FOREWORD | OUR RESEARCH | 2020 AND COVID-19 | 1. TRANSPARENCY | 2. RELOCATION | 3. FAMILY & GENERATIONAL WEALTH | 4. THE ADVISER OF THE FUTURE | ABOUT BDO
COMPETING CONCERNS | NAVIGATING PUBLIC POLICY AND POLITICAL UNREST | LONGER TERMTRAJECTORY, SHORT TERM DISRUPTION | CONCLUSION
COMPETING CONCERNS RELOCATION
The result in some cases is a temporary flight of investment while investors wait to see how events unfold, before potentially returning to markets they know well. The Asia-Pacific region provides examples of this in action. “If you look at the flight of Chinese money, international investment left but is steadily returning; it has moved past ‘wait-and-see’,” says one APAC lawyer, while an asset manager points out that “Hong Kong may have lost some of its lustre, but the financial system remains strong”. Capital aside, physical relocation from Hong Kong to the UK, in particular, may increase under a new visa option that will allow holders of British national overseas (BNO) status and their immediate families to apply for entry visas from January 2021. The figures in Graphic 7 suggest that, as initial responses turn into more concrete action plans, further relocation activity should be expected. Henley & Partners, a residency and citizenship planning firm, said it saw an almost 50% increase in the number of applications for new nationality during the six months to June 2020.
THEVIEW FROMTHE UK WENDY WALTON | Head of Global Private Client Services, BDO Global
“Nobody has made a wealth tax work.”
The US State Department suffered “months of near- paralysis and a long climb from a deep backlog” according to the Los Angeles Times, to the extent that it could prioritise only “life or death” requests. A similar story has unfolded in the UK, which has seen a 172% increase in passport applications from last year, while Baroness Williams revealed in response to a parliamentary written question in July that the applications backlog had reached more than 400,000. Conversely, the Australian Passport Office has seen a 67% reduction in passports issued compared with 2018-2019. August 2020 saw 14,300 citizens depart Australia, while the number of departing travellers in August 2019 was 828,000. In the face of travel restrictions, many Australians are not seeking to renew their expired or expiring passports, indicating that future relocation activity involving Australia is more likely to be inbound, rather than outbound.
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The firm’s chairman was quoted as saying that “investment migration has shifted from being about living the life you want in terms of holidays and business travel to a more holistic vision that includes healthcare and safety”.
Meanwhile, passport application backlogs have piled up in many countries during the pandemic, indicating that individuals are at the very least assessing their options with a view to possible relocation.
WORLD OF PRIVATE CLIENTS | NOVEMBER 2020 15
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