Breaking into Europe: How to Secure a Financial License and Serve Clients Across the Atlantic

John brings over 16 years of financial planning experience from his tenure at Merrill Lynch, TD Ameritrade, and independent planning firms in the Bay Area. He holds both CFP and GFP designations, and earned his BS in Psychology from the University of Iowa, with minors in Philosophy and French.

John is an intensely creative professional who is energetic in the application of modern financial planning principles in the service of his clientele. Currently, John is co-located in Lisbon, Portugal, and San Francisco, California. His family lives in Lisbon, and they enjoy exploring continental Europe, meeting new friends, and learning new languages.

Tom Zachystal is the founder of the firm and our President and Chief Investment Officer. Prior to starting IAM, he was Vice-President Europe based in Prague, Czech Republic for another US RIA firm and worked for a major Wall Street investment firm. Tom also spent five years as an international business consultant and seven years as an engineer for oil services firm Schlumberger. During this time he worked in a dozen countries on four continents and it is his combination of international experience and investment knowledge that allows IAM to offer tailored financial solutions to expatriates and non-US investors as well as to American residents and citizens.

Tom has an MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird University in Glendale, Arizona, a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) credential as well as the British Investment Management Certificate (IMC), and is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP™) practitioner. He is a past President of the San Francisco Financial Planning Association, has been managing investment portfolios on a discretionary basis since 2002, and oversees investment management and financial planning for all our expatriate clients.

Shane Clark is an investment advisor and portfolio manager. He specializes in investment research and building portfolios tailored to our clients’ specific needs, with a focus on cross-border issues.  

Shane is based in Sevilla, Spain and is especially knowledgeable in managing and advising on investment portfolios for US citizens living in Europe. Building on over 10 years experience in international financial markets, he designs balanced and diversified global portfolios for long-term returns, considering risk, regulatory, and tax implications.

Prior to his time with IAM, Shane founded and managed his own boutique investment advisory firm. Shane also worked for several years as a portfolio manager at a Trust Bank in Michigan. As an American expat himself, he worked in Europe as an independent consultant to start-ups, and SMEs in London and Brussels. Shane has also taught a variety of graduate financial markets and economics courses at the Strathclyde Business School, Scotland.  

Shane holds an MSc in Financial Economics and an MPhil in Economics from the University of Strathclyde, in addition to a B.A. in Business and Finance from Aquinas College, Michigan. Shane is a certified Agile Project Manager and holds the US Series 65 Investment Advisor license.