IAM2056 – Investment Migration Expert Helps Clients get an International Citizenship and Residency

In this episode, we have Jon Green, a co-founder of Latitude Consultancy, who specializes in investment migration, including citizenship by investment and residence by investment programs.

Jon shares insights on the industry's growth, the rising interest from U.S. clients, especially post-COVID, and how these programs offer valuable life insurance policies for clients' futures.

He discusses the importance of providing more options and diversifying one's citizenship or residency for security and flexibility, touching on the golden visa programs in Europe and citizenship by descent.

Additionally, Jon highlights Latitude Consultancy's unique service aspects, their role in advising governments, and the significance of setting goals and appreciating the workforce for organizational success.

Website: www.latitudeworld.com

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Transcription:

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Jon Green Teaser 00:00

We're assisting clients with both citizenship by investment and residence by investment programs. So in Europe, you have the well-known golden visa programs offered by Portugal, Spain, Greece, traditionally you buy real estate there and you qualify for a golden visa.

So let's provide more options for our children. Give them access to Europe or give them that second citizenship so they're not so reliant on one government or one state to look after their affairs. It's all about diversifying and providing more options.

Intro 00:30

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of.

This is the I am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:58

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast. And I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Jon, Green. Jon, excited to have you on the show.

Jon Green 01:06

Thanks for having me, Gresham.

Gresham Harkless 01:07

Yeah. Excited to have you on. And I think you're doing really awesome things. So super excited to jump right into all that info. But of course, before we do that. I want to read a little bit more about John so you can hear about some of those awesome things that he's working on.

And John has worked in the investment migration industry since 2008. As a co-founder of Latitude Consultancy, he specializes on direct private client business, intermediary, and B2B sales.

He has an intimate knowledge of residency and citizenship acquisition process, real estate procurement, and investment and developer relations. Having assisted American clients with investment migration for over 50 years, John has a unique insight and understanding of their motivation and needs.

And I was preparing for this and I read some fun facts about John and I read that he's very active, including playing hockey year round summers, golfing, skiing in the winters.

And I'm sure some of his favorite activities. We were talking about all the fun places he's got to travel with his wife and they get to travel and see some awesome things. But I thought was really cool is that he says he spends a lot of time being active, just chasing the sun around, which is I'm sure one of the brightest parts of your day job.

So excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I Am CEO community?

Jon Green 02:16

I am Gresham. Thanks for having me. Looking forward.

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Gresham Harkless 02:18

Yes, absolutely. So I wanted to rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through your story and all the awesome things you've been working on?

Jon Green 02:25

Certainly, so investment migration is very much a niche industry, but growing and I literally fell into it. I come as the bio set of sales and marketing background project, real estate and a colleague I used to work with. Came across the country St. Kitts and Nevis, and he said, you can purchase real estate and qualify for citizenship.

And 1st reaction was that, is that even legal? And he said, no, it's a fully legal program. And so I jumped right into it with him. And we started promoting that country and that program, the passport and everything that it. Avails and then we eventually merged with another company and I left them to to form Latitude about six years ago.

Gresham Harkless 03:07

Nice. I absolutely love that. And especially I feel like it's not an industry that people know a lot about, or even, Probably come across like knowing that they need to do that until they, I guess they get to that bridge and say, okay I need to do this. I want to do this. Like, how and what are the steps to make that happen?

Jon Green 03:22

Exactly. So a lot of our clients, it's for them. It's a, it's like a life insurance policy in their back pocket. They hope they never have to use it. But should the time come, they're certainly glad they had the foresight to do so.

And so what we're doing is we're assisting clients with both citizenship by investment and residence by investment programs. So in Europe, you have the well-known golden visa programs offered by Portugal, Spain, Greece, traditionally you buy real estate there and you qualify for a golden visa. That gives you the residency and the right to live in that country where you purchase the real estate and then they can eventually lead to citizenship.

And the number 1 traditionally other markets outside the U. S. Have been the main drivers, but over the last few years, especially since COVID. The U. S. has become such an important market. And for example, in Portugal, it's been for the last few years, the number one source market for the program.

And so when I first got into the industry 15 years ago, and I started explaining what we were doing, I, at conferences, I get a blank stare. Why would an American ever need a second citizenship? Is it even legal? And yes, it's legal. You're allowed to hold more than one. You could have multiple.

But that is not such a reaction that I get anymore. It's, yeah, I've heard about these programs. My neighbor did it. A family friend did it. And it's becoming much more mainstream in the United States for a variety of reasons. People are looking for both short-term and long-term. So what's, they're not sure what their home country is going to look like in 5, 10, 20 years from now.

So let's provide more options for our children. Give them access to Europe or give them that second citizenship so they're not so reliant on one government or one state to look after their affairs. It's all about diversifying and providing more options.

Gresham Harkless 05:08

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that especially, talking about Kids, but also for the individuals I imagine that are going through the process, like having options is one of the big things.

And it's funny enough. I was going to ask you a little bit more of the different scenarios that people go through when they're looking for the citizenship. But it sounds like in a lot of cases, it provides that opportunity to be a lot more flexible and, those options.

But it also sounds like if you're doing some type of transaction as well, too, then that just I don't want to say goes along with it, but it ends up being one of the Perks maybe of that happening. Is that correct?

Jon Green 05:40

Exactly. It's it's opening up more doors in in life, right? So I'll give you an example. Some of our clients travel all over the world, and they're not always comfortable showing maybe their U. S. passport when they go through customs or they check into their hotel. And so sometimes a small, peaceful country in the Caribbean, which provides a passport program, Will come in handy and they can use that where they're more comfortable getting to going to the, these more delicate areas of the world is one example, but certainly, I think it's more about providing options for one's family and, Providing, especially for Europe, that's where these golden visas or citizenship programs are really at the forefront and what our high net worth, the ultra-high net worth clients are driven by.

Gresham Harkless 06:26

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit upon like how you work with your clients and how you serve them.

Can you take us through a little bit more on like how that process works, how they reach out to you and what kind of happens from there?

Jon Green 06:39

Excellent. So, yeah, once we start talking with the client we'll listen to what their goals and objectives are. Sometimes they may be thinking a program is a particular way, but it's not true.

It's something they read that's incorrect. And so we help steer them and guide them towards the best program for their particular needs. So, each client is unique. They have their different motivations, objective reasons, what they're trying to accomplish. And so that will help steer the conversation to the right program for them.

And then once we have selected they've selected a program, we'll then do some initial due diligence on them to ensure that we can onboard them as a client. Both that they'll have a high probability to be accepted for the program and Two, they're not a reputational risk to our firm, and from there, we move to a client agreement and get started building their application.

And so each country is unique on in terms of that the application requirements are, but we help with all aspects. Some programs require a tax ID, a bank account opening. Choosing the right investments, such as a real estate project. So we help with all aspects, A to Z from the the process to make it as smooth as possible for the clients.

Gresham Harkless 07:46

Nice. I absolutely love that. What would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce or the organization's secret sauce or a combination of both? What do you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

Jon Green 07:55

Certainly. So I think there's two things that set us apart. One is that we not only assist clients with citizenship and residence buy investment programs, but we also advise governments on how these programs work.

So sometimes we'll go in and we'll help a country design a program from scratch, so everything from, passing the necessary legislation so that it can enact the program to designing the application forms and the due diligence processes, et cetera. And other times we advise governments on tweaking their programs, so making it more attractive, making it more efficient.

Of a processing process and so that's where we're helping governments. And so there's not very many countries or sorry companies that can advise countries on a government advisory level. And so that's one thing that sets us apart. Another is that most investment migration firms stick to this traditional citizenship and residence by investment, but we were the first company to also go into the citizenship by descent.

So, Not everybody, of course, can afford the type of programs we offer just because of the price points. But for those who are lucky enough to have the lineage, like a grandparent, sometimes great or great great grandparent, born in a European country, like Italy, maybe Poland, Ireland, et cetera, they can gain citizenship by descent.

So this is an option for literally millions of Americans who are lucky enough to have, say, the Italian heritage. they may qualify for citizenship by descent. So it's really been an important part of our business that we've grown recently. And we have big plans for it in 2024 here, because it just expands our database of possible clients.

So it's not just the high net worth to ultra-high net worth, but those with the lineage Back to the European roots.

Gresham Harkless 09:44

Yeah, that's huge. And I imagine just as you said so well, like people don't even realize that they have that option. And I think by getting, of course, that information out there, but again, being able to make sure that you are, you're doing the right steps.

So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or even a habit that you have, but what's something that you feel like makes you more effective and efficient.

Jon Green 10:07

Yeah, I was going to say, I, what I've discovered in the last week that I'm really missing is my air pods.

So it is funny, but we were, we got a huge snow dump in Vancouver here a few, about a week ago, and I was shoveling the driveway. And they fell out of the case and I realized how much I missed them, right?

So there's somewhere in a snow pile inside of my driveway. I looking for him, but I realized how much I missed those. That's a bit of a hack, but on a more serious note one of the really important things for our company has been our B2B. Business model and it how we've made it so flexible to work with other companies.

So, a lot of firms are very rigid in how they work with other companies, but we're flexible, we have a whole array of different ways that we can work with other companies, whether it's lawyers, real estate agents, family offices, immigration attorneys, et cetera.

We offer a, just a wide range of. Options for them to refer us clients, and that helps give them a comfort level that it's not one size fits all. And we've really that has truly become such an important part of our business model is that B2B.

And so that's something that I would encourage anyone, not just the end client, but is looking for the B2B business model as well. Because that's turned out to be a great revenue source for us.

Gresham Harkless 11:33

Yeah, that, that makes so much sense. So, what would you consider to be a little bit more of what I call it? A CEO nugget, a little bit more word of wisdom or a piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your favorite client, or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

Jon Green 11:46

For me, one of the most important things is setting goals and objectives. And that's both short-term, medium-term, long term. And I think everybody in the company needs to do that. From a junior salesperson to say, a back office accountant or relationship manager, as we call it in our industry.

You need to set those goals and even if, you don't need to look at them every day, but they're sitting there in the back of your brain and then you're going to start to work towards those.

And so I'm a big believer in setting those goals again, not just short term, not just monetary. But it's also can be far beyond that personal development, helping other employees within the company. Let's see them succeed.

There's so many different ways you could skin it. And it's so important that you set these because it reverberates throughout the company when you set these and everybody is, is working towards that common goal, but also their individual goals, you're going to have a well-oiled machine.

Gresham Harkless 12:42

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's so exciting when you, you have that I'm gonna use the word culture in that reverberation when that happens and you start to be going, in the same direction.

So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and our goals to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Jon, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Jon Green 12:59

I think, one of the biggest things why my partners and I founded Latitude was we wanted to do things differently.

We wanted to do, not just reward front office staff, the people on the front lines selling and entering a commission. We wanted to reward back office people. We wanted to recognize those talents throughout the company that contribute to the success overall of the company.

And that was certainly lacking in some of my previous employers. And so that's one of one of the things we wanted to do differently. And why we started Latitude is just to recognize people throughout the company and not just maybe those that are more well known.

There's lots of people in the back office that do tremendous work. And if it weren't for them, the company certainly wouldn't succeed. And so it's about recognition throughout the company and rewarding people for their efforts. And so that's a big one as a co-founder of Latitude is important to me.

Gresham Harkless 13:55

Yeah, I love that. And while we want to have the latest, greatest, whatever it is that comes out, sometimes it's just creating that culture, building that culture in such a way that then you start to have those innovations come from there.

Jon Green 14:08

Exactly. And it's recognizing people and their success and it's rewarding them.

So, we value our employees, their valuable assets to the company. And I don't want to see, high turnover because we aren't doing things correctly. It costs money to train people and bring them back up to speed. And you don't want to lose talented people. So it's important that they're recognized.

They feel. That they're contributing to the company success. And then you're going to retain that talent and you're going to create that next widget, right? By retaining the talent and rewarding them.

Gresham Harkless 14:41

Yeah, absolutely. But I think again, we don't think about that business case for that, but also the people part of that and how important both of those things are and how it helps out the organization, the mission and all the people that support that mission

Jon Green 14:52

100%. The people are critical to the success of the company. And so again, we want those people to grow within the company. And we're going to be adding new talent. We don't want to be replacing people. Because that's costly, recruiting is costly. Training is costly. It's time and time is valuable of course.

Gresham Harkless 15:09

Yeah, time, money frustration, all the things probably, it could be very, very costly. So. Jon, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more.

So what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course have best people get ahold of you and about all the awesome things you are team are working on.

Jon Green 15:31

Excellent. Gresham, thank you very much for having me.

If people would like to learn more about Latitude, you can visit us at our website, latitudeworld. com. You'll see a list of the programs we offer. Again, residence by investment citizenship by investment. So we have programs throughout the world and we also do the citizenship by descent for countries in Europe for people who are lucky enough to have the lineage.

If anyone wants to get ahold of me directly, you can reach me. My email address is jon.green.latitudeworld.com  and my direct mobile number is 604 340 6599.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Jon. And to make that even easier, we'll have the links and information that's shown us as well, too, so that everybody can reach out to you, find out about all the different programs you all have and all the impact that you're making. But truly appreciate your time.

So thank you so much for your leadership, my friend, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Jon Green 16:23

Thank you so much for having us.

Outro 16:24

Thank you for listening to the I Am CEO podcast. Powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I Am CO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch videos at cbnation.co. Also, check out our I Am CEO Facebook group. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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