Mike Coady
Mike Coady is the CEO of Skybound Wealth and a practising international financial adviser, specialising in cross-border financial planning for expatriates, internationally mobile families, senior professionals and business owners.
His inclusion in International Adviser’s IA 100: Industry’s Most Influential 2025-2026 reflects almost three decades in financial services, and a career built across advice, leadership, adviser development, regulation, client outcomes and the evolution of international wealth management.
Mike began his financial services career in 1997. Since then, he has advised clients, led advisers and helped build international wealth management businesses across the world. He is widely recognised for his standards-led approach, direct leadership style and long-standing contribution to the professionalisation of international financial advice.
What makes Mike’s role in the sector distinctive is that he has never moved away from the reality of advice. Alongside his executive responsibilities, he remains a practising adviser. That gives his leadership a different edge. He sees the decisions clients are making, the mistakes advisers must help them avoid, and the standards firms need to uphold when financial lives cross borders.
Having grown up in an expat family and lived and worked in the GCC for more than 20 years, Mike understands international financial planning from both sides. He understands the technical complexity, but also the human reality: families building lives abroad, pensions left behind in previous countries, investments spread across jurisdictions, property in more than one place, changing residency positions, future tax questions, ageing parents, children’s education, business interests and retirement plans that may change over time.
That lived experience has shaped his view of advice. For Mike, good international financial advice is about helping clients bring structure to financial lives that no longer fit inside one country. His work covers retirement planning, pensions, investments, tax-aware financial planning, family protection, estate and legacy planning, currency exposure, relocation planning and long-term wealth transfer.
The common thread is simple: helping clients make the decisions they need to get right before the consequences become expensive.
As CEO of Skybound Wealth, Mike leads a multi-jurisdictional wealth management business supporting clients across the Middle East, the UK, Europe, Switzerland, the US and beyond. His leadership has focused on building a business capable of supporting modern international clients with stronger governance, better adviser support, clearer client service, improved technology, deeper technical capability and a more consistent advice experience across borders.
Mike is known for setting high standards. He has spent much of his career developing advisers, challenging weak practice and pushing for advice to be treated as a vital profession. His leadership style is practical, direct and client-focused. He believes advisers must earn trust through clarity, technical understanding, responsibility and long-term accountability.
He is also a strong voice on the future of the international advice industry. Mike regularly writes and comments on expat financial planning, adviser standards, regulation, investment behaviour, retirement planning, client outcomes and the risks that quietly damage long-term wealth. His view is that the industry is entering a new era, where firms can no longer rely on product access, personality or old distribution models. Clients expect better. Regulators expect better. The best advisers must be able to prove their value through clearer planning, stronger evidence, better systems and advice that stands up over time.
His professional credentials include Fellow of the London Institute of Banking & Finance, the Diploma in Financial Planning, EFPA European Financial Advisor, Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Founding Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, member of the Chartered Insurance Institute and member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.
Mike is UK FCA-registered adviser and personally registered under the relevant Cyprus investment and insurance distribution frameworks. Through Skybound’s European regulatory structure and passporting permissions, he is able to advise and support clients across EU and EEA member states, subject to the scope of the relevant permissions, local conduct rules and each client’s circumstances.
In the UAE, Mike works within Skybound’s regulated UAE framework. Skybound’s UAE entities are regulated by the Central Bank of the UAE for insurance intermediation and by the UAE Capital Market Authority, ensuring clients are supported through the appropriate regulated entity.
Mike has also been named in the VouchedFor 2026 Top Rated Adviser Guide and has received industry recognition across advice, leadership, business development and client outcomes.
For Mike, influence in the industry is not about visibility alone. It is about responsibility. It is about building firms that clients can trust, developing advisers who take the profession seriously, and helping international families make better decisions when the stakes are high.
His view is simple: good advice should not begin with a product. It should begin with the client’s life, the risks they cannot afford to ignore, and the decisions they need to get right before the consequences become expensive.
