deVere Group: Helping you plan for your future

"I don’t want to scare people,” says Trevor Webster. “Or maybe I do. The world is changing.”

Webster is area manager, Japan, for the deVere Group, and considers his services crucial amid increasing volatility in the markets and in society. Given the diminishing outlook for government pensions and other support, the onus is now very much on the individual to plan for their own future.

Regarding the markets and society, “We’re in way too much debt, and we’re not saving enough,” he says. “People are going to have to work longer and save more. We’re going to see much more volatility, which increases the need for guidance from financial advisors such as the deVere Group.”

As a wealth manager, he advises clients on retirement planning, estate planning, and strategic business decisions regarding their own finances.

DeVere’s client base in Japan is predominantly foreign expats, due to the firm’s international expertise and outlook. But there are numerous Japanese clients as well, with many balking at repatriating their overseas assets to Japan, where there is very little yield.

“Our clients all have a few things in common,” Webster adds. “They’ve worked overseas, they’ve accrued overseas assets. And they want those assets to work for them once they return to Japan. Our Japanese clients want the same thing as anyone else — a better yield on their hard-earned cash, and advice on whether to buy real estate or some other opportunity.”

Expats have an additional reason to be cautious: “The passage of assets at death can be quite difficult, and the penalty severe — depending on what nationality you are and where you reside. The net beneficiary often ends up being the state.”

Even within the market here, the business is changing and the deVere Group’s operations are changing with it. “Judging by what we’re seeing now, we’re going to see, in a lot more mobile professionals, a much more transient, globetrotting working population. Globalisation is here, and it’s not going to go away.”

These globetrotting workers cannot possibly know about the steadily evolving regulatory environment in each place they work, so Webster’s team helps with that, too.

Even for an established player in the Japanese market like deVere, there are plenty of challenges. “The biggest challenge this business faces, in Japan or elsewhere, is ignorance,” says Webster, “and laziness. People tend to put their future on the shelf, then suddenly realise that they are not doing enough to secure their future. The message I would convey is that retirement planning is the most important thing you can do.”

Given the dearth of such planning around the world, governments face a major problem looming, to support a greying population with little money in the bank.

“Individuals have to start taking responsibility for themselves instead of relying on the government for retirement benefits,” he adds.

Webster helps clients plan for their future, but this doesn’t mean he’s willing to predict the future. “If you think about 20 years ago, 1994, it’s a completely different world, unrecognisable. In 20 years, it is likely to be just as different. It’s impossible to know what changes there will be, what technologies, what disasters will occur. So you have to be prepared for anything.”

One thing is certain: the importance of wealth management will grow from experienced advisory groups focused on the client.

Before joining the world’s largest independent wealth management firm, the British-born Webster spent 13 years in the Royal Air Force as an avionics engineer. He also spent seven years as a professional bobsleigh racer, representing Great Britain to the Olympic standard. His time in athletics informs his current work. “There are many parallels between business and sport at the highest level: attention to detail, teamwork, tolerance and empathy, as well as a lot of hard work,” says Webster. “My experience in this field has helped me understand the people in the businesses we come into contact with in terms of what motivates them and how they make decisions. Everything matters!”

© Japan Today