Abbey Financial

[Artifical Horizon]

Dear all.

I am a Brit expat working in the UAE. I am looking to do something with savings in lieu of a pension. Heard about a company called Abbey Financial who work out of Spain and seem to do a lot of expat work. Anyone know anything about them?

[BANANASBANANAS]

I had a bad experience with them and would advise caution. I let them set up my QROPS and they will tell you that they make their money from commission and will 'only' charge you 1% of fund value pa as running costs. Strictly speaking this is true but the commission they get from setting up the platform for running your QROPS (typically an EIB with Royal Skandia) is around 7%. Skandia then recover the commission they have paid Abbey by increasing their charges to you.

And dont confuse Abbey Financial Services in Spain with anything related to Abbey or Abbey National in UK. They have deliberately chosen a name that is known but in reality there is no connection whatsoever.

I am now on my fourth IFA in 4 years and I am happy to recommend Mondial here in Dubai. Discount because of the tie in with EK and they dont want to lose the EK business so are keen to look after us.

[kungfu panda]

Did anybody receive any reasonable quotes on critical illness insurance as an expat? I got one from met life but it does seem expensive.