How we help you

You obtain comprehensive written reports, competitive prices and the best advice.

How can we help you make more of your money?

First a little background information

Scandalous behaviour!

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s wide scale mis-selling of products in the UK led to consumer driven outrage. Scandal after scandal led to the UK regulator imposing, what many believe is the toughest regime in the world.

Part of this regime was to impose in the UK an explicit and transparent regime where commissions were banned. For a firm to operate successfully in the UK then it has to focus on service and ensuring that client relationships are long term.

Commission products

The commission driven products sold in the 1980’s and 1990’s no longer exist in the UK, regulated out of existence.
Unfortunately the UK regime has not been adopted in many countries, and the salesforces and products operating there have moved overseas, focusing on expatriates.

The outcome

Clever salesman recognise the legally enforceable terms used by advisers in the UK, and use the same terms overseas where they are not enforceable. To a consumer in the UK, terms like “Certified”, “Chartered”, “Guaranteed” and “IFA” provide re-assurance. Overseas they often mean nothing. In effect, overseas, many countries allow for product sales linked to commission by people using terms like IFA which are nothing of the sort by UK standards.

Therefore, unfortunately, many expatriates are sold by “advisers” the same expensive scandalous commission based financial products, much like the UK in the 1980-90’s.

How can we help you make more of your money?

How we approach advice

A product that is not regulated in the UK, USA or recognised regulated exchange/ bourse will not be considered. If it does not meet the high standards of these territories then we will not recommend it.
Far from restricting your investment and product horizon, we would suggest why should you put up with second best?

Second best products often swallow the returns that should be in your pocket.

Transparency

Every charge on every product is explained in a transparent way that you should be able to understand, and we back this up within written reports that you pay for. Our reports follow the conventions as laid down by our regulators the FCA in the UK, and the SEC in the USA.

What problems do we encounter and how do we get round them?

We come up against other overseas advisers that are becoming more and more sophisticated in their “cloning” of terms and sometimes companies based in the UK, thus purporting to be something they are not. We get around this problem by asking every single client from the 17 year history of our company if they are prepared to talk to new potential clients and give an unbiased view of us which provides re-assurance to new clients.

Another problem is that we often do not meet our clients face to face until much later in the process of advice. Therefore, we have put together a system that meets the needs of advice where face to face is not always possible. We make great use of interactive PDF’s and we use our reports as discussion documents and utilise social media.

The biggest problem we face is convincing people that terms such as offshore bonds, IFA’s, TVAS, QROPS and custodians are interchangeable and often meaningless overseas as the “product” is not the same as what you would receive in the UK, even where it has the same name! We get round this problem by breaking down the charges of any product we are asked to. This can lead to other competing advisers having to “revise” their statements, the most common being that “ongoing charges will be limited to 1%” (We come across that statement on documents more than any other and to date it has never turned out to be true although we accept there is always a first time).

We are fee driven and transparent

In essence, with us you know what you are paying for, and you know the exact cost. However, even more important than this, you are getting this from a team who have been around working together for years in a highly regulated environment and made a success of it. We are now offering that service throughout the EU and applying the same high standards we have adopted in the UK to overseas expatriates.

If you’d like to find out more, please contact us.