Heresy - financial adviser

1

I’m a Brit in Geneva and when i arrived was foolish enough to buy some snake oil from one of the local ‘wealth management’ companies. I transferred UK pension into a Malta based QROPS. There may be a change in Maltese law shortly to let me administer this myself but currently it needs to be done by a financial adviser.

Does anyone know a trustworthy fee based adviser, rather than trying to sell me dodgy structured products, who can help me with this? Not sure if it has to be Swiss based or could be in UK?

Many thanks

2

To my opinion you have a bit a UK or US vision of what means financial adviser because in these countries this job is well regulated. It is not the case here in Switzerland and the only regulation you have is on banks. (to the best of my knowledge)
In Geneva you can find a lot of specialists on tax optimisation, one of my favourite is Xavier Oberson.
I think that one of the reason of this forum is even the difficulty to find independent adviser in this country that make so important for the people to be financially educated.
Good luck.

3

US financial advisors are only better if they are fiduciaries imho.

I can’t help you with advisors in Geneva. The following should offer independent and competent advice:

hinder asset management (site down atm…)


https://www.vermoegens-partner.ch/de/

I have no connection to them. I never used them as I think that investing is rather like clipping my nails - in most cases, I should be able to do it myself :grin:

Hope this helps a bit in your situation.

4

I almost did exactly what you did but after doing a load of reading i changed my mind at the 11th hour and went with a UK advisor. I researched a lot in the UK press and found that AES has a good reputation and experience with expats. If you decide to go this route and need a name let me know. I transferred my pensions to a SIPP and, by coincidence, i just got he transfer papers this morning. I would highly recommend not using anybody Swiss, Spain, France based and go with a highly regulated one in the UK (whatever the company).

5

If I am not mistaken they are regulated starting this year or next year.