Buying a house in another country can be a complicated process with many additional considerations and moving parts that can be difficult to navigate.

It is not uncommon for wealth advisors to assist clients with real estate purchases—whether it is to invest in commercial real estate or purchase a second home. More rare, however, is when a client calls and needs help purchasing and closing on a house in another country, prior to undertaking a two-year renovation—all in local currency.

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When buying international real estate, there are additional layers of complexity. But that didn’t deter CIBC Private Wealth from rising to the challenge. Instead, Vanesa Ringdahl, senior private banker, and I joined forces with Todd Liska, executive director of CIBC’s Foreign Exchange Group, and Keith Rofrano, head of the firm’s Mid-Market Solutions Group, to provide truly seamless and comprehensive service to help this client buy a new house in London and plan for a multi-year renovation.   

The Foreign Exchange team is a part of the company’s U.S. Capital Markets Group. They offer products and services that range from basic foreign exchange to customized hedging and risk management strategies. The team also provides 24-hour liquidity in 30 countries and select emerging market currencies, in addition to a full suite of products that includes spots, forwards, non-deliverable forwards, options and structured solutions.

Such highly complex and technical products and services can be overwhelming for a lot of wealth management clients. But as CIBC is committed to providing integrated and holistic wealth management solutions that can address all of a client’s needs, perhaps a simpler illustration of one of the ways that the Foreign Exchange Team can serve clients is best summed up by a client’s simple request: “Please help me buy a house in London.”

To learn about how our CIBC team successfully helped our client with this real estate transaction, listen to our podcast below.

Art Graper is a senior relationship manager with more than 20 years of experience working with high net worth individuals. He specializes in advising clients in the development, execution and monitoring of comprehensive wealth management strategies.

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