For over 27 years, we at TIMC have been helping our customers preserve their future.
This month’s newsletter is dedicated to TIMC’s founder and President, Mr. Amre Qahawish.
Creative Writer at TIMC, Mrs. Jeanne Labbe, member of TIMC’s Marketing team, interviewed Mr. Qahawish to learn more about TIMC’s story.
We hope you enjoy discovering the story behind TIMC…
JEANNE LABBE:
Mr. Qahawish, as founder of TIMC in 1988, can you brief us a little about your personal and professional background?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
I am a 50 year-old proud father of an 8 year-old boy, an Economics graduate from University of Wisconsin, and an OPM graduate from Harvard Business School.
At the age of 17, I came to the USA as a refugee to study, and in 1987, I graduated in Economics, a subject which I am very passionate about. To me, global macro-economic analysis is a hobby and not just a profession.
A few weeks following my graduation, I came to Canada for a job interview with the Bank of Canada and CIBC-Wood Gundy (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), during which I convinced the interviewer to hire me as an independent consultant instead of a full time employee, to set up their Canadian Immigrant Investor Program. That is how I founded TIMC, 27 years ago.
From the beginning, we focused on addressing the needs of International High Net Worth individuals and their families by offering them the Canadian Immigrant Investor Program as a solution to preserving their family’s future.
I always felt that my background as a Palestinian refugee, intrinsically helped me understand the importance of multiple citizenships for ease of mobility.
JEANNE LABBE:
Has your vision for TIMC changed since its incorporation in 1988?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
During our first 20 years of operation, we became the consultant of choice for the Immigrant Investor Program, among High Net Worth individuals from around the world. On June 26, 2010, the Government of Canada declared a moratorium on the acceptance of new applications in its Immigrant Investor Program and TIMC found itself with a great client base of International High Net Worth Individuals, but not being able to offer them the IIP solution. That is when I realized that we needed to expand our offerings to our customers, and our company vision evolved to preserving our customers’ future by offering them asset diversification along with citizenship solutions.
JEANNE LABBE:
According to your experience of over 27 years in financial products and services and immigration, how have TIMC’s clients’ needs evolved over the years?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
Current global uncertainties like geopolitical conflicts, global economic instability, governments defaulting on their debt, capital market meltdown, and the degradation of Swiss banking secrecy laws, are forcing wealthy individuals to evaluate new options in planning and securing their future. HNWI now must not only diversify their assets geographically but their citizenships as well, to ensure the preservation of their family’s future.
JEANNE LABBE:
What influences International High Net Worth individuals to turn to TIMC to preserve their future?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
TIMC offers a unique holistic approach to preservation of the future by offering asset diversification along with citizenship solutions. We offer a one-stop solution that will meet your needs seamlessly and help you achieve your goals.
JEANNE LABBE:
Can you please explain a bit more about TIMC’s unique holistic approach?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
Why do you think an International High Net Worth individual that accumulated a 25 million dollars net worth, sometimes feels insecure about his family’s future in today’s day and age? The global uncertainties that I referred to earlier create that insecurity even amongst the wealthiest. Our customers are not just concerned about preserving their wealth, but mostly they are concerned about their family’s future for generations to come. To address these concerns, (“I don’t know which country will be friendly with my country or will even exist fifty years from now”) we must address the following two main components at the same time: money and family. Money we address it with geographical diversification, and family we address it with citizenship diversification.
As a registered Canadian immigration Consultant and Exempt Market Dealer, we provide International High Net-Worth Individuals with access to exclusive financial products and citizenship solutions to preserve their family’s future. This is our unique holistic approach.
JEANNE LABBE:
TIMC is well known in the industry for their capacity to deliver a superior service to their clients. Can you please elaborate more about this?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
Superior Service Delivery starts with superior knowledge of our products and services. Before onboarding a new partner and product we go through a rigorous due diligence process to understand the new offering in depth, enabling us to eliminate any possible complications along the way and make sure our customers are not faced with them. Superior Service Delivery also means delivering it to your doorstep. TIMC advisors travel the world and meet our customers and their family members in person on a regular basis in their home country. This allows us to understand their evolving family needs and better plan the preservation of their future together.
To me, delivering a seamless solution in a personalized setting is what Superior Service Delivery is all about.
JEANNE LABBE:
As a result of your new vision, what products is TIMC currently offering, and which products do you plan on offering in the future?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
Any product that we onboard must be in line with our customers evolving needs to preserve their future. This is why it was important to carefully select the first financial product we onboard. It had to be Canadian, solid, and a long-term investment product. This is why we selected WALTON as our first offering: investing in Canadian land. Walton takes a long-term approach to land development, building communities for today and tomorrow. The same goes for onboarding a second citizenship solution; it had to be in line with our customers’ evolving mobility needs. It had to be an internationally respected citizenship, it had to have access to as many visa-free countries as Canada if not more, and it had to have the most advantageous tax laws for our customers.
When the Antiguan government established their Program, they reached out to Canadian immigration experts to help them build a reputable and robust Citizenship by Investment Program. Thus, the Antigua & Barbuda passport holders travel visa-free to 130 countries from around the world. This is why we selected the Antigua & Barbuda Citizenship by Investment Program as a citizenship solution for our customers.
Of course, the Canadian IIP, Walton land investments, and Antigua & Barbuda Citizenship are only the beginning. We plan to add other financial products and citizenship solutions that will meet our customer’s evolving needs. Products and services that have proven track record and that our customers can relate to. Most of our customers have made their wealth from the real estate sector, the oil & gas sector, tourism and manufacturing. And in these industries we are looking for new financial products to offer our customers in the future.
JEANNE LABBE:
This holistic approach to preserving the future is pioneering from what we usually see offered on the market today. Can you explain why you chose this alternative path?
AMRE QAHAWISH:
Yes. Some people might think it is unconventional to combine asset diversification strategies with second citizenship planning, where others see it as wise and prudent in order to achieve solid future preservation, and so do we. And for those few wise and prudent investors we created TIMC’s holistic approach to preserving the future.
