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MASSEY is published by Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North, New Zealand

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MASSEY has a circulation of 75,000.

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Offshore Assets

Accountant
William Bruce BBS

Paralegal
Andrea Bruce BBS, Dip Bus Admin

John Grisham’s best-selling novel The Firm is an unlikely prospectus for life on a Caribbean island, but that is what it turned out to be for William Bruce, 27, and Andrea Bruce (née Cooper), 28.

“Will was working for Ernst & Young in Auckland and the opportunity to transfer to Ernst & Young in either the Cayman Islands or Bermuda arose. We didn’t really know much about either but we decided on the Cayman Islands. We had heard a little about the islands from reading some John Grisham books,” Andrea says.

In The Firm, the Cayman Islands is a place where the beaches are beautiful, the water is warm, and the financial dealings are dodgy. The first two are true to life. Will and Andrea can vouch for the beaches and the water – as well as for the diving, the windsurfing, and for a great expatriate community.

The dodgy financial dealings? “Interestingly enough, now that we are here, the Cayman Islands couldn’t be more different from how they are portrayed in the Grisham books. With all the anti-money laundering rules, the Cayman Islands would be one of the hardest places for money to be laundered,” says Andrea.

Andrea and Will met while studying at Massey’s Palmerston North campus in 1993, discovering shared interests in the outdoors and sport. At the beginning of 1995, Andrea moved to Auckland to complete her final year of a Business Studies degree in marketing and tourism at the Albany campus. At the end of that year, having finished his BBS in accounting, Will also headed to Auckland, where had been offered a job with Ernst & Young.

Andrea went on to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration in 1998.

The move to Grand Cayman from Auckland came in October 2000. They found accommodation in an apartment complex filled with expatriates. The Caymanians were friendly and welcoming; the lifestyle relaxed. “The Caymanian people really do operate on island time,” says Andrea.

Will stepped straight into his new job at Ernst & Young. In 2001 he started an assignment working one week out of every month at Goldman Sachs. And in April this year he left Ernst & Young and took on the role of senior accountant for Goldman Sachs’ equities division.

For Andrea, whose career had been in sales and marketing for the L’Oréal Group, followed by a promotions specialist role for Lion Nathan, the Cayman move meant a career shift. After a lag while her one-year work permit application was processed – a notoriously slow procedure –  she began employ- ment as a paralegal for a law firm, specialising in commercial and civil litigation. Andrea says she has been studying for a legal executive certificate by correspondence through the New Zealand Law Society and will soon qualify.

The job market in the Caymans is less certain than it was. “The economy was affected by the September 11 attacks. The Cayman Islands relies heavily on the US market for most of its business such as tourism, law and accounting.

“It is easiest to find a job if you are an accountant or a lawyer. Otherwise it can be quite difficult,” Will says.

(The Cayman Islands, with a population of 35,000, is host to 2,240 mutual funds, 500 insurance funds, and 570 banks and trusts.) Andrea and Will often work long hours, so it is good to have a close-knit New Zealand expatriate community to turn to. Often they will meet friends for happy hour drinks at a seaside bar or at the Cayman Islands rugby club. (Will recently played in the island’s International Rugby Sevens tournament.) Both certified divers, Will and Andrea use their weekends to explore numerous dive sites around the island, including a snorkelling spot, ‘Stingray City’, where the stingrays are plentiful and docile.

“You can decide at a whim to go diving and be out in the water within 30 minutes,” Will says.

But there are serpents in this paradise. For an expatriate it is difficult to make long-term plans. “As with all other expats here, we are on work permits which must be renewed every year. The local immigration law directs that if there is a local person who can do your job, then your permit will not be approved,” Will says.

The heat and humidity over summer can be debilitating, and with summer comes the threat of hurricanes. The Bruces say hurricane insurance, to fly people from the island in the event of a disaster, is commonplace.

While there is no risk of the deep winter blues, ‘rock or island fever’ is endemic. “There is not a lot of variation here, so you need to get off the island every few months and get back into a city,” says Andrea.

New Zealand, family and friends – for the girl who grew up in Lower Hutt and the boy from the 7,500 acre Waitotara Valley sheep station – can seem, at times, very far away. They sometimes pine for mountains, lakes and fresh air and for Kiwi shopping and coffee. “We both really miss our weekends away in Whangamata in the Coromandel Peninsula, the great bush walks and scenery,” says Andrea. The pair plan to travel home in 2003.