Estate Living Digital Publication Issue 7 July 2015 | Page 43

SAVVY
Offshore investing

Offshore investment offers an enormous amount
of products, asset classes and service providers,
making the decision of where and how to offshore an
overwhelming one for many South Africans.
Mark MacSymon CFP®, a wealth manager from
Private Client Holdings and a finalist in the 2015
FPI Financial Planner of the Year Awards, advises
that offshore investing presents myriad benefits,
not least of which is potentially better investment
opportunities, improved portfolio diversification and
a hedge against rand weakness.
“Offshore markets provide a much broader range of
shares, bonds and funds; as an example, the Saxo
platform alone gives South Africans access to over

19, 000 stocks listed in 19 countries. This makes the
task of finding valuable and attractive investment
opportunities so much easier,” says MacSymon.
However, an investor needs to consider what
solutions are available and whether to invest
directly using a segregated portfolio or to consider
multimanager unit trust portfolios or similar wrap
vehicles. Each of these alternatives offers different
restrictions and tax benefits.
MacSymon explains that the use of an offshore
segregated portfolio using a combination of ETFs
(low cost, market/industry trackers) and offshore
listed shares provides excellent access to