@shri - I hope you can let this post stay, I will try my best to avoid naming names.
The reason for me to sharing this post is to show the actual "true" cost of using these IFAs.
The backstory is that I had been in HK for about a year and had started getting some savings. The interest rates in the banks were c*ap and there were no real tax fee / retirement investment products similar to what was available in the UK. I asked my boss at the time his thoughts over a beer and he put me in touch with the IFA he used.
I ended up signing up to a life insurance wrapper. I was sold on the longest possible term, being 25 years on the basis that I would get 18 months worth of bonus contributions at the beginning. At that time I didn't know anything about the huge commissions and management fees taken by the IFAs and insurance investment companies, however, probably just through sheer laziness I carried on putting in the monthly amount (which in my case was US$1,500 a month). I was expecting these to be actively managed, because after all I was paying management fees and had an IFA who was acting in my best interest (isn't that a joke) and would get good returns.
What the IFA failed to tell me, or in his defence, he may have told me, but I wasn't really paying attention (quite likely) was that I was committed to the full 25 years and if I wanted to pull out earlier there would be some serious early redemption fees. Well he may have told me, but probably skirted round the issued (and no surprise there really).
In 2015 the IFA told me that the insurance scheme would be changing its structure so it would be limiting the types of investments it made. He then suggested an "executive bond" with a one off payment (again using a life insurance wrapper). I was able to shift US$100K from the life insurance wrapper to the executive bond.
Again, I thought this would be great, a different pool of assets and again it would be actively managed. This time I do remember that he really didn't go into details about the fees and to my detriment I really didn't press this point (which I should have). Again, the fees were very high.
Since 2015 and thanks to this board I've become a bit (and yes, only a tiny bit) wiser about my investments and have now started doing a bit of investments myself in various tracker ETFs, shares and low cost funds (amongst other things).
I have also looked into the two products that I own through this IFA in a bit more detail. As things presently stand:
Insurance wrapper: Total invested (after taking out the US$100k) US$71k. Value to date US$91k. Surrender value US$68k.
Executive bond: Total invested US$100k. Value to date US$105k. Surrender Value US$102k.
As you can see, on paper the value of my insurance wrapper isn't doing too bad, up US$21k, but I've looked at the underlying funds and they are ones I can purchase directly and then avoid the fees that the insurance company is charging. As for the Executive bond, its value has increased by US$5k in close to two years, which really isn't that much for what is supposed to be an actively managed fund, again the true increase has been eaten up by fees.
I'm looking at pulling out of both these products and overall my total "loss" will be around US$3k (hopefully), which doesn't sound too bad, compared to what some other people have lost. However in the 9.5 odd years I've had these schemes, I won't have made any money at all when these were supposed to be investment products for me to well, invest.
Anyway, I hope this is a cautionary tale to anyone even contemplating going with an IFA in HK.