deVere USA’s Senior Area Manager, Benjamin Alderson, and some of the senior wealth associates from the deVere New York hub office will be joining me this evening (Tuesday 2 June) to collect the ‘Ops Business Person of the Year’ Award at the prestigious FTF News awards.

This annual event is designed “to acknowledge the achievements of finance professionals, industry experts, service providers and regulators over the year.”
With this in mind it seems somehow very appropriate that the awards are presented to the winners at the iconic Rainbow Room in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Plaza – after all it was John D. Rockefeller who famously said: “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”

Naturally, I’m extremely proud to collect this award – but, as I have said before, I am doing so on behalf of the whole deVere organisation, not just me.   This really is an award for all of us at deVere Group.

I am particularly thrilled by this award for two reasons.

First, the 10,000 votes in the independent voting process are cast by the very best industry professionals globally.  It’s always a real honour to be recognised and celebrated by your peers – especially in a sector as tough and competitive as ours.

Second, the award has been given because of our continuing campaign to have America’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) repealed.  This is a subject that I feel passionate about for many reasons, but primarily because FATCA negatively impacts the 7.6 million American expats around the world, many of whom are our clients.

Other reasons why I am fiercely opposed to this is that it could damage the American, and therefore world, economy; it infringes on individuals’ privacy; it will inevitably raise tax burdens for most Americans; and it is a harsh and unnecessary form of fiscal imperialism, to name just a few of its adverse unintended consequences.

Thankfully, I think that there is growing sense that FATCA should be repealed, or at least carefully scrutinised to see its viability and effectiveness, during the next administration at the White House.

There are many well-organised and hardworking campaigners and lobbyists working hard to achieve this, including Americans Abroad, Republicans Overseas, The Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty, and RepealFATCA.com, amongst others.  As such, this award is also very much for all of them too.

I’m sure it is going to be a great evening at the gala awards ceremony and I look forward to celebrating with deVere USA and the other winners in attendance.

Once again I am being shadowed by a film crew who want to film the event, so you’ll see how it went on deVere Group’s YouTube channel very soon!

See more details of the awards we won here.

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