In an interview with Investment Migration Insider, Eric Major and Chris Willis of recently launched investment migration firm Latitude shared their views on the state of the industry, its future growth potential, and what might decelerate the tremendous growth experienced during the last few years.
Major points to three chief causes for the increasing demand for second citizenships and residencies.
“The number of new millionaires being created, for every year I’ve tracked during the last 20 years, has grown. Not just in America, not just in China, but in pretty much every Western nation and emerging market. So, the number of people who qualify to avail themselves of our services grows,” he explains.
“[point] B, the world continues to be a precarious place, so the push-factors continue to be strong,” referring to geopolitical tensions, which have a tendency to boost demand for investment migration.
Finally, “we’re just more global,” Major says, pointing to the fact that it’s now common to live and work in many different countries during one’s lifetime.
Watch: The More CIP Countries, the Better For the Industry, Says Mohammed Asaria in Interview
Investment migration “is becoming more mainstream,” says Christopher Willis, Managing director and head of Latitude’s Americas & Caribbean division, who also points out that a focus on high standards of due diligence is what will protect the industry from crises.
“The onus is very much on the individual programs to ensure that it’s ticking all the boxes, especially when it comes to due diligence and operational integrity,” says Willis, emphasizing that if programs are not properly managed, they run the risk of losing visa-access privileges to, for example, the Schengen area.
Citizenship by investment, in particular, says Major, is very “politically and emotionally charged”, so rolling them out will take time. Referring to the 8-10 formal CIPs existing currently, he notes, we will probably see a doubling in that number over the next 3-5 years.
