Thanks to all of you for your replies!
It is clear that everyone has the same idea in terms of financial advisors in Dubai!
All of you are most likely right and some of you seems to have acquired the knowledge from personal experience. It all sounds logical to me and I tried to put myself into it the past week (hence the long response time). However, I find it to be extremely time-consuming and to be honest - to me it is difficult.
Because of that I contacted the guy and met him last week.
Based on my questions in this forum I was very clear that I didn't want to lock myself into a plan in case of relocation/unemployment/accident or whatever. I also asked him in regards of fees/commission etc and I just wanted to share his suggestions and answers in regards to my questions:
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Following our meeting he sent me a presentation (Powerpoint covering a summary of our meeting, the solution, and FAQ's) which he wanted to present further (which he did yesterday).
Solution/products:
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Long term savings: Generali 5 years plan with an initial contribution period of 3,6 months (e.g. contributions that goes to his commission/administration). Following the 5 year plan I can repeat the same plan again and again, rather than locking in for a really long time. He explained to me that the products that the brokers deal with in this region are designed this way, hence he would happily suggest a plan without a lock-in period if he had the option. At least a 5 year plan would attract substacially less early-exit charges if I decided to lapse the plan or was forced to stop the payments in comparison to a 15, 20, or 25 years plan.
The money gets invested in mutual funds (medium risk, since that's what we agreed that I could tolerate) and not in mirror funds which apparently takes out higher charges.
He showed me a 10 years history of their medium risk portfolio performance which has been somewhat shaky the past 5 years (although on the plus side net of charges).
Also, something called bid/offer spread applies, e.g. a %-charge taken out from Generali in case of switching funds.
As an alternative he did provide a contact to a Swedish guy (in Sweden), working for a large financial institute who can provide endowment insurance without a lock-in period to which I can contribute tax-free, given that I can forsee that I remain outside of Sweden for a minimum of five years (three more to go
).
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Life, Critical Illness, and Permanent Total Disability Insurance: Term insurance with a term of 26 years with Zurich International Life.
The amount insured is basically our mortgage for our house in Sweden + five years of my current salary (to be revised yearly).
His reasoning is that it allows my wife (housewife) and my children to keep the house and provides time enough for my wife to grief and to educate herself before returning to a working life.
The reason to put a 26 year term is that I reach my desired retirement age at that point and I am guaranteed to be insured for the full period, regardless if I develop any deceases of any sort. However, if I want to lapse the plan I can do so at any point by just stop paying the premium. The premium is averaged out over the term so it is fixed for the full term, hence I don't have to pay more the older I become.
In regards of the insurance, Swedish companies won't provide coverage for Swedes that reside outside of Sweden.
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Now, my thoughts is to take out the insurance and compare the charges taken out by the Swedish company before taking a decision in regards of my pension.
I'm well aware of that I'm acting against the advice given but I don't feel this is a rip-off guy based on the suggested solution + I really don't feel that I can do this myself without having to eliminate loads of precious time with my family.
Again, does anyone have any input that would make me to change my mind?
Many thanks guys!