Quantitative Modeler Job in San Juan

Welcome to the forum and Puerto Rico.
There are several financial and investment firms in the island however I am not sure about the need for that particular job in PR.
100k is not likely in PR, likely you would be payed 1/2 to 1/3 what you are making now.
There are several startups in PR that do development plus regular large busness can use programmers. While in the US unemployment is around 4.4%, PR unemployment is around 15%. Depending on the position you may not need Spanish but must jobs require it if you have to deal with locals. Some expats have moved to the island and spend more than a year with no jobs, competition is fearsed for the available jobs.
Rey

Thanks. Yes, I'm prepared for a deep pay cut.

I just started learning Spanish so I'm only looking for English-only jobs.

What are the names of the financial firms/investment firms that you mentioned? I'd like to do more research on the company.

As Ray indicated pay levels are markedly lower in PR.  This seems to be the case with most of the professional disciplines, medicine, computer science, law, engineer, nursing, teaching etc pay scales look 30 - 45% lower? 

Is PR not subject to the same law of supply and demand that applies in the states ?   

Sorry not in the island at the moment so I can't help you with names of companies. I do believe that Fidelity Investments is one of the ones there.

If you go to Facebook and join the group "Puerto Rico Act 20/22 Resource Group Service Providers and Jobs Board" they should be able to tell you about them. These are people that do investment and startups, under the act 20 and act 22 in Puerto Rico.

Sitka, the law does apply but what you have is few jobs and many people who want to do the job, so the companies can pay little and people are happy to at least have a job.

You might have a couple of options:
* Work remotely as a contractor for a mainland firm.
  Your skillset is highly desirable and they may be willing to give you a flexible arrangement.

* Banco Popular or Santander may havd some regional offices.  I know they do in Miami.

* Try to plug in with one of the hedge funds we hear about moving to the island.  Anc offer services on contract initially.

Elcalipocho wrote:

You might have a couple of options:

* Try to plug in with one of the hedge funds we hear about moving to the island.  Anc offer services on contract initially.

Can you identify the hedge funds in PR?

Off the top of my head don't know the names of  hedge funds, although John Paulson is the biggest hedge fund manager's name that has some presence here.
Maybe only a handful but a google search is a good start.

I think, (if I understand act 20 & 22)returns on investments in PR  are tax free.   

Would capital gains on PR based hedge fund be free of US tax?   

Yes I believe so, the Act 20/22  is what attracted John Paulson and some of the other investors to look at PR.

ok - perhaps we need a new thread.

Hi, if_nyc. Most of my clients are hedge funds but none are located in PR because hedge funds are almost always established as partnerships, meaning you want a common law jurisdiction as the situs of the fund. As PR is a civil law jurisdiction, there's no good reason to use it. 

You may be able to find out more on fund managers and other asset managers that are based in PR (rather than the funds themselves). But, with the notable exception of Paulson relocating there, PR just doesn't have a vibrant financial services industry. And no banks that I know of have fund management companies and asset management divisions based in PR.

The main locations for funds are London, Delaware, Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg, Cayman, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Seychelles, Malta and Bermuda to a lesser extent. The main locations for fund managers and general partners are NYC, London, Switzerland, San Fran (especially for managers of private equity funds), Luxembourg, HK, and Miami to a much lesser extent.

Finally, there isn't much publicly available information on hedge funds because they don't have public-reporting obligations and don't seek public attention (they're prevented from marketing themselves to the public anyway). Focus on researching the fund managers and not the funds themselves. If you find anything in PR, I'd be curious to hear about it.

Good luck!

Sitka wrote:

I think, (if I understand act 20 & 22)returns on investments in PR  are tax free.   

Would capital gains on PR based hedge fund be free of US tax?   

To my limited knowledge yes. But the money invested in PR has to be post US tax. A regular IRA has to be converted to a Roth before it counts. Regular IRA accumulates and grows tax free any way.
You need speak with a tax lawyer and an excelent CPA, dont go by my understanding.

Yeah, it all depends on the nature of the activity (e.g., trading or investing?) and what type of income it generates. Once that's decided, you need to know the jurisdictional rules as to where the income is sourced. Then you need to understand the appropriate jurisdiction's tax treatment of that kind of income (e.g., dividends, interest, capital gains, effectively connected income, etc.). Then you need to understand the nature of the legal entities that the payments pass through (e.g., are they flow-through, opaque, hybrid or reverse hybrid for tax purposes?) This can get complicated!

I have an IRA but it cost a lot in taxes to convert mine to a Roth (post tax), so it is not worth for me to use act 22. Besides I am able to trade within the IRA and I am making it grow more than what my retirements needs are. When I need money I can bite the bullet with the 10% minimum tax on the funds that I move to my checking account on the rare occasions when I will need to do that. Mean time it is growing tax free.