Asset Management’s Miami Migration

In the US, business is shining in the Sunshine State, otherwise known as Florida. According to the website ‘Business Facilities’, companies are carrying out corporate relocations to Miami in droves. This is in part due to a highly pro-government that enforces no state income tax and low corporate taxes and then also the laid back lifestyle and weather conditions of the state that offer a preferred way of life for lots of employees. By consequence, Miami is moving up on the short list of locations for growth for many corporate companies.

The Financial Times has echoed such sentiments regarding the increasing relevance of Miami as a leading US state. In a February publication, an article read that Miami is now the most important city in the US. The reason for this was due to the mass migration of people, which was a consequence of office workers no longer needing to be in an office in NYC. From July 1 2020 until 2021, 220,890 people moved to Florida, making it the state to have the greatest influx of people during this time period.

Prior to 2020, Miami had a reputation for offering people a glamorous beach life and all night partying. The mass migration of professional services individuals to the city has shown how much can change. According to the Wall St Journal, the city is going through a huge identity transformation. It is ditching its old glitzy nightlife identity for being an established and world class financial and business center.

Whilst people can change the image of a place, their migration also means a migration of money. It has been reported that American financier and billionaire Carl Icahn relocated his hedge fund office from New York to Miami. The same has been reported for Ken Griffin who shared in June that he is moving his hedge fund HQ from Chicago to Miami. West Palm Beach is now home to the hedge fund Elliott Management Corp and Point 72 Asset Management, Millennium Management and Schonfeld Management are expanding into the city too. The City of Miami shared that financial firms that have opened up offices in Miami in the last year and a half that represent $2 trillion in AUM.

From a FinTech perspective, Miami was the first city to take the innovative steps to launch its own cryptocurrency, dubbed as MiamiCoin. New York and Austin soon followed suit with their own respective CityCoins. In addition to this, the Wall St Journal also shared that ‘the Miami Heat now play in the FTW Arena, which was named for its crypto exchange that cost $135 million for the rights’.

However, it is not just financial firms who are embracing a migration to the city. Real estate, tech and legal firms are also embarking upon the journey. In order to embrace the newcomers to the city, New York developers are relocating to gain their share of the Miami market. At the time of writing, Miami is home to 10 tech unicorns. Examples include the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Crypto Punks.

There is an argument that the city is set to become ‘the Wall St of the South’. It is the new hotspot for financial firms and asset management. With offices relocating to set up business for a new era, firms should also be considering what this looks like in terms of their data infrastructure and cybersecurity. At RFA, we provide our clients with global Managed Data Services that combine the strength of the cloud with the robust security and compliance. Our services empower our clients because we optimize operational costs and cost-effectively process change through using our managed data services. If your business is looking to migrate to Miami, RFA is here to not only help you move your data securely, but to help positioned you for the next generation of success and growth to come.