The world of expat investing, structuring and passing down assets to loved ones isn’t a simple issue. It involves multiple jurisdictions and complexities that few people consider. That is where the likes of Adam Fayed’s entities come in.
Early Life
Born and raised in Scotland, Fayed left the UK soon after earning his finance degree. Over the next decade he lived in China, Japan and Singapore, working in regional wealth-management teams. That on-the-ground exposure gave him a keen sense of how expats struggle: setting up bank accounts, understanding local retirement schemes and navigating double-taxation agreements.
Founding his business
Joining the wealth management industry in 2013, he saw that most companies were quite traditional in their approach. In 2018, spotting a gap in the market dominated by in-person advice, he started his first venture, which focused on remote financial planning.
In a world where expats and high-net-worth individuals move around more freely, he took what was considered at the time a radical step, in moving away from face-to-face communications with clients.
His was one of the first brokerages that was exclusively based on remote, and global, communication. After Covid-19 struck in 2020, this business model became more popular, with many younger financial advisors starting remote businesses. In the subsequent years he has gained clients in over a hundred countries.
Thought Leadership and Media Presence
Fayed didn’t just grow by word-of-mouth. He has:
- Contributed over a dozen Forbes Business Council articles on topics such as high-risk investing, strategic cost-cutting and avoiding groupthink in decision-making. He has also featured on Business Insider and Yahoo Finance.
- Appeared on CNBC and CNN, commenting on cross-border money flows and the impact of geopolitical shifts on expatriate portfolios.
- Guest-hosted podcasts with Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, dissecting what high-net-worth individuals look for in digital wealth services.
These contributions reinforced his reputation and funnelled a steady stream of referrals.
Net worth and new investments
Whilst he hasn’t publicly revealed his earnings from his business, it is believed that he is worth at least $10 million. More recently he has also shifted his focus away from his core business, towards investing in licensed entities globally as an investor. He recently announced investments into companies in Singapore, and a pending deal which will involve one of his entities being granted a Uganda Capital Markets License.
