RetireJapan

I went in for a meeting about a year ago with them. I was still at the "throwing round ideas" stage of how to manage my finances for the future. We talked for nearly 2 hours about the mortgage application process in Japan and investments. I came away with lots of good information. Our meeting was a few months into the pandemic so he advised me to wait for my income to settle down a bit (I'm self-employed) before even thinking of investing with him, so I didn't receive any pressure at all.

If you go in with a list of questions like I did, it could be a useful information session. As for whether it's advisable to invest with them or not, I can't answer that as I started iDeCo instead.

Wales4rugbyWC19 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:49 am
On a side note, but kind of related; do not bring any of these funds that are held offshore into Japan, especially if it is a large amount you'll get the Japanese tax office asking questions and sniffing around.

If you have been here for more than 5 years, if you sell one of these funds and make a profit, even if that money never comes to Japan, aren't you liable for tax on the gains? (or is that only if you have overseas assets of 50M JPY or more?)

beanhead wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 2:03 pm

Wales4rugbyWC19 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:49 am
On a side note, but kind of related; do not bring any of these funds that are held offshore into Japan, especially if it is a large amount you'll get the Japanese tax office asking questions and sniffing around.

If you have been here for more than 5 years, if you sell one of these funds and make a profit, even if that money never comes to Japan, aren't you liable for tax on the gains? (or is that only if you have overseas assets of 50M JPY or more?)

Yes, I think you do. I was in a virtually identical situation as Wales4rugbyWC (everything but the advisor was the same - Generali, cashed in after 10 years bonus on a 15 year policy, funds sent to UK, bought a flat!) but had to (I think) declare my gains here in Japan. That's why, as far as I can see, a lot of these off-shore funds that claim to be tax-advantaged, really aren't.

I cannot say if it's the case for this place or not, but many of these "advisors" are double-dipping. First they take management fees(maybe 0.5-1.0%?) and then in addition to that they receive kickbacks from the funds they put your money into(which have high management fees... which are used to pay the kickbacks).

Let's just assume that they have a drag of 2.5% total over just sticking your money in the market(a good balanced index fund/etc). Assume 7% returns deduct 2% inflation, and suddenly your returns via the financial advisors(2.5%) is half the returns you'd get with investing yourself(5%).

And that's the ok case. There are all kinds of horror stories of predatory firms that will returns you interest plus a tiny little bit. And they have early cash-out penalties(where you're expected to keep your money in for a contract period).

Doing it yourself can be scary, and if things go wrong, you have no-one else to blame, but even if you get an investor that is no guarantee. If they lose you money, they're not going to pay you anything. They are nothing but a drag on your returns.

Just a suggestion. How about asking AP Advisers if they would like to respond to the comments made here?
At least it would give them a chance to defend their position.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:34 am
It's very difficult to invest in the UK as a non resident.

You would be able to invest in Interactive Brokers and keep the account if you moved back to the UK.

Hopefully you are also paying into the UK state pension using the voluntary contributions from abroad scheme.

Many thanks for the advice, Ben. I am not sure I understand the conditional in the sentence about Interactive Brokers. Do you mean, "You can open an account with IB while living in Japan, move funds that are in the UK into that account without bringing the money into Japan, and keep that account if you move back to the UK"?

FWIW, I have been through the saga of opening an IB account here, but it was necessarily one in which I was heavily constrained in what I could invest in, as I work in financial services, and IB are one of the three approved Japan brokers. I wasn't at all impressed with their offering.

Now why would on earth I want to pay into the UK state pension? I have a fine kokumin + kosei nenkin heading my way.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 9:36 am The website looks exactly like all the other predatory offshore 'advisor' firms, but the devil is going to be in the details (fees/penalty fees for early withdrawal).

Offshore via some other company generally means lots of people getting paid your money in commissions, etc.

O.5% annual fee goes to AP Advisers, 0.5% goes to Momentum Wealth, 0.07%+ goes to Vanguard for sums in excess of GBP100K. Not free by any means, but not quite in the daylight robbery category either, IMHO. There are no early encashment penalties, as I have been through an investment cycle with them in 2014-2015. For comparison's sake, I spent the past weekend trying to dissuade a retired cousin in the UK from investing in a "balanced" fund from St James's Place. They want 5% upfront, pay-to-play, and then annual commissions of 1.6%-1.9% or thereabouts. Now that IS daylight robbery.

BlueberryHill wrote: ↑Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:42 pm Now why would on earth I want to pay into the UK state pension? I have a fine kokumin + kosei nenkin heading my way.

Through what seems like an unforeseen loophole, paying in voluntarily from abroad is incredibly cheap, and you get a UK state pension at the end of it

Stuart wrote: ↑Sat Jul 17, 2021 10:55 pm Could you tell us why you don't trust them? Have you had a specific issue?

Now that is a good question. No, no specific issues. In some ways I trust them more than I trust the South African insurer. AP Advisers are merely a conduit to get my moolah into the funds in a Guernsey account. I have been with AP Advisers, on and off, for (gulp) 17 years now, long enough to take out and pay off two UK mortgages through them. I don't really trust the Guernsey regulatory authorities, though - there is very little investor protection, AFAIK, on the Bailiwick.

It is also a question of the increasing sums of money involved and my diminishing capacity, as I age, to work to get back to square one if something goes Tango Uniform. I only have 64 paydays left in me at my present employer before being put out to grass (or boiled down for glue).

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. - Samuel Johnson.

beanhead wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 4:13 am What FEES DO AP ADVISERS LTD CHARGE?

We usually charge between 0.25%-1.00% per annum, depending on the size of a client's portfolio. We align this fee to the account value meaning we are motivated to see your money grow. This aims to create a mutually beneficial client-adviser relationship. You will also pay fees to the provider of your investment account and underlying assets, which vary between them.

My first question would be, what is this charge for...what do I get for it?

Three things, I suppose - access to some unusually well managed active funds (yes, there may be a handful out there), a potentially advantageous tax position (the details of which I won't go into here), and somewhere to put funds in the UK (well a dependency of the UK) without bringing them into Japan.