Dear Still Broker-ed Out,

A man in a hot air balloon sees a man on the ground and reduces height to speak to him. "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

"Yes, and you need to do something about it immediately! You must act today! What you need is one of these lovely jet packs – and that advice is totally free!” comes the reply.

"You must be a financial adviser,” says the balloonist.

"How did you know?" says the man.

"You answered a question I didn’t ask by trying to convince me that I’m in grave danger,” says the balloonist. “Then you tried to sell me something. You told me the advice is free, but you didn’t tell me how much the product costs.”

"You must be an expat investor," says the man.

"I am," says the balloonist, "How did you know?"

"You don't know where you are, you don't know where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help,” says the man. “You're in the same position you were in before we met, but now it's my fault."

I hope this gives a little insight into the tricky relationship between expat investors and the gentlemen with briefcases full of brochures. We ask for advice; they peddle their products.

Financially speaking as an expat, you become aware of all sorts of questions when you move abroad: suddenly there are no tax-free pension contributions from your employer or maybe you’ve got more excess income than you had before. So you reach out for help, and the financial salesmen are at hand to do what they do best: sell. So how can you assess what you need when there’s a limited established community?

First, ask yourself if you really actually need someone to tell you where you are. Some people enjoy DIY investing and if you’re careful with the trading costs, and you stick to indexes, then you won’t do worse than an adviser on average.

Second, if you decide you need someone to help you get organised, then you should consider paying for that service. As I said last month, there’s only one fee-only guy in town: Anthony Noto.

Third, if you’ve got a special reason to want a specific commission-guy, like you play golf with him and you’ve never seen him cheat once, then, ask these questions about his recommendations: How much do you and your company make off this? Why are you recommending this rather than a low-cost online brokerage? Why do you work on commission rather than charge fees? What happens if you go under a bus? What happens if your firm goes under a bus? What are your retirement plans?

It’s not that you can know that you’re getting the truth; it’s that you can watch how he answers. Any attempt to brush the questions off and you should walk away. The only really good answer about his business model is: “Up front commission is better for my cash flow because it costs too much and takes too long to get qualified for fee-only” – if you hear that, then you know that at least this answer is honest.

A last word: you are in charge and you are responsible. In Shanghai, no one can hear you scream. There’s no regulator on his trusty steed. And it really is very, very easy for these guys to disappear. So when you sit and listen, don’t be pressured and do be prepared. Ask questions and take ownership of your decisions. Shop around: take the free meetings with all and compare their responses to the questions above. There’s honest and effective guys out there – take the time to find them.