The Fourth Annual Investment International Latin America Forum 2025 which took place yesterday in São Paulo, saw more than 100 delegates enjoy sessions featuring some of the biggest names in the Brazilian and Latin American wealth management market alongside products and fund providers in the fabulous setting of the oasis-like Rosewood Hotel.
The event which now firmly one of the region's most popular international events with sell-outs at all of the previous events in Miami (2022, 2023) and Montevideo (2024) last year has now also sold out São Paulo in Brazil in 2025.
Dan Charles, head of video II and IA and Investment International Publisher Gary Robinson opened the event, with a fun introductory session outlining future developments at Money Map Media and for II and that set the tone for vibrant and engaging day.
This was followed by a strong session by lead sponsor and event partner for II Lat Am Forum 2025 Investors Trust. Now in its 23rd year, the company is a key provider of solutions and service in the Lat Am region and needed no introduction.
But, as always the audience thoroughly engaged by presentations by Gustavo Otero, pictured above, Head Of Distribution LATAM at Investors Trust and Carlos Pombo Lambrechts, Senior Business Development Manager. Education, groundbreaking new products and service were at the fore of Investors Trust's messaging. Its ITA University project is continuing to grow and has expanded significantly in the region. New recently-launched flexible solutions around bonds were discussed with particular interest from the crowd.
The next segment saw Capital International's Aidan O'Shea - Business Development Manager and Andy Tinnion – Senior Business Development Manager deliver their presentation entitled: The Offshore Edge: Elevating Client Portfolios with Global Custody. Aidan and Andy outlined Capital International's position as a versatile platform with its unique advantages around trading something that caught the attention of the largely Brazilian audience.
The final presentation before the first networking break say Michael Dalton of Newport Distribution presenting opportunities around the Ai Machines Global Managed Risk Fund. Dalton's enthusiastic presentation was well-received and timely given the interest in Ai within the region. Dalton saw a terrific response to the presentation with questions continuing into the break from the audience..
Canaccord Wealth opened the post break session with both Daragh O'Sullivan, Business Development Director, Canaccord Wealth and Justin Oliver, Chief Investment Officer - Funds, Canaccord Wealth speaking. Both gave valuable insights into how understanding historical investment trends across the years can stem investors from making snap, panicked decisions based on volatility current geopolitical instability and disruption, particular around Trump.
Bi-lingual
The event was marked by being truly bi-lingual with the English speaking sessions being well received by all of the audience alongside the Portuguese speakers, with many taking advantage of headsets with translations in both Portuguese and English available to all delegates.
Elbio Fernández, Director of Investment Solutions for the Southern Cone of Capital Vision followed with a vibrant session that offered deconstruction of the structured product marketplace. Fernández highlighted the opportunities for these products in a balanced portfolio and how the company has set up to stand out from the competition with lower charging and a more balanced approach to investments.
Just before lunch there was an anticipation and crackle on the air ahead of the main Industry Panel Session with industry's key players from the advice and brokerage world to discuss advice and challenges in Brazil and the wider Latin American region.
Panellists were:
- Sebastian Higham – Director, Niveton International
- Marcelo Passos, CEO, Empire Financial
- Samyr Castro, CEO InvestSmart
- Adrian Morgavi, Head of Sales from Aiva
The panel introduced by II Publisher Gary Robinson.
There was a real friendly buzz among the panelists who each told their personal stories of career's to date before tackling heady topics such issues that advisers and brokers need to overcome to give the clients best advice and how geopolitically speaking Brazil has been a challenging environment for financial services.
There was a discussion on how different the Brazilian market to the rest of Lat Am market followed by an audience Q&A. In the questions session there was debate among the whole room around fees, commission and the future of advice in the region that could have lasted all day given the engagement of the audience.
An additional element to this year's II Lat Am Forum 2025 was the live podcast area hosted by II's head of video Dan Charles, where sponsors speakers and delegates all took advantage of interview opportunities for both podcasts and videos at the event.
Afternoon
Lunch in the luxurious tropical gardens of the Rosewood Hotel, a real oasis in the concrete jungle of São Paulo was enjoyed by all before two rousing final sessions.
First up in the short afternoon session was Marlborough with Rod Guest presenting an overview of Marlborough's offering for the international cross-border marketplace. Guest was the perfect post lunch boost and spoke passionately about how Marlborough's partnership approach has proven successful across the globe and ho it could work in Latin America.
The final session of the day was by Vumi, with Karina Rivero the first frail speaker of the day presenting an overview of the IPMI sector and its importance to the Latin American marketplace. Her session was at times moving and always engaging highlighting the impact of how IPMI can change lives with some testimonial video interviews particularly moving.
II's Gary Robinson provided the closing remarks highlighting how II's event had reflected the region's positive approach to team work and collaboration with both product providers, fund managers and wealth managers, brokers and advisers fully engaged throughout. A great day was then capped off with a fabulous post event networking drinks in the Rosewood gardens, bringing to close another fantastic event in the region.
A full set of photographs with highlights from the event will be published separately with a link added here.
