The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Offshore Investment Advice for Expats
18th April 2025
Imagine a nameless gunslinger stepping into a dusty frontier town. Eyes narrowed, hand hovering near his holster. In the classic Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, lawlessness reigns and only the savvy survive. For expats navigating the world of offshore investments, the landscape can feel just as wild and unruly. Welcome to the financial Wild West, where dubious prospectors peddle shiny schemes, regulators are often nowhere to be seen, and a lone hero is hard to find. In this high-stakes drama, there are Good advisers fighting for what's right, plenty of Bad actors chasing commissions, and some truly Ugly consequences when things go wrong.
Let’s pull back the saloon doors and see how the classic trio - the good, the bad, and the ugly - play out in the lawless-feeling world of offshore financial advice.
Let’s pull back the saloon doors and see how the classic trio - the good, the bad, and the ugly - play out in the lawless-feeling world of offshore financial advice.
The Good
In the Wild West of offshore finance, “The Good” are the rare but reputable advisers who stand out like a lone honest sheriff in a town of outlaws. These are firms that put the client’s interest first, prioritising transparency, low costs, and long-term planning over quick wins. They’re the Man With No Name archetype of our story: modest in appearance but strong in principle, quietly doing the right thing while others chase bounties.
What sets the good apart? First and foremost, transparent fee-based advice. Unlike the typical commission-driven salesmen, good advisory firms charge fees that are clear and agreed upfront, rather than pocketing hidden kickbacks from the products they sell. This matters because when advisers are paid by clients instead of product providers, their incentives align with the client’s success - not with pushing a particular investment. In fact, many well-regulated markets have moved in this direction; in the UK, for example, regulators cracked down on commission payments to protect investors, driving a shift toward client-focused fee models. The best offshore advisers voluntarily hold themselves to these higher standards, even in jurisdictions that don’t require it.
Next, The Good champion low-cost, institutional-grade investments. They avoid the overpriced, opaque “investment products” common in offshore portfolios, and instead use straightforward assets like index funds and ETFs. This low-cost approach can make a world of difference. Research consistently shows that keeping investment costs down directly improves investors’ outcomes - Morningstar finds that a fund’s expense ratio is one of the most reliable predictors of its future performance. In plain terms, the less you pay in fees, the more of your money stays invested and growing for you. Reputable firms embrace this by shunning high-commission funds and sticking to cost-efficient, high-quality portfolios.
Perhaps most importantly, The Good advisers take a long-term, holistic view of financial planning. Rather than hawking the “product of the week,” they talk to clients about their life goals, retirement needs, and risk comfort. The focus is on building and protecting wealth over decades, not making a quick buck off a one-time sale. For example, a good adviser will map out a retirement plan or an education fund for your children with realistic growth assumptions and contingency plans, instead of locking you into a rigid investment policy just to earn a commission. Firms like Brigantia Private Wealth Management embody this ethos: they reject the old commission-led model and instead use a transparent, capped fee structure that keeps costs fair and aligned with client outcomes. By committing to fee-only advice and low-cost investing, Brigantia and its peers are trying to civilise the Wild West of expat finance, one client at a time.
In the Wild West of offshore finance, “The Good” are the rare but reputable advisers who stand out like a lone honest sheriff in a town of outlaws. These are firms that put the client’s interest first, prioritising transparency, low costs, and long-term planning over quick wins. They’re the Man With No Name archetype of our story: modest in appearance but strong in principle, quietly doing the right thing while others chase bounties.
What sets the good apart? First and foremost, transparent fee-based advice. Unlike the typical commission-driven salesmen, good advisory firms charge fees that are clear and agreed upfront, rather than pocketing hidden kickbacks from the products they sell. This matters because when advisers are paid by clients instead of product providers, their incentives align with the client’s success - not with pushing a particular investment. In fact, many well-regulated markets have moved in this direction; in the UK, for example, regulators cracked down on commission payments to protect investors, driving a shift toward client-focused fee models. The best offshore advisers voluntarily hold themselves to these higher standards, even in jurisdictions that don’t require it.
Next, The Good champion low-cost, institutional-grade investments. They avoid the overpriced, opaque “investment products” common in offshore portfolios, and instead use straightforward assets like index funds and ETFs. This low-cost approach can make a world of difference. Research consistently shows that keeping investment costs down directly improves investors’ outcomes - Morningstar finds that a fund’s expense ratio is one of the most reliable predictors of its future performance. In plain terms, the less you pay in fees, the more of your money stays invested and growing for you. Reputable firms embrace this by shunning high-commission funds and sticking to cost-efficient, high-quality portfolios.
Perhaps most importantly, The Good advisers take a long-term, holistic view of financial planning. Rather than hawking the “product of the week,” they talk to clients about their life goals, retirement needs, and risk comfort. The focus is on building and protecting wealth over decades, not making a quick buck off a one-time sale. For example, a good adviser will map out a retirement plan or an education fund for your children with realistic growth assumptions and contingency plans, instead of locking you into a rigid investment policy just to earn a commission. Firms like Brigantia Private Wealth Management embody this ethos: they reject the old commission-led model and instead use a transparent, capped fee structure that keeps costs fair and aligned with client outcomes. By committing to fee-only advice and low-cost investing, Brigantia and its peers are trying to civilise the Wild West of expat finance, one client at a time.
The Bad
If the good advisers are the sheriffs of this story, “The Bad” are the slick gunslingers in tailored suits, roaming the international expat enclaves with an eye on the next pay-out. These are the common players in many offshore advice markets - unfortunately far more numerous than the good. In the spaghetti western of expat investing, The Bad might not outright break the law, but they play fast and loose with ethics. Their tactics create an environment rife with high costs, hidden traps, and conflicts of interest.
A hallmark of “The Bad” international advisory practice is the commission-heavy product push. Walk into their office (or more likely meet them over a friendly coffee arranged through a cold-call) and the solution to all your financial needs will suspiciously often be the same thing: a product which pays an enormous commission to them at the expense of you. Cashing out early also triggers hefty penalties, as you’d still owe the remaining scheduled fees. The true cost of these arrangements is often obscured by layers of paperwork and jargon; getting a straight answer on total fees is, as one commentator put it, “like getting blood out of a stone”.
The bad advisers don’t stop at the product itself. They will typically stuff the portfolio with expensive funds and complex instruments that generate even more commissions. It’s not unusual for the mutual funds sold in these offshore plans to carry an initial charge, of which some goes straight into the adviser’s pocket as commission. Those funds then charge high annual expenses as well – often between 1.5% and 2%, and in some extreme cases over 3% per year. It’s a stack of fees upon fees, all siphoned from the client’s money. In one illustrative case, an unsuspecting expat who invested £100,000 through a typical offshore advisory setup could end up paying over 15% in upfront costs and around 4% per year in ongoing charges – a burden that would make any portfolio struggle to grow.
This commission-driven model breeds misaligned incentives and a sales-first culture. The adviser’s livelihood is built on selling products that pay the highest rewards, not on guiding you to the best outcome. It’s the equivalent of a bounty hunter playing both sides – the advice might appear free to the client upfront, but it’s being paid for by the product providers behind the scenes, who ultimately take it out of the client’s investment. Little wonder, then, that many international brokers focus on aggressive sales: ringing up as many policy sales as possible, often with quotas or rewards for hitting certain targets. The quality of advice suffers. Instead of tailoring investments to an expat’s genuine needs or risk tolerance, The Bad will often shoehorn clients into whatever product earns them the fattest commission. Retiree who needs liquidity and low risk? You might still get sold a 10-year lock-in bond invested in volatile funds – because that’s what pays the adviser today. New to investing and just want basic advice? You could be convinced to move your pension into a complex overseas trust with layers of unnecessary cost.
What’s more, these practices thrive in jurisdictions with lax regulation. Places like Thailand, the Middle East, or parts of Southern Europe have become havens for unlicensed or lightly regulated advisers. In many of these locales, an adviser can operate without any official oversight, meaning they don’t answer to a financial authority if they mislead clients. Regulators in stronger markets have noticed this gap. For example, the New Zealand regulator warned its residents against dealing with an unlicensed advisory firm based in Dubai, after finding it was not authorised to provide advice in NZ. The warning is well-founded: if you deal with an unlicensed offshore adviser and things go wrong, you have no protection or legal recourse.
Sadly, The Bad often stay one step ahead of the law – if the heat gets too high in one country, they relocate or rebrand, continuing the same practices elsewhere. They rely on the fact that many expats are unaware of the lack of regulatory safeguards and can be lulled by a confident sales pitch and a glossy brochure.
If the good advisers are the sheriffs of this story, “The Bad” are the slick gunslingers in tailored suits, roaming the international expat enclaves with an eye on the next pay-out. These are the common players in many offshore advice markets - unfortunately far more numerous than the good. In the spaghetti western of expat investing, The Bad might not outright break the law, but they play fast and loose with ethics. Their tactics create an environment rife with high costs, hidden traps, and conflicts of interest.
A hallmark of “The Bad” international advisory practice is the commission-heavy product push. Walk into their office (or more likely meet them over a friendly coffee arranged through a cold-call) and the solution to all your financial needs will suspiciously often be the same thing: a product which pays an enormous commission to them at the expense of you. Cashing out early also triggers hefty penalties, as you’d still owe the remaining scheduled fees. The true cost of these arrangements is often obscured by layers of paperwork and jargon; getting a straight answer on total fees is, as one commentator put it, “like getting blood out of a stone”.
The bad advisers don’t stop at the product itself. They will typically stuff the portfolio with expensive funds and complex instruments that generate even more commissions. It’s not unusual for the mutual funds sold in these offshore plans to carry an initial charge, of which some goes straight into the adviser’s pocket as commission. Those funds then charge high annual expenses as well – often between 1.5% and 2%, and in some extreme cases over 3% per year. It’s a stack of fees upon fees, all siphoned from the client’s money. In one illustrative case, an unsuspecting expat who invested £100,000 through a typical offshore advisory setup could end up paying over 15% in upfront costs and around 4% per year in ongoing charges – a burden that would make any portfolio struggle to grow.
This commission-driven model breeds misaligned incentives and a sales-first culture. The adviser’s livelihood is built on selling products that pay the highest rewards, not on guiding you to the best outcome. It’s the equivalent of a bounty hunter playing both sides – the advice might appear free to the client upfront, but it’s being paid for by the product providers behind the scenes, who ultimately take it out of the client’s investment. Little wonder, then, that many international brokers focus on aggressive sales: ringing up as many policy sales as possible, often with quotas or rewards for hitting certain targets. The quality of advice suffers. Instead of tailoring investments to an expat’s genuine needs or risk tolerance, The Bad will often shoehorn clients into whatever product earns them the fattest commission. Retiree who needs liquidity and low risk? You might still get sold a 10-year lock-in bond invested in volatile funds – because that’s what pays the adviser today. New to investing and just want basic advice? You could be convinced to move your pension into a complex overseas trust with layers of unnecessary cost.
What’s more, these practices thrive in jurisdictions with lax regulation. Places like Thailand, the Middle East, or parts of Southern Europe have become havens for unlicensed or lightly regulated advisers. In many of these locales, an adviser can operate without any official oversight, meaning they don’t answer to a financial authority if they mislead clients. Regulators in stronger markets have noticed this gap. For example, the New Zealand regulator warned its residents against dealing with an unlicensed advisory firm based in Dubai, after finding it was not authorised to provide advice in NZ. The warning is well-founded: if you deal with an unlicensed offshore adviser and things go wrong, you have no protection or legal recourse.
Sadly, The Bad often stay one step ahead of the law – if the heat gets too high in one country, they relocate or rebrand, continuing the same practices elsewhere. They rely on the fact that many expats are unaware of the lack of regulatory safeguards and can be lulled by a confident sales pitch and a glossy brochure.
The Ugly
In a classic Western, “The Ugly” often refers to the fallout – the carnage left behind when villains have their way, or the awful truths that come to light. In the world of offshore investments, the Ugly is all about the consequences of poor advice. It’s here that real people, often retirees or diligent savers, discover the price of trusting the wrong “adviser”. These stories can be heart-breaking: life savings eroded, futures compromised, and the sickening realisation of being trapped in a bad deal with nowhere to turn.
One ugly outcome is being locked into illiquid, costly investments that bleed you dry. Remember those products and funds paying huge commissions to the "advisers"? They mean that even if you realise you’re in a bad investment, you can’t easily escape. We’ve seen cases where expat clients trying to exit their plans after a few years faced exit penalties so severe that they wiped out any gains. Even staying put isn’t much better – with annual charges of 4-5%, your investment might barely grow or even shrink.
In effect, you’re funding the adviser’s commission through your own diminishing balance. In one reported case, a British expat discovered that after years in an offshore scheme, his account was actually negative – the fees had consumed all growth and then some. The provider offered to waive the -£10,000 balance if he agreed not to pursue legal action, a stark illustration of how damaging these products can be.
Worse are the situations where the underlying investments themselves implode. A real (and sadly not uncommon) example: A U.K. expatriate in Thailand was persuaded to transfer her hard-earned £320,000 pension into an offshore arrangement that promised tax advantages and expert management. Within three years, disaster struck – one of the funds in her portfolio failed outright and another was frozen, slashing her retirement fund by about half. Only later did she learn that both the investments and the adviser who recommended them were unregulated, meaning she had no path to compensation for her losses. To add insult to injury, the adviser himself vanished, becoming impossible to contact. Stories like this are painfully frequent: hundreds of expat investors have seen their retirement plans shattered after being talked into complex offshore schemes that they believed were safe or endorsed by UK authorities. Many of the advisers who facilitated these moves have since disappeared into the sunset, leaving their victims with nowhere to turn for help.
Then there are outright scams hiding in the long grass. In the absence of strong oversight, some rogue advisers take things a step further into fraud. A notorious case in Thailand involved a Ponzi-style investment scheme (the LM Managed Performance Fund) that was aggressively peddled to expats by unlicensed advisers. Lured by the promise of high returns, numerous expats put in their savings – only to see the scheme collapse. The fallout was devastating: total losses were estimated around £20 million, with many investors losing their entire nest egg. Thai regulators eventually filed criminal complaints against the individuals and companies involved, accusing them of operating illegal financial services and defrauding clients. It was a rare instance of the law catching up, but by then the money was gone. As one report noted, even when authorities finally take action, victims rarely recover more than “pennies in the pound” of what was lost. The human toll – ruined retirements and families under strain – is the true ugly face behind the sales brochures’ smiling promises.
The ugly truth is that these aren’t isolated anecdotes; they form a pattern seen across various expat communities from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. A UK parliamentary committee report described the situation bluntly, finding that offshore pension transfers were mis-sold on an “industrial scale” and in some cases used to facilitate scams. A class-action lawsuit now underway underscores just how large the problem has become: it’s filed on behalf of roughly 800 British expats who collectively lost between £145 million and £200 million through mis-sold offshore investment products. The claim targets some of the big financial companies behind the expat-oriented products, alleging that they enabled or failed to prevent widespread mis-selling. Whether justice is served in court remains to be seen, but the fact such a lawsuit exists highlights the scale of the ugly consequences. These cases have shone a light on a shadowy corner of the financial world, revealing how easily hard-working people can be led into a financial ambush.
In a classic Western, “The Ugly” often refers to the fallout – the carnage left behind when villains have their way, or the awful truths that come to light. In the world of offshore investments, the Ugly is all about the consequences of poor advice. It’s here that real people, often retirees or diligent savers, discover the price of trusting the wrong “adviser”. These stories can be heart-breaking: life savings eroded, futures compromised, and the sickening realisation of being trapped in a bad deal with nowhere to turn.
One ugly outcome is being locked into illiquid, costly investments that bleed you dry. Remember those products and funds paying huge commissions to the "advisers"? They mean that even if you realise you’re in a bad investment, you can’t easily escape. We’ve seen cases where expat clients trying to exit their plans after a few years faced exit penalties so severe that they wiped out any gains. Even staying put isn’t much better – with annual charges of 4-5%, your investment might barely grow or even shrink.
In effect, you’re funding the adviser’s commission through your own diminishing balance. In one reported case, a British expat discovered that after years in an offshore scheme, his account was actually negative – the fees had consumed all growth and then some. The provider offered to waive the -£10,000 balance if he agreed not to pursue legal action, a stark illustration of how damaging these products can be.
Worse are the situations where the underlying investments themselves implode. A real (and sadly not uncommon) example: A U.K. expatriate in Thailand was persuaded to transfer her hard-earned £320,000 pension into an offshore arrangement that promised tax advantages and expert management. Within three years, disaster struck – one of the funds in her portfolio failed outright and another was frozen, slashing her retirement fund by about half. Only later did she learn that both the investments and the adviser who recommended them were unregulated, meaning she had no path to compensation for her losses. To add insult to injury, the adviser himself vanished, becoming impossible to contact. Stories like this are painfully frequent: hundreds of expat investors have seen their retirement plans shattered after being talked into complex offshore schemes that they believed were safe or endorsed by UK authorities. Many of the advisers who facilitated these moves have since disappeared into the sunset, leaving their victims with nowhere to turn for help.
Then there are outright scams hiding in the long grass. In the absence of strong oversight, some rogue advisers take things a step further into fraud. A notorious case in Thailand involved a Ponzi-style investment scheme (the LM Managed Performance Fund) that was aggressively peddled to expats by unlicensed advisers. Lured by the promise of high returns, numerous expats put in their savings – only to see the scheme collapse. The fallout was devastating: total losses were estimated around £20 million, with many investors losing their entire nest egg. Thai regulators eventually filed criminal complaints against the individuals and companies involved, accusing them of operating illegal financial services and defrauding clients. It was a rare instance of the law catching up, but by then the money was gone. As one report noted, even when authorities finally take action, victims rarely recover more than “pennies in the pound” of what was lost. The human toll – ruined retirements and families under strain – is the true ugly face behind the sales brochures’ smiling promises.
The ugly truth is that these aren’t isolated anecdotes; they form a pattern seen across various expat communities from Asia to the Middle East and Europe. A UK parliamentary committee report described the situation bluntly, finding that offshore pension transfers were mis-sold on an “industrial scale” and in some cases used to facilitate scams. A class-action lawsuit now underway underscores just how large the problem has become: it’s filed on behalf of roughly 800 British expats who collectively lost between £145 million and £200 million through mis-sold offshore investment products. The claim targets some of the big financial companies behind the expat-oriented products, alleging that they enabled or failed to prevent widespread mis-selling. Whether justice is served in court remains to be seen, but the fact such a lawsuit exists highlights the scale of the ugly consequences. These cases have shone a light on a shadowy corner of the financial world, revealing how easily hard-working people can be led into a financial ambush.
A Brighter Future: Changing the Landscape One Client at a Time
Is there a way out of this Wild West, a path to ride off into the sunset with financial peace of mind? The answer lies in supporting and spreading “The Good” practices until they become the norm rather than the exception. Firms like Brigantia are leading the charge to transform this landscape. They serve as the white-hat heroes, proving that it’s possible to succeed as advisers without exploiting clients, by focusing on advice rather than sales.
Brigantia’s client-first approach – from transparent, capped fees to portfolios built with low-cost funds – is a deliberate antidote to the toxic practices expats have endured for too long. Every time an expat investor chooses a reputable, regulated, and fee-only adviser, the bad actors lose a little bit of their grip on the market.
Changing an industry rife with cowboy tactics won’t happen overnight. However, momentum is building. Regulators in expatriate hubs are becoming more aware of the need for oversight, and investors themselves are sharing warnings in forums and communities, making it harder for the bad to hide. In the meantime, the safest course for any expat is knowledge and vigilance. By recognising the Good, calling out the Bad, and avoiding the Ugly, you take control of your financial destiny.
At Brigantia, we believe that the era of opaque, one-sided offshore advice is drawing to a close. Like the final scene of a Western, we envision the villains of high-fee mis-selling fading in the distance. In their place stands a new paradigm of advice built on trust, transparency and true expertise. We are committed to changing this landscape one client at a time, turning the Wild West of expat investing into a well-tamed plain where investors can plan for their futures with confidence. It’s a big mission, but as any fan of the classics knows, the Good can triumph in the end – especially with the right partners by your side.
Is there a way out of this Wild West, a path to ride off into the sunset with financial peace of mind? The answer lies in supporting and spreading “The Good” practices until they become the norm rather than the exception. Firms like Brigantia are leading the charge to transform this landscape. They serve as the white-hat heroes, proving that it’s possible to succeed as advisers without exploiting clients, by focusing on advice rather than sales.
Brigantia’s client-first approach – from transparent, capped fees to portfolios built with low-cost funds – is a deliberate antidote to the toxic practices expats have endured for too long. Every time an expat investor chooses a reputable, regulated, and fee-only adviser, the bad actors lose a little bit of their grip on the market.
Changing an industry rife with cowboy tactics won’t happen overnight. However, momentum is building. Regulators in expatriate hubs are becoming more aware of the need for oversight, and investors themselves are sharing warnings in forums and communities, making it harder for the bad to hide. In the meantime, the safest course for any expat is knowledge and vigilance. By recognising the Good, calling out the Bad, and avoiding the Ugly, you take control of your financial destiny.
At Brigantia, we believe that the era of opaque, one-sided offshore advice is drawing to a close. Like the final scene of a Western, we envision the villains of high-fee mis-selling fading in the distance. In their place stands a new paradigm of advice built on trust, transparency and true expertise. We are committed to changing this landscape one client at a time, turning the Wild West of expat investing into a well-tamed plain where investors can plan for their futures with confidence. It’s a big mission, but as any fan of the classics knows, the Good can triumph in the end – especially with the right partners by your side.