10 On The Weekend is a weekly (-ish) feature in IMI, the concept of which is simple: Each time, we ask the same ten questions of a different IMI Pro, letting readers get to know the interviewee on a more personal and informal level than they might during the ordinary course of business.
Our guest this week is James Muscat Azzopardi, Partner at Muscat Azzopardi & Associates, Advocates
How do you spend your weekends?
I don’t have a fixed routine, but I love spending time with my children. I also play padel, hike and occasionally enjoy a motorcycle ride, we’re lucky to have beautiful weather here in Malta especially in winter.
I’m also a passionate snowboarder and spend quite a few ski weekends between December and March.
What are your top three business goals this year?
I would like to see Malta get the recognition it deserves. It has far more to offer than a lot of people realize.
We’re also looking at entering new markets. At the same time, I want to solidify the relationships we already have, because growth means very little if you neglect the people who got you there.
What’s your biggest business concern right now?
Misguided EU interference, without a doubt. Bureaucrats who know absolutely nothing about our industry are making decisions about it, based on completely incorrect assumptions.
Which book is on your nightstand right now?
In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki, and I highly recommend it.
Tanizaki wrote it in the 1930s as a short essay on Japanese aesthetics and the beauty of things left half in shadow. You can read it in an afternoon and keep thinking about it for weeks.
How and when did you first get into the investment migration industry?
Around 1998 or 1999, when I joined the firm and began handling high-net-worth individuals and private clients.
Nobody called it investment migration back then. It was simply private client work, and the mobility side grew out of it as our clients’ needs evolved and as Malta developed more programs. .
What was your proudest moment as a service provider?
Being treated as a family friend by my clients. That kind of trust takes years to build, and there is no shortcut to it.
When a client stops thinking of you as their lawyer and starts thinking of you as a friend of the family, you know you have done your job properly. I can’t think of anything in this work that comes close.
Which investment migration market development has surprised you the most in the last year?
Definitely the increased interest from the US.
For years, Americans barely featured in this market. Seeing so many of them now looking seriously at a second residence or citizenship is not something I would have predicted.
If you could go ten years back in time, what business decision would you change?
Nothing significant, to be honest. There are small things I would do a little differently with hindsight, as anyone would, but nothing big enough to go back for.
What investment migration industry personality do you most admire?
The veterans. They have weathered every cycle this market has gone through, the policy reversals and the bad press included, and they’re still here doing the work properly.
You know who you are.
If all goes according to plan, what will you be doing five years from now?
Exactly where I am now, and I mean that in the best way.
I enjoy my job, and I get to choose travel that genuinely interests me. Frankly, I’m having a lot of fun. If I can still say all of that five years from now, I’ll count it as a success.
