We recently received an email from a reader, who had completed the ‘Free Money Makeover’ form on our site, asking us who Abbey Financial Solutions were; because having filled in the form specifically stating that he was after advice about the best savings rates currently available offshore, we asked an adviser from Abbey to contact the reader in question and provide him with the information he was seeking.
As a result of our position on the Internet as a leading voice in the provision of information and advice to expatriates when it comes to moving abroad, buying property overseas and investing offshore, we are always being asked by our readers for specific assistance. However, as we are a publication rather than an advisory, brokerage or bank, we instead endeavour to find the best professional, experienced and qualified solutions provider or advice giver to help with a given request.
When it comes to an international banking question for example, we may recommend a reader speaks to HSBC – naturally enough, everyone knows the name, the brand and the company. However, when it comes to offshore investment solutions and we recommend they speak to Abbey Financial Solutions, questions may arise about who the company is, whether they are trustworthy and why we recommend them. Therefore, to answer any questions any individual may have about this institution, we have decided to provide an open forum about the company and why we recommend them…
Over the years Abbey Financial Solutions (Abbey FS for short) has become one of our favourite expatriate wealth management companies specifically because they deliver. They deliver free advice, they will help our readers who want a free money makeover, they will work with each individual client to service their specific needs – and because of the almost universally positive feedback we have received from our readers about the service they have received at Abbey Financial Solutions’ hands, over the years they have grown in our estimations to the point at which they are most often our preferred company for advising our readers.
On Shelter Offshore you can choose to have a free money makeover if you’re on the Internet looking for solutions and assistance rather than just information. We clearly state on the form you complete that “we’re pleased to now offer our readers free access to a team of independent expert offshore financial advisors who will answer all of your offshore questions.” We can only offer this service because of the amount of time and dedication Abbey offer Shelter Offshore readers. Whilst we may receive generic requests for information that we can service, or a question about an offshore bank account that we can pass to HSBC, Lloyds of Barclays for example, when it comes to the provision of qualifying ‘best’ advice on investment, savings and offshore matters, we invariably turn to the advisers at Abbey Financial Solutions. These guys are qualified, experienced, they know the market about which they advise inside and out, and they give up their time for free to our readers. This service is genuinely free – although we don’t pretend that Abbey FS is a charity! After all, if they give you best advice, you may well choose them to deliver any solution you’re after, at which point they may be remunerated in the form of commission if they act for you as your independent financial adviser. But don’t worry, they would make all of this clear and transparent for you…
So, why do we keep coming back to Abbey Financial Solutions, and why do so many of the readers who complete the money makeover form use Abbey for their makeover? Because the company is reliable, it is trustworthy, it is professional, it has a solid reputation and because it is best placed in the international, offshore and expatriate financial marketplace to be able to offer ‘best’ advice in so many situations. Added to all of this is the feedback we consistently receive from readers who have been assisted by Abbey after finding them through Shelter Offshore. We have nothing to gain from providing our readers with a poor service – if any company we recommended failed our readers and consistently received bad feedback we would drop any association with them immediately. Why? Because if we didn’t we would lose readers and our readers are our business! It’s that simple.
Will My Money be Safe with Abbey Financial Solutions
If you choose to have a free money makeover with Shelter Offshore and your enquiry is answered by Abbey FS, and if you like the answers they give and are perhaps recommended an ideal savings solution to match your needs for example – one question you should of course ask is, ‘will my money be safe with this company.’ The answer is a clear ‘yes’ – because actually, you never ever give any money directly to Abbey Financial Solutions! When you take out a savings scheme, open an investment account, start a pension, move money to another institution or whatever, you never ever give money directly to Abbey. They simply act as your facilitator or the conduit to you finding the right solution from the right provider for your money.
So, say for example you were looking around at the moment for a low risk, high interest account for a lump sum of savings and Abbey found an account with XYZ bank that suited you 100%, you would then transfer your money directly to XYZ bank with none of it ever going through the accounts of Abbey Financial Solutions. This is how financial advisories work – they do not touch their clients’ money ever. And in fact, that’s a good point to note, if ever an adviser does ask you for cash, run for the hills and report them to the authorities! Advisers are not bankers, they do not handle your money.
Advisers can be paid for their services in a number of ways – though remember, a money makeover service through Shelter Offshore is free. Advisers may be paid by you for their time, or they may receive a commission from a financial institution they recommend to you. Abbey work in the latter way – i.e., say you have a free money makeover with Abbey and as part of their work with you they discover that your pension would be healthier if switched to a QROPS. If you then said to your Abbey FS adviser, ‘can you find me the best QROPS’ and they suggested that you moved your money to that scheme, the scheme adviser would remunerate the advisory with a commission payment. It’s worth noting that the vast majority of financial institutions pay similar commission rates or percentages – which means that they cannot influence an adviser to recommend their product! This means that advisers such as Abbey’s really do search the marketplace for a solution that is right for the individual – rather than shoe-horning you into ‘one product fits all’ because that ‘one product’ pays the best commission!
So, if you’re looking for advice, a money makeover, a financial health check and/or you want to know who’s paying the highest interest rates offshore or how you can be saving tax and taking the offshore advantage for example, Abbey Financial Solutions can assist you. And that is why we recommend them time and again to our readers who have a specific need for a solutions provider or a personal advice giver. Please note: Abbey is not part of Santander Group, it is however part of WorldNet which collectively advises over 35,000 clients globally and has over $6 billion in funds under management.
