Dubai’s Financial Advisor’s, Good or Bad?

Coming to the UAE, the hardest part of my job is dealing with the reputation of financial advisors in Dubai, as established by my predecessors and 'peers'. In the UK there is regulation and minimum qualification requirements. deVere’s UAE subsidiary ‘Acuma’ are subject to the highest regulation in UAE, but only by choice as most companies subject themselves to as little as possible. One could assume around 80% of IFA’s in Dubai should not be doing the job as they bring the otherwise revered and respected industry into disrepute (in the UAE at least).

The best way for me to cut through the fog and help someone get a clearer picture is to talk about my own experience with deVere and Acuma:

Prior to meeting the management I found there are a few bad reviews about deVere online and it did concern me. I realize most of it would undoubtedly be by competition but I was sure at least some of it was genuine.

On meeting the management I found my scepticism completely washed away and I felt the online reviews did not reflect the reality. Unsure if it was just them talking a good talk or if they genuinely were the real deal, I had another look and noticed the online reviews were not by actual clients… hmmm. The comments were instead by people who seemingly haven’t actually experienced deVere’s service… This threw me into some brief confusion over who these ‘reviewers’ were and where they amounted their opinion from. After a pensive moment and bearing in mind that for large corporations image is VERY important, I figured if deVere can pass the scrutiny and due diligence of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, UBS, RBS, etc and grow to become the world’s largest independent financial advisory with offices in New York and the UK where regulation is tough, I felt they are good enough for me to give them a shot. A decision I don’t for a second regret.

Since joining I have seen there is a lot of emphasis on best advice, my colleagues are good people looking to do a good job and the compliance procedures are quite rigorous. Instead of exploiting the weak regulation here, they subject themselves to the sum of all regulation in all the countries they operate. For example just two weeks ago the UK regulation became stricter and that change was applied to all offices world-wide.

There very well may be some deVere clients who have had a bad experience, but that is to be expected in a global company where humans do the job. Naturally they won't get it right 100% of the time and nobody controls the markets.

You can find any opinion you want on the internet if you look. Try googling “breathing is bad for your health“ and I’m sure you’ll find something that say’s it’s bad for you. I doubt you’ll stop breathing because you read it on the internet though ;)

Hopefully this will help you put things into perspective, not only when choosing your advisor but in general when taking advice on anything from people who are not in a position to give it. Whether they be some random online or even a close friend who has no experience in global financial markets.

Would you take the advice from this review by #amazingbob and avoid the steaks at Wakki Restaurant?

"The steaks at Wakki restaurant are terrible, as is the service... I mean I've never been there and don't eat steak, Wakki might even be a sushi restaurant, but they definitely offer the worst steaks ever. I know because I read it online, plus I once met someone who went to another restaurant in the same city and the service and steak in that restaurant was really terrible. I've never been to that city and would suggest to never go".

Aren't you just so glad of the completely unaccountable advice?

Yours Sincerely

Kevin Robins

Independent Private Finance Advisor