Dubai-headquartered deVere Group, a global financial consultancy founded in 2002 that serves expatriots and mobile professionals, has set up a small insurance shop in Toronto with potential to expand across the country.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) issued a corporate insurance agency licence (life, and accident and sickness) to deVere Insurance Canada Inc. on May 25. FSRA’s approval marks deVere’s first licensed operation in Canada, a release said.
The firm’s focus will be “advice and planning for insurance-related products,” said James Green, regional director (Europe) with deVere. Green — the son of founder and CEO Nigel Green — is based in Malta, where deVere advisors are trained in-person. (Green’s comments in this story are from an interview in late May and subsequent emails.)
DeVere Insurance Canada will sell third-party products. Proprietary products aren’t “something that we’re bringing to Canada at this time,” Green said.
U.K.-based Josh Taylor, who has been with deVere for several years, is deVere Insurance Canada’s CFO. Toronto-based Brent Weaver, who most recently worked as a consultant to international firms entering the Canadian market and was previously with IG Wealth Management, is chief compliance officer (CCO).
“I’ve had more companies and individuals talk to me about relocating to Canada in the last probably 12 months … than I have in the previous 12 years,” Weaver said when interviewed alongside Green. “There’s a lot of people who are looking at the Canadian marketplace now, both … companies and individuals.”
“We know there are lots of [expats] in Canada — lots of people are moving there, lots of our current deVere clients are moving back to Canada — so we think it should be a good market for us,” Green said.
DeVere Group encompasses 100 entities with dozens of licenses worldwide and offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The private company says it oversees more than US$14 billion in assets under advisement.
Affiliates deVere Investment Ltd. and deVere Multi Family Office Ltd., respectively, have an investment banking licence and family office licence with the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius.
In Canada, the firm has tentative plans for more offices across the country and could expand into the wealth advisory business, Green said. But deVere Insurance Canada is starting small, with the firm aiming for a dozen life-licensed agents by the end of 2026.
Penalties, reprimand for pension-transfer advice
The former deVere USA Inc. had a New York office overseeing US$300 million, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm targeted British expats with U.K.-based pensions, recommending they transfer pension assets to overseas retirement plans.
In 2018 the SEC fined deVere USA US$8 million for not disclosing conflicted compensation from overseas product and service providers when advising on pension transfers between 2013 and 2016. Two deVere investment adviser reps, including the CEO of deVere USA, were fined a total of US$750,000.
“The SEC matter related to an historical issue involving a separate business, operating in a different jurisdiction and under a different regulatory regime,” Green said. “Since then, we have made significant investments across the [deVere] Group in compliance, governance and oversight, further strengthening our controls and processes.”
DeVere’s U.S. business ended following U.K. tax changes to pension transfers in 2017. DeVere USA, as well as deVere’s business in South Africa, were acquired in 2019 by Hong Kong-based Brite Advisors Ltd. (Brite was put into liquidation by an Australian court in 2024 amid a regulatory investigation into missing pension money and following SEC charges for custody violations.)
In July 2024, the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) in New Zealand publicly reprimanded deVere New Zealand Ltd. for its conduct when advising clients on U.K. pension transfers, following a complaint and regulatory review. The deVere advisors didn’t consider the suitability of recommended products, the regulator said in a release, and failed to exercise adequate care, diligence and skill in providing advice.
In reprimanding deVere New Zealand, the FMA required that the firm submit an action plan to remedy the breaches. The regulator also said deVere had taken steps to improve compliance and implement better recordkeeping practices.