Future path
Meanwhile, Anderson says AAM’s big push for the future will be Old Mutual’s Silk product, a variable universal life policy similar to a portfolio bond, where the cash value can be invested in separate accounts.
Unlike Dubai, expats in Singapore are not as transient, he says, meaning the firm has built a loyal client base of long-term residents. Currently, job security is their number one priority, reveals Anderson, adding that the city state’s long-successful oil and gas sector has turned sour following the price slump while the banks are continuing to cut back.
“The three main areas of employment in Singapore are finance, oil & gas and shipping. Shipping has not been right for a while, so these are interesting times but we are growing,” says Dabbs.
In recent years, the firm has seen a shift from product pushing to financial planning advice in the tax and trust area, spearheaded by AAM’s head of wealth solutions Ian Black. As a result, it is now looking to team up with private banks as well as extending its reach into trust business, such as IHT planning.
“We’ve got a couple of terms of business out there right now to deal with private banking clients. That is something that will be new for us,” says Anderson.
Road to success
With more than 20 years of experience as a Financial Planning Certificate-qualified adviser, Manchester-born Dabbs worked in the UK as an IFA for 10 years before making the move to Singapore in 1997, with advisory firm Pacific Financial Services, where he stayed until 2001.
Like much of the expat-orientated advice market in Singapore, AAM has a history of mergers and acquisitions.
Founded by Dabbs in 2007 as PKF-AAM, it was initially a joint venture between the local arm of global accountancy network PKF and the remnants of Singapore-licensed fund and portfolio management company Absolute Asset Management.
Dabbs set up the first incarnation of AAM in 2002 with a former colleague and Australian fund manager Andrew McKay, but in 2007 it was sold to an Australian buyer.
It was in 2009 that Anderson, who was in charge of the expat advice team at Professional Investment Advisory Services (PIAS) – owned by Aviva since 2013 – bought in to AAM, prompting Dabbs to end the partnership with PKF.
“PIAS was a company run from 400 local advisers so it wasn’t flexible enough for our model. That is when I met Matt [Dabbs], bought in and brought some of my team over,” says Anderson.
Arriving in Singapore in 2003, Anderson points out he has been an independent adviser since the age of 19, starting out at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh and moving on to stints at the independent advice arm of Abbey National (now Santander) as well as Willis National.
