UK adviser sets up shop in Dublin

One company that has received its licence as an authorised adviser from the Central Bank is Towry Law, a leading provider of financial advice in the UK, which is setting up shop in Dublin.

Initially, Towry Law will advise consumers in the areas of pensions, savings and investments, family protection and education fees. For business, the advice will centre on company pension schemes, death in service, disability schemes, and pre-retirement and redundancy services.

According to Mr Ian Mitchell, general manager for Towry Law in Ireland, the company will operate "an intelligent and sophisticated advice service" for clients and will not expand into other areas such as property-based investments, until their expertise can stand up to testing.

Mr Mitchell and one other consultant from the 12-strong team come to Dublin from Towry Law's Belfast office. The rest have all been practitioners in the Republic, with up to 18 years' experience. The Towry Law Group is part of the AMP Group, an international financial services company based in Australia and publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

"We always had a strategic interest in coming to Ireland. If you're in Europe at all, you should be in Ireland," says Mr Mitchell.

Serving the expatriate market is another motive for locating here. "There is a huge Irish expatriate market internationally and when people are coming home there are a lot of tax issues, a lot of advice issues and things that need to be done," he notes. A large, internationally mobile staff can provide continuity of care, he adds.

Mr Mitchell says authorised adviser status was the only option the company was interested in. Towry Law uses what it calls a "best advice panel" to search the marketplace, reviewing products and assessing them for individual clients, who can choose to pay fees or let the broker work on a commission basis.

"Larger investors will opt for fees. If someone is offering a service, it takes the same number of hours to handle €10,000 as it does €100,000. For the smaller investments, people would opt for commission," he says, adding that it makes more sense for brokers to be paid by fees.

It is a good time to enter the market, Mr Mitchell believes. "Whenever it's a boom time and things are going well, people don't feel they need advice as much. When we decided to locate here, we knew the market wouldn't be buoyant."

In September, Towry Law is holding a seminar on the property boom and equity meltdown and a seminar on maximising assets for retirement. The events are designed to market the company to potential and existing clients here.

Mr Mitchell is happy with the take-up of services. "Obviously, with something as sensitive and important as money, it takes a while, but we've been encouraged by the reception."