Shared vision
As far as Marriott can see, the local knowledge is much appreciated, as people moving to the country enjoy being advised by people who understand and, in many cases, share their mindset.
He says that the Englishness, for want of a better term, of Blackden’s advice can often be appreciated even by those expats who do not speak English as a first language.
Many of the company’s clients come from Scandinavian and Dutch backgrounds, and speak English as their “commercial language”.
As a result of its dedicated focus on the English-speaking Swiss market, Blackden does not have any current plans to expand beyond Switzerland, preferring to focus on its core group.
However, Marriott says this self-imposed limitation is not indefinite: “For the time being, where we are is where we have always wanted to be, and it is a large enough market for the time being. Steady growth is definitely on the cards over the next year.”
On the face of it, Blackden’s competition in Switzerland could be seen to come from the country’s numerous private banks, but Marriott says such institutions do not faze him, as they simply offer a different type of service, which many expats do not require.
“It’s true to say that if you have a certain amount of wealth you can go to a private bank,” he says. “But most of these advise non-Swiss-resident clients. These businesses focus more on foreigners who require the privacy of such institutions for a variety of reasons, such as confidentiality, security, or in order to spread their assets around.”
In confidence
This long-term, hegemonic focus on confidentiality across Switzerland has truly become ingrained in the public consciousness on a global level.
In recent years, this has even been exacerbated by events such as the introduction of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act following mass US tax avoidance via Swiss private bank accounts, and, most recently, the revelation that HSBC has helped wealthy clients from around the world evade taxes via its Swiss private banking arm.
