Hi MacSheikh
You say that your adviser is in the UAE for the past 17 years - I'm assuming he/she came from the UK. At that time there were no educational requirements in the UK to be a financial adviser, and there are still none in the UAE (where the market is effectively an unregulated wild-west). DeVere's founder, Nigel Green, even goes as far as to make a virtue of the fact that he prefers financial advisers who have no relevant qualifications (love the balls he shows in making the comparison to Goldman Sachs!):
Even if your adviser holds the minimum standard now required in the UK that is just a Level 4 qualification, equivalent to the first year of a graduate qualification. Now, would you use a lawyer, or a doctor or an accountant who had just one year of training under their belt?
If your adviser is living and working in the UAE then they are not authorized and supervised by UK authorities and are not subject to UK regulations. Full stop.
You say that your pension pot is doing better than in the UK. How do you know, have you modeled how it would have done under the UK? Also, take a look at your adviser's car/apartment/watch. Who do you think is paying for it, and where do you think that money came from? (Hint - your pension pot is part of the answer).
You may be one of those who has received good advice from Devere, but this firm is notorious for smooth-talking high pressure salesmen selling high-commission products. It has also had more than its fair share of run-ins with regulators in better regulated countries. In addition to the current review by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK:
DeVere recently had its license suspended in Hong Kong:
DeVere Group has licence suspended following probe | South China Morning Post
And DeVere also previously left Singapore after it was fined in that jurisdiction:
http://www.trustnetoffshore.com/News...ry.aspx?id=368
(PS If you have no idea where you'll end up then a QROPS is probably unsuitable for you. If you told DeVere that you have no idea where you'll end up then the QROPS may have been mis-sold).