Cross-Border IA/DIM Licensing
You advise or manage money for Korean institutional clients without an office in Korea. Somewhere between the first introduction and the signed mandate sits a licensing question: Korea maintains a registration regime for offshore firms providing investment advisory and discretionary investment management services into the country, and the line between permissible marketing and regulated activity is narrower — and more fact-dependent — than most global compliance teams expect.
I work with offshore managers across the full arc of the cross-border IA/DIM regime: the threshold analysis of whether a registration is needed, the application itself and the regulator's comment process, the ongoing compliance calendar once registered, and the questions that arise late in the lifecycle — group reorganizations that touch the registered entity, changes in coverage models, and orderly exit from the registration.
Questions clients typically bring
- Which activities pull an offshore firm into the Korean licensing perimeter — and where does permissible marketing end?
- Does sub-managing a Korean fund require a Korean registration of your own — and if not, what does?
- What does a cross-border IA/DIM application actually involve, and where do applicants stumble?
- What does the regulator expect from a registrant year-round, and which corporate events must be raised with it?
- What happens to a Korean registration when your group merges or reorganizes the registered entity?
- How do you exit — is deregistration a letter or a process, and what continues to apply while it is pending?
- What forms of on-the-ground presence are possible without a full financial license, and where are the trip-wires?
These questions are named here, not answered — each turns on the specific facts of the fund, the investor, and the timeline in front of you.
Related insights
- Inside a CB IA/DIM Application: Where Applicants Stumble
Korea's cross-border IA/DIM registration looks like a forms exercise — until the regulator's comments arrive. The questions to ask before filing.
- When Does Korea Require a Cross-Border IA/DIM Registration?
You advise or manage money for Korean institutions without a Korean office. Which activities pull an offshore firm into the licensing perimeter?