financial adviser needs advice!

[chris adviser]

Hi All,

I have been looking to move to Singapore for some time to continue my career as a financial adviser. The problems that i have encountered seem to be that local firms will expect you to aggressively prospect other expats to sell them a limited range of high comission products. Quite frankly i've been there and got that t-shirt working in the city in the uk a few years back. As a result what i am now looking to do is to visit singapore several times a year to advise UK expats on their existing uk investments and pensions etc that offshore advises cannot do sufficiently. What this would mean is that i would still be governed by UK compliance regulations whilst being able to advise on UK and offshore business. What i would like to know is if other advisers are still doing this, or if not, what the level of interest would be from UK expats living in singapore. Obviously making the trip each time would cost a reasonable amount so i would have to be sure that it would be worth my while.

any comments or advice would be greatfully received.

[tingshen]

according to GDP statistics, insurance is not doing well for the past quarters.

All the companies are recruiting now, are you from Aviva or Prudential? Or your company do not have a branch in Singapore at all?

Doing sales for insurance is alright but it's very difficult to recruit newblood to the industry, or the quality dropped drastically.

If you do drop by Singapore again, you may contact me [email protected] perhaps we could offer something better opportunity rather than insurance or MLM. They are struggling right now due to the small marketplace.

[chris adviser]

I am fully independent of any individual insurance company rather than a tied adviser. I had read before that sales are down in singapore hence the decision to talk to UK expats about their provisions back home. There are many examples where over a period of time insurance companies upgrade their product, but do not make the upgrade retrospective. This leaves exisiting policy holders with inferior products. If you are based offshore it is going to be very hard to keep up to date, which is where i would fit in.

[tingshen]

the insurance act in Singapore is governed by MAS.

I'm actually started taking their module 5 and module 9 exams to be a qualified tied agent. However, my interest is not to become an agent but to help their top sales to recruit more people to do sales. Taking exams and being their official tied agent is just one of the requirement.

From what I understand from the FAA and FAR, you have to go through a series of exams and applications. If you're "independent", you need to have huge capital to invest for opening your own company. There are too much restrictions for independent Financial Advisor. And frankly speaking, they are dying.....due to the strong competition in such a small marketplace.

I'm just wondering, why would you want to consider Singapore if UK is so big?

My suggestion is that, do consider for other industry or focus more on investment related products such as FOREX. Insurance is dying, as a career, in Singapore.

[rubel]

if insurance is dying why would you want to work in the industry?

[chris adviser]

i am not looking to move the whole of my business to singapore, just to supplement it. Having looked at these forums for a while i feel there is a distinct hole in the market for someone who is governed by UK legislation to help UK expats with their policies at home.