
So there isn't anything different in the structural or with people approaching lending. Albeit there's a lot of liquidity in the markets, a lot of appetite to lend money to people. And the main change has be the increase in bank of investment.
Enness Global's Head of Corporate Finance, Scott Monks, talks to Abhishek Sachdev, CEO of Vedanta Hedging, about how large corporates and SMEs can manage the cost of funds risk in an interest rate rising environment by using hedging products.
We've seen multiple interest rate rises in the UK, the Fed raising rates and rate rises in the EU, because of major global inflationary pressures. And we're having this conversation with clients on a daily basis around interest rates. Everything from traditional vanilla residential mortgages all the way through to structured corporate debt.
This episode focuses generally around some of the key points of consideration for what businesses in particular can do to mitigate, or certainly think about mitigating, expected further increases in the cost of borrowing.
This episode featuring Zara Akbar, head of securities-backed lending at Enness Global, focuses, not surprisingly on securities-based lending: what are the key benefits and why it's such a powerful tool when it comes to generating liquidity. Then it covers the types of securities against which you can generate liquidity. There is particular emphasis on two key aspects within that sector, which are of great importance and generate numerous enquiries - these are single stock positions and pre-IPO shares.
The podcast ends with a few live case studies bringing all that knowledge to life.
PCD Club presents The Hot Seat with Hugh Wade-Jones.
David Bell of the PCD CLUB talks to Enness Global Mortgages Managing Director, Hugh Wade-Jones, about the changing trends of HNWs and their attitudes towards debt.
Enness MD, Hugh Wade-Jones, talks to Lawrence Okolie, WBO Cruiserweight Champion, Author and Rapper, about winning a world title and how that feels. But also about goal setting and how hard he has worked over a number of years. How does it feel to the team? Did it feel like a major milestone and how do you go up a level from there?
Toby Johncox, Head of Mortgage Sales at Enness Global Mortgages outlines the process of financing a London property in a dialogue with Regal London MENA Director Fahd Abu Aisha.
The international mortgage landscape is quite a complicated one, specifically when you consider high net worth, and ultra high net worth clients, so Enness provides time by sourcing the best products for clients. Ultimately they help create a 360 degree solution to their clients' real estate investment by engaging the correct tax advisors, lawyers, property consultants, and then ultimately getting them the finest and best value mortgage product or bridging finance.
Historically, Middle Eastern clients have always considered London as a second home. And as such, you've seen a huge amount of investment into UK real estate especially in London. A few years ago that investment moved towards periphery cities and regional cities but, throughout the last year, the appetite for London real estate has really come back. And an article published by a large real estate agent expects London real estate to increase by 20% in the next five years. So that demand looks set to go up.
Middle Eastern clients have gotten used to taking a mortgage in order to invest in UK real estate. But if you look at Indian clients and also African clients, it's a new concept to them. And so Enness spend a lot of time educating clients that they are eligible for a mortgage. They work with banks in Singapore, in Asia, with a number of institutions in Dubai and the rest of the Middle East, but predominantly work with bankers and lenders in the UK and the Channel Islands along with banks in Europe. In fact, one of the best products at the moment is offered out of a bank in Geneva.
Enness Global work seamlessly with a huge number of international private client advisers to create real estate finance solutions for their clients and prospects.
They can help solve problems, release equity, create liquidity and help with the acquisition of property in a way that compliments your service and goals.
We are happy to act as a sounding board, to provide ideas and examples or to react quickly to solve a problem such as with bridging finance.
We add value to your relationships, offer new services and ideas and help you keep or win new assets to manage on behalf of your organisation.
Tony Keterman (CEO) and Mark Palmer (CCO) both of Hamilton Court FX discuss the current business climate with the CEO of Enness Global, Islay Robinson. Islay discusses the challenges he has had to overcome, how the property market has changed, where the market is going and how he has been able to strengthen his business model to ensure Enness Global are ready for any future economic shifts.
Enness started up during the global financial crisis in 2007 when the founders saw a problem in the property market and the economy as a whole. Banks stopped lending, property prices collapsed, people lost their jobs. When the pandemic started their first expectation was that all of the banks would withdraw from the market, they’d drop their loan-to-value requirements, they wouldn't lend to niche areas. And the property market would collapse.
But this time, that didn't happen. Government intervention was one thing. So that propped up the market and the banks didn't feel like they had to stop lending, which is usually a natural reaction of banks. And then all of a sudden, people started buying houses. Everyone expected the property market to be dead, but the Government fired up the marketplace with the Stamp Duty holiday.
Then people started buying for security reasons; they started buying homes with gardens, with space outside the city where their children would feel safe. And now property prices are higher than they ever have been. So in terms of what changed, lenders started lending more money, and it was phenomenal. And that's happened across Europe. As soon as international travel starts fully happening, we're going to see the Far East buyers come to London, London people going to France and this big movement of people internationally.
Toby Johncox of Enness Global and Jordan Williams from Artorius talk about the importance of fully understanding your investment portfolio, exposure to risks and protecting wealth for future generations.
They talk about the 5 most important things to consider when it comes to understanding and preserving family wealth:
- Understand your investment portfolio
- Understand your debt position
- What is the right investment strategy?
- Thinking about the next generation – wills, life insurance, powers of attorney
- Talking to other family members so they know what investments the family has
These are really critical topics for everyone at the moment regarding wealth in the current market and putting appropriate plans into place.
Jordan Williams summarises the nature of the conversations he's been having with a number of wealthy families. There've been five main themes that should capture the attention of any family during this current time. And the purpose of this discussion is to address those five things.
Many wealthy families will be using debt as part of their overall investment strategy, whether that's debt in-built into some of the investments and products they've invested in, and often real estate finance which is secured against the portfolios that they have built. But again, similar to the investment strategy which these families have, they're often not aware of how this debt is actually working, what their contractual obligations are with this debt. And, unfortunately, what we saw for many is that when markets fell, the value of their portfolios fell. But obviously, the value of their debt remained the same. And many were concerned about issues such as shortfalls, and funding margin calls, and even the threat of forced sales.
The opening session of an International Property Series, which will cover a variety of jurisdictions over the next 6 months.
In this first session, we discussed the key tax, legal, wealth structuring and finance considerations for HNW clients investing in French Real Estate.
We were delighted to be joined by:
Hugh Wade-Jones - Managing Director, Enness, London. Hugh co-founded Enness Global Mortgages in August 2007 alongside Islay Robinson. Enness is the world's leading mortgage broker for High Net Worth Individuals borrowing across Europe and further afield.
Hugh is a widely regarded mortgage industry leader, described by The Financial Times as the 'go to mortgage broker of the super-rich'.
Frederic Mege - Director, Moores Rowland, Monaco. Frederic is a dual-qualified French and English private client lawyer (Avocat/Solicitor). He is a member of the Paris Bar Association, the Institut des Avocats Conseils Fiscaux (IACF), the Society for Tax and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and the Law Society (England & Wales). Frederic has many years of experience in advising private clients on personal tax and other legal issues.
Liam Wilkinson - Principal Representative of France, Enness, Monaco. Liam relocated to France almost eight years ago to play professional rugby - Stade Nicois (City of Nice). He then joined Enness in May 2018 with a key focus of being the go-to mortgage broker for HNW clients (non-resident) purchasing a property in France / Monaco, and for high loan to value mortgages.
Silvia Andriotto - Associate Director, JTC, Monaco. Silvia joined JTC in 2020 as Associate Director, having previously been responsible for the management of a Multi-Family Office in the Principality of Monaco. Throughout her career, Silvia has developed extensive experience in international corporate law, implementing cross-border instruments for multinational companies and (U)HNWI in multiple jurisdictions.
Silvia holds a master's degree in law and is also a qualified Trust and Estate Practitioner, as well as having a certification in Digital Strategy from University INSEAD, Singapore. She speaks three languages: Italian, English and French and has previously worked in several financial centres, including Luxembourg and Zurich.
In addition to lecturing in the fields of integration of law and technology, Silvia is also an active member of the European Law Institute - Special Interest Group - Digital Law.
Hugh Wade-Jones, MD of Enness Global talks about how things are changing regarding multiple homes for the High Net Worth community. Multiple homes once seen as luxuries are now very much viewed as a necessity by the HNW community.
There has been a huge spike in mortgage enquiries for the Riviera, by Parisians and Brits especially, as well as surging demand in UHNW hotspots such as Ibiza and St Bart's.
They have been seeing increased inquiries along the Riviera, in Spain, in Ibiza and even places as far away as some parts of the Bahamas. Traditionally areas which have been seen as luxurious second home or holiday home areas are now being seen very much as a necessity by the High Net Worth community now.
Post-pandemic, that's going to continue into the future. Probably the more long-term trend will be that of working away from the office for prolonged periods of time. Maybe not being based in city centres continually throughout the year and just leaving for holiday homes once or twice a year for periods of two or three weeks. but instead spending periods of two or three or four months a year at second properties (or third and fourth properties) that these clients and high net worth individuals own now. As a result the inquiries at lenders have gone through the roof for these properties.
Enness Global completed a 13.5 million euro mortgage in Spain on a beautiful property over 15 years fixed at just 1.1%. It was virtually free money. In the UK we also completed a loan of 18 million pounds at 65% loan-to-value on a five-year term at 1.15%. So virtually mirroring those low interest rates that we're seeing on the continent.
Toby Johncox of Enness Global is joined by Nicolas Roux, Founder of Rive Gauche London, the full service luxury interior design company. Nicolas works with high net worth international homeowners, property investors, property developers and 5 star hotels to deliver beautiful couture design and interior. With over fifteen years of experience behind a collection of world-class projects, including One Hyde Park, London,
Nicolas is unique in his experience and knowledge of advising clients to ensure they make the ‘right’ property purchase, as well as maximising their property development investments. He brings unique insight into the challenges and complexities people face when developing a luxury property as well as how to avoid the common pitfalls. You can expect top tips for your next luxury property investment with everything from what to do before you buy, how to design and add value and how to organise a project for a smooth delivery.
In this podcast Toby Johncox of Enness Global and Carlton Crabbe of Capital for Life talk about “Life insurance and the alternative solutions to protecting your wealth.”
For the past 20 years, Carlton has advised high net worth clients on complex issues such as global tax and offshore structuring. He is the CEO of Capital for Life based in Dubai, which is a specialist independent adviser of international life insurance and premium financing solutions for clients and advisers in over 200 countries.
Before starting Capital for Life, Carlton was responsible for growing a private bank’s life insurance and credit business working with its trustees to help clients with their estate planning needs. Previously, he worked at Barclays private bank in London and Grant Thornton, a leading tax firm. He has advised clients on the use of tax-efficient UK and international solutions for holding wealth, typically created through the sale of their businesses or services to global companies including Google, Red Bull Formula 1, L’oreal and Blackrock Asset Management. He has also advised football players from the Barclays Premier League, PGA Tour golf players, international pop music stars, TV and media companies.