Expat Financial Advice

Good quality, professional and effective expat financial advice is imperative for all expats living and working abroad. For many expats, they will have an increase in their salary, a benefits package and may be paying less tax than they would in the UK or elsewhere. This therefore provides an excellent opportunity to save wisely, and increase their wealth during the time that they are abroad. However, unfortunately the vast majority of so called offshore financial advisers have very few qualifications, and are more interested in getting a quick sale and pocketing the commission. Many companies operating abroad, especially in the Middle East and Asia, do not have to adhere to the strict rules and regulations as UK financial advisers, and as a result, are often badly advised, and sold inappropriate investments. One of the biggest scams in terms of expat financial advice surrounds the misselling of long term saving plans, or so called ‘offshore pensions’. The adviser is paid a commission which is dependent solely on 2 factors – the monthly premium, and the length of the term. Thus it is in the adviser’s interest to ‘recommend’ a long term plan, even though a shorter term plan, such as 5 years, will provide exactly the same benefits, and more flexibility for the client – although only a fraction of the commission. Over the past few years, we have recieved countless emails from unsuspecting expats who signed up to 20 or 25 year plans, only to realise that they would incur substantial penalties for reducing their premiums, or taking premium holidays. For more details, see our article – The Great Offshore Pension Plan Scam’. If you are an expat and have received bad expat financial advice, or would like completely independent, unbiased advice in relation to your financial planning needs, and receive substantial cash back discounts on all investments, please drop us a line.