Frequently asked questions
Here we answer the most common questions about our three business lines and how we work. When the answer depends on your particular situation, the best step is to talk to our team.
1. Getting Started
1.1 How do I know which service is right for me?
Start with a conversation. In a first meeting free and with no commitment we listen to your goals, your time horizon and your situation, and then show you which of our three lines fits best: international investment and savings, private equity real estate, or insurance and protection. Many clients end up combining more than one.
1.2 What happens during the first meeting?
We ask about what you want to build and protect, answer your questions, and explain what is realistic for your situation. If it makes sense, we propose a next step. If it doesn’t, we tell you that too.
1.3 Is the first conversation free?
Yes. The first conversation is free and carries no commitment it is a space to understand your goals and show you what is possible.
1.4 Do I need investment experience?
No. Most of the people we work with are professionals, business owners and families not full time investors. Our job is to explain each option in plain language, including the risks, so that you can decide with clear information rather than take our word for it.
1.5 Can I work with IFC if I already have an advisor?
Yes. We regularly work alongside a client’s existing advisors, accountants and attorneys, and we encourage you to review any proposal with them. Access to international opportunities usually complements what you already have in place rather than replacing it.
1.6 What information should I prepare?
Nothing formal for a first conversation. It helps to have a rough idea of your goals, your time horizon and what you are able to set aside regularly. Documentation only comes later, if you decide to move forward and please do not send confidential or financial information through this website. When it is needed, your advisor will request it through a secure channel.
2. Investing with Confidence
2.1 How much do I need to start?
You can start building your plan from $2,400 a year the equivalent of $200 a month. What matters is not the amount you begin with, but beginning, staying consistent, and letting time and compound growth work in your favour.
2.2 Why do long term plans require discipline?
Because that is where the results actually come from. These plans are built on time, consistency and compound growth not on predicting the market. A plan held for twenty-five years behaves very differently from one interrupted after three. Markets are not in your control; staying the course is.
2.3 How is my money protected?
Plans are structured through an international trust that holds the participant’s assets, and those assets are held by top-tier global custodians such as Jefferies, BNY Pershing and Morgan Stanley. Depending on the plan, a level of capital protection at maturity is built into the structure. The exact conditions are set out in your policy contract, and your advisor goes through them with you before you sign anything.
2.4 What happens if markets become volatile?
Over a twenty-year horizon, volatility is not an exception it is part of the journey, and the plan is designed with that in mind: global indexation with automatic rebalancing keeps the portfolio aligned with its strategy instead of reacting to short term swings. Your advisor is there precisely in those moments, because the costliest decisions tend to be the ones made in a rush.
2.5 Why invest in strong currencies?
Because it removes one variable from your long-term planning. Plans are denominated in strong currencies US dollars, British pounds and euros with multicurrency options, so your savings are not tied to the performance of a single country’s economy or currency.
2.6 Can I change my contributions?
Plans are designed with flexibility in mind, and contributions can generally be adjusted within the terms of your contract. Your advisor reviews the conditions with you before any change takes effect.
2.7 Can I have more than one plan?
Yes. Clients often hold more than one plan for example, one for retirement and another for a child’s education, each with its own horizon and contribution.
3. Real Estate Opportunities
3.1 Why are investors required to qualify?
Because these are private investments, not publicly traded products. Regulation in the applicable jurisdictions limits participation to qualified, accredited or otherwise eligible investors, and opportunities are offered solely through formal documentation. Qualifying protects both sides: it confirms that the investor’s profile matches the risk and the time horizon involved.
3.2 How are projects selected?
Through relationships first, and criteria always. Our access comes from long-standing relationships with established national developers; from there, each project is evaluated by a team with deep experience in real estate development and private equity, supported by an affiliated network of legal, title, accounting and auditing partners.
3.3 Why South Florida?
It is one of the fastest growing real estate markets in the United States, with sustained demand for high-quality new construction and it is where our team’s developer relationships and track record are strongest, with completed projects such as Hyde Midtown in Miami and Hyde Beach House in Hollywood.
3.4 What is the minimum to participate?
Minimums start at $250,000 for qualified investors. Amounts and terms depend on each specific opportunity and are set out in the fund’s formal documentation, which we review with you in a personal conversation.
3.5 What should I expect during the investment period?
Capital is deployed in phases, from preconstruction through to the sale of completed units, over an estimated horizon of thirty six to forty eight months. Development moves in stages, and timelines can shift with permitting, construction and market conditions which is why this is capital you should not expect to have available in the meantime.
3.6 Will I receive updates?
Yes. Investors receive updates on the progress of the project and the status of their investment.
3.7 What documentation will I receive?
Participation is formalised through the fund’s governing documents typically a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), a Subscription Agreement and an Operating Agreement which contain the complete terms, structure and risk disclosures. We recommend reviewing them with your own legal and tax advisors before committing.
4. Protecting What Matters
4.1 How do I know which protection program is right?
It depends on who you are protecting and from what. For a company, we start with the size and profile of the team and what you want the benefit to achieve; for a family, with who depends on you financially. From there we build a proposal around your case rather than fitting you to a catalogue product.
4.2 What kind of solutions do you offer?
Group insurance, corporate insurance solutions, employee benefit programs and protection programs for companies, organisations and corporations as well as life and financial-protection coverage for families.
4.3 Can benefits be customized?
Yes, every program is designed around the size, profile and objectives of the organisation. Coverage, terms and contributions are defined case by case together with the insurer, which is why the starting point is always a conversation rather than a price list.
4.4 Can coverage grow with my company?
Yes. Group programs are built to be reviewed as headcount, payroll and structure change, so that coverage keeps pace with the organisation instead of falling behind it.
4.5 How is a proposal prepared?
We start with a conversation to understand the organisation and its objectives, gather the information the insurer needs in order to quote, and come back with a personalised proposal setting out coverage, terms and costs.
4.6 Can protection complement an investment strategy?
Yes, and it usually should. Protection is what keeps a long term plan intact when something unexpected happens: our savings and investment plans include a death benefit, and corporate protection programs are frequently structured alongside them. Building and safeguarding are two halves of the same decision.
5. Working With IFC
5.1 What is IFC Brokers Trust?
An umbrella brand that brings together three specialised lines international investment and savings, private equity real estate, and insurance and protection under one philosophy of transparency and long term accompaniment. We connect our clients with institutions and partners that are regulated and supervised in their respective jurisdictions. IFC Brokers Trust is not itself a regulated financial entity and does not provide legal or tax advice.
5.2 What happens after I submit the contact form?
You see an immediate confirmation on screen and your request is logged. One of our advisors then gets in touch to arrange a meeting at a time that works for you. In that conversation we listen to your goals, answer your questions and propose a next step with no pressure to take it.
5.3 Will I always work with the same advisor?
Yes. Each client works with an assigned advisor who stays with them through every stage the relationship is personal from the first conversation onward, and that is the point of how we are structured.
5.4 How is my information protected?
Your data is kept private and used only to contact you about your request. We never sell your information. Please do not include confidential or sensitive financial information in the website form when documentation is needed, your advisor will request it through a secure channel. You can read the full Privacy Policy here.
5.7 Can meetings be held remotely?
Yes. Most first meetings take place by video call or phone, and clients work with us remotely from a number of countries.
5.8 Can I partner with IFC as a distributor or agent?
Yes. At the heart of IFC is a network of general agents and independent distributors professionals with years of experience who help each client find the right solution.
5.9 How can I stay informed?
Through our blog, where we publish practical perspectives on investing, real estate, protection and financial planning written to help you decide, not to sell you shortcuts.