A traveller at heart, David Benskin has never had any qualms about living and working thousands of miles from his home town of Leicester.
In fact, the Strabens Hall director and chartered financial planner relishes the opportunity, and has spent years of his working life in Australia and Asia.
Now based in the thriving city of Hong Kong, Benskin says it was not difficult to get settled: “It’s such a dynamic place and people are there for a reason: to work hard.
“The city has got this work-hard play-hard mentality, and a positive feel for businesses because the government is pretty supportive of smaller enterprises,” he says.
“The key concern for the government is whether a business is going to be adding economic value and employing local people.”
British born
Set up at the start of the year by British-born pair Benskin and David Snelling, Strabens Hall formed a partnership with a UK-based IFA business of the same name which had the procedures in place already and formed the foundation for the Hong Kong business.
“We wanted to do something a bit different,” says Benskin. “We saw the opportunity in the offshore market to develop an RDR-type business in Hong Kong.”
He argues that Hong Kong has a distinct lack of firms offering high-end financial advice to international clients, particularly those businesses using a transparent fee-based model. It was with this in mind that Strabens Hall came into existence.
“We decided to partner with a UK-based company which was already up and running,” he says. “Essentially they were running their business exactly how we wanted to run ours in Hong Kong, but with all the expertise.”
Viable business model
Hong Kong’s overhaul of its advice market, namely January’s ban on indemnity commission, has meant the company’s ties to the UK have been fiercely beneficial for his business.
“One of the biggest challenges initially was explaining to clients that we don’t provide advice for free, but we charge a fee for it, which is better for them in the long-run.”
“It was quite difficult to communicate that model to clients, and because Strabens Hall (UK) had already been through it, they were able to guide us on how to explain it and that was hugely useful.”
He says this fee-based structure has been a viable business model: “We have found we are able to engage with clients that are far larger.
“We are not so well placed to serve the smaller clients, but our model works much better for the high net worth and private clients, which is where we are trying to positon the business.”
