Bermuda, Caymans, Bahamas, etc. Seems like there are a lot of gigs (especially CFA focus) down there. Anyone work there? Lots of Rum, hurricanes, topless beaches, and no income tax? Too good to be true? What if you have a family (schools), housing, Cost of living?
Too good to be true. Without going into a lot of detail, consider that these are offshore financial areas which means that thousands of hedge funds, captive insurance companies and structured finance vehicles are “registered” there. Registered does not mean that interesting work happens there. In fact, far from it. All of the investment decision making (and makers) are “onshore” in NY, London or elsewhere. What happens offshore is the administration work is outsourced to service providers who basically look after the financial reporting for these funds and provide them with an office address for them to be registered in Cayman, Bermuda or wherever. So the work for CFA charterholders consists of (1) accounting / admin / back office work with these fund services providers (e.g. UBS Fund Service Cayman) or (2) auditing the funds, which involves auditing the books of the service provider and rarely if ever, coming into contact with the investment decision makers. The above is based on my time spent in the Cayman Islands some years back auditing structured finance vehicles with a Big Four.
While I love to vacation there, I think living there for a long period would be inconvenient.
I’ll add some positives in that the lifestyle is pretty damn good if you like the beach, snorkelling and scuba diving. You do get bored pretty quickly but if you enjoy lounging in the sun, you will get that all year round there! The cost of living is very high, but you don’t pay income tax. So it’s six of one, half dozen of the other. You come out about the same as NA (for the same job). Some Islands, including Cayman are very religioius (Christian). As for schools, I do not know, but based on my experience there, I would be surprised if they are of the same quality as the top 25% of NA schools (elementary and high school).
alright, thanks. Love the sun, but hate to audit.