Like it or not, the world is becoming more mobile - and a service has been launched for expats needing access to wealth management while they are in Asia.

A continuing rise in the number of expats in regions such as Asia is driving demand for financial services for this population group, prompting Friends Provident International to roll out a new proposition.

The firm is launching its Western expat proposition to provide advice to UK and Australian expats in Singapore, as well as Singaporeans interested in saving, retiring or pursuing education in the UK and Australia. FPI, which operates in jurisdictions such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and the UK, is an example of the kind of wealth management business seeking to tap the market for people with particular cross-border needs.

A number of senior people have been hired and FPI, which is registered in the Isle of Man, believes this venture will drive its growth further in the region, it told WealthBriefingAsia in a recent interview.

The launch comes at a time when global mobility is rising; FPI cites figures saying there is expected to be a 50 per cent rise in the number of “mobile employees” by 2020. The firm says many expat wealth management customers at banks, for example, are unhappy with the level of service they currently receive, referring to a poll of investor attitudes it conducted last year showing that only one in two expats are happy with current service.

“The key for Friends Provident International is that we have been doing expat business for a long time, over 35 years in the Isle of Man and over 25 years in Asia, but this is an enhancement of what we have been doing traditionally,” James Tan, managing director for Asia, FPI, said.

“We have been working with expats, really understanding their needs in the marketplace and designing the overall approach - not just the product in itself but the overall marketing, service and advice. We continue to train the brokers on how they communicate to their customers to help meet their various needs like financial planning and efficient tax planning, especially when they decide to return to the UK or Australia. We continue to invest in research and marketing, which allows FPI to understand the customer needs further, and building on our experience to drive something which adds value to them,” Tan continued.

The firm is confident the new offering will be a success because its proposition that was rolled out for Indian clients in Dubai last year has been successful, Tan’s colleague, Philip Cernik, ​who is head of global expatriate propositions, said in the same interview. “The industry as a whole is not customer-focused and it tends to have one set of products for every geography. We owe it to customers to show how our products meet their needs,” he said.

The Dubai experience was encouraging, with premium income in the last six months of 2014 rising 67 per cent year-on-year.

With business models in wealth management under constant pressure, and calls for more transparency and focus on what clients actually want, Tan was asked how the service was being pitched to clients.

“This is not a product-push approach but overall proposition approach. It is not just about what the product is, but also what the product does for the customers,” he said. FPI is a business-to-business operation; it doesn’t have a direct distribution channel and it is working with intermediaries in the region, such as banks and advisors.

Asked about the criteria that clients must meet, the men told this publication that there are no specific minimums in terms of income/assets of a client to be able to qualify for the service. Cernik said that, typically, clients may start at around at least $100,000 in assets or an annual income of about the same size. The service, for example, applies to the kind of expats who have children living in other countries and going to schools/colleges there, or to people who eventually want to return to their countries of origin and who want to avoid some of the difficulties of getting their finances in order.

A number of FPI staff have been redeployed in the region as part of the service rollout. “We have undergone the strategic review 24 months ago and one of the outcomes is to continue reshaping our operations by bringing more resources to the ground, making it closer and easier for the customers to interact with us. We have also strengthened our sales team across the region and have recently placed our tax and estate planning expert, Alan Loader, in Singapore to further support the business,” Tan said.

Loader joined FPI in the Isle of Man in 2011 from Zurich and has over 20 years of financial planning as well as tax and estate planning experience in the insurance industry. Prior to his move to Singapore, Loader worked in FPI’s Dubai office for three years supporting advisors on tax and estate planning for their customers.

“The market is maturing and customers are becoming more aware of what is out there and we are getting more enquiries from people about how they structure their wealth,” Tan added.

In its survey last October, FPI said that Hong Kong and Singapore high net worth individuals take more investment risks when they move abroad, suggesting that global travel changes how people view money management.

FPI polled 1,006 global expats and domestic HNW investors in Singapore and Hong Kong; it found that people who are globally mobile have a different view on investment strategies to those who remain in their home country.