Spear's Briefing: Investing In The Turks And Caicos

The latest Spear's Breakfast Briefing tackled the Turks and Caicos - what it is, how it is changing, and why UHNWs should pay attention. Arun Kakar reports

Turks and Caicos - just 75 minutes from Miami and covering 193 square miles of the Atlantic - is one of the fastest growing UHNW tourist destinations in the world. Home to 36,000 full-time residents, it welcomes around 1.3 million tourists a year and is a proud winner of TripAdvisor's 'best beach in the world' accolade.

Temperatures reach a balmy average of 30-32C from June to October, and it punches above its weight for airlift: around 90 flights a week run through its airports, of which 40 per cent come from private jets.

Industry leaders from some of London's top family offices, banks, and private client firms came together at the Spear's breakfast briefing at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park this week for a presentation hosted by Invest Turks and Caicos discussing the area's opportunities for UHNW investors.

'We are probably one of the most consistently five-star resorts in the Caribbean,' said James Bursey, CEO of Invest Turks and Caicos. A Canadian national, Bursey has led numerous multi-national companies of varying sizes in North America, Europe and Asia, and has international trade negotiation experience.

'Most of our real estate investors are making very good returns on investing in the hotels and apartments that they develop, and most of our capital has historically come from North America,' he said, mentioning that the island is now turning its focus to the UK.

'One of the things we do on these islands is to promote just the natural beauty of the place,' Bursey continued. 'What a lot of people forget is that we are incredibly well positioned to command investment throughout the region.'

Indeed, the health of the local economy is supported by a BBB+ Standard and Poor rating, with an annual growth rate of around five per cent. Its government supports the provision of investment incentives as well as duty concessions in priority sectors. There is no direct corporate, personal or capital gains taxes and no exchange controls.

'We have good compliant arrangements with pretty much all the major capital markets. We are very much a part of British overseas territories,' Bursey said.

'We are attractive to people because British law applies; we have a very transparent financial structures and we also don't offer the kinds of complicated structures that maybe you see elsewhere.

'Hence...

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