Between 240,000 and 265,000 new immigrants are expected to call Canada home this year, according to a report from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) released in 2013.

This trend offers an opportunity for you to help newcomers to Canada adjust to a financial culture that could be quite different from that of their homeland, says Wendy Seto, a private banking advisor with Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto.

New immigrants represent a market of potential clients of all asset levels who will need financial advice. But introducing yourself and your services to people from other countries and working with them as clients over the long term can be challenging.

Here are four steps to developing relationships with immigrant clients:

1. Find out their circumstances
Ask immigrant clients the usual questions you would ask during any discovery process. However, there is an additional question you should ask a new resident to Canada: under which immigration program did they immigrate?

The government lists 10 programs under which immigrants can come to Canada, according to CIC. These include the federal skilled trade, start-up visa, refugee and live-in caregiver programs.

Your clients’ financial needs could vary depending on their respective immigrant programs. For example, a federal skilled trade worker’s immediate financial needs might include saving up for a vehicle so he or she can commute between jobs. On the other hand, someone who was accepted on a start-up visa might be looking for financial advice with an emphasis on business planning.

2. Build trust over time
The discovery process is a slow yet important aspect of encouraging new immigrants to confide in you. Don’t be discouraged if it takes more than one meeting to learn what is important to an immigrant client, Seto says.

In general, many immigrants tend to avoid disclosing a lot of information in that first meeting.

For example, you might ask your new client how much money he or she is planning on transferring from their home country into a Canadian account.

“If their response is $100,000,” Seto says, “the rule of thumb is that you would multiply that by 10. [Immigrants] tend to low-ball how much wealth they have because the trust is not there yet.”

3. Be proactive outside of meetings
Continue to develop that trust by following up with clients after initial appointments. Give your new-immigrant clients a call and ask if they have any questions or concerns regarding the meeting or their finances in general.

Immigrant clients appreciate it when an advisor spends that extra time with them, Seto says.

4. Be an educator
A person who is new to this country will most likely have friends or family members who will try to educate or influence them on the new social and financial culture.

As a professional in the financial services industry, you will be seen by new immigrants as a credible source of this information as well. So, in addition to helping them with their investments, you have an opportunity to contribute to their knowledge about their new home.

“It’s more than just providing a product or service,” Seto says. “It’s also about educating them about the differences in banking systems.”

Many immigrants, for example, are surprised at the widespread use of credit to pay for purchases in Canada. Some immigrants might even expect to use cash for a major purchase such as a home. Your role would include educating your new clients on the importance of building a credit history in Canada.