Did you attend any Foreign/Expat Shows where you have to give your business card, because usually that's how they end up to know your telephone number.

There are a couple of "Financial advisors" in Shanghai : Austin Morris, Essential Finance, Elite, etc.

I would say that if you have really a huge sum of money you want to invest, you better go directly to a foreign bank dealing with Wealth Management.

You have to be very careful in the way you take yourself investing money with them, because they can promise lots of good services, but you may end up bad.

Personally, I am stuck with one for many years and cannot withdraw the cash I invested if not by paying a huge penalty fee (4K Euros) based on the value of my investment (less than 20k).

At the beginning, I was quite happy by the services as I was looking for the long-term (pension plan, insurance, etc), but I would eventually be better off by simply keeping my money in a bank. I regret this kind of investment. I have suspended my account, so that I don't need to provision the deal every month, but my money is anyway stuck for a long time....

So just be on your guard.

If you need more details, just send me a direct email.

i got such a call too. the guy on the phone was more like inviting himself to my home/office to present their services instead of just asking if im even interested. i could convince him that im a poor student with NO money to spend on that stuff. because if u say u just have a little money every month it is still fine and they can find something suitable for u... i dont really like this marketing on the phone and i dont really trust offers on phone... so not for me...

I got one from another guy in Beijing. She was rather pushy and eventually I just hung up.

To anyone wanting to work with Austin Morris I suggest not, they put on a professional look but are not qualified and as I found out when I wanted to complain, its not the same as back  in Europe with license or something.  These guys are lieing to expats and can not be reported, my wife and I tried everything only to be lied to by the consultant and ended with up losing a small but important part of our savings. I'm sure there are some good guys out there, but if so Austin morris is not one of them. The cold calling seems the norm here, but the financial representatives are just salesman at Austin Morris! 

No if you want your money wasted then be free. what i know that I have friend put money with them can got tricked, and also the way they got the contact number is that they buy it from entry and exit bureau, that is why u will find u just arrive China not that even not enough time to make new friends they already find you.

By personal experience I think Elite is better

http://www.elite-ig.com/meet_the_team.php

Their cars were not that good either  

Here's some real financial advice, free of charge........

I did some looking around at these companies and it looks as though they are not qualified never mind competent to offer any form of financial related advice. 

I have spent a number of years training and studying to get into a position where I am qualified and competent and these guys are just sales men reading from a book without any serious knowledge or awareness of the impact of incorrect advice. 

Stay clear and seek any advice from the big 4 companies, or seek advice in your native country.  Alternatively you could do what some locals do, and hide it all under the bed........

I got emails from them,the position is date inputer,but I don;t feel intrested in editting.I told I am not sure,wanna kown more about this position,then she just didn't consider me anymore.

I will tell what is my experience with Austen Morris (AM). I will stick to facts in order to stay objective : I took a 20 year life insurance in Hansard, I have a monthly payment during 20 years, that was back to 2004, so fare today June 2013 I get 1% return on the total money invested (not 1% per year, 1 % for 9 years). I should be happy because in 2008 the investment went down 30%

The money is locked until 2023 otherwise unfair penalties apply. 

My AM advisers have changed almost every years. I have asked their advise on how to escape from this trap. The best solution was to reduce the investment at the minimum, but the cumulated capital will not be available until the end of the contract. 

AM blame the bad economy, but what is to be blame is the entry fee taken by AM as agent, that explain why they propose Hansard. Commission, Commission, Commission.

Last but not least, they pay professional IT to eliminate complain on the web.

If it was to be done again, I would not do it for sure, it was my bad luck to meet AM.

If you want to discuss it in private my email is my user name under yahoo.com

What a Fool I have been!  My wife and I had done well in business and wanted to put some of our money away for retirment.  After having recieved a call from Austen Morris, we went to their office and heard the sales pitch on their products.  We were told to expect average returns of 7%-10% over the life of the investment.  We were informed that we would be locked in for 20 years and that their would be substantial penalties for early withdrawl.  We were also promised that their "advisors" would work diligently with us to maximize our returns and to advise us on when and where to move our investments as the market moved.  As we were not planning on taking our money out early, we went ahead and committed to an initial investment of $1,500 per month for 18 months. This initial $27,000 would be locked away for 20 years. The fund performed well enough the first year that we asked to increase our monthly commitment to $2,500.  This was fine, but if we did that, we we were told we would have to commit to a further 18 months.  Again, trusting that "our guy" Austen Morris had our best interest in mind, we went ahead and made the commitment.  In total we locked up about $52,000 for 20 years.  All of this was done with my full understanding and acceptance.  Once the initial investment was paid over about 30 months, we saw 2007 and 2008 go up, and then take a dive in 2009.  I accepted that this was part of the risk of investing and understood the WFC had obliterated most funds around the world.  We were encouraged to continue to put money in--buying low--which we did, but this next investment was not locked in at all.  In total, we have put in about $140,000.  I gave up watching my Austen Morris account for months on end as it was just too depressing.  Once the market had rebounded in 2011 I began to watch my account regularly again. What I saw baffled me.  World markets were doing well, but my account languished well below the $140,000 we invested.  As I began to push them for answers, it was only then that I was informed that Austen Morris had been taking a 6% "management fee" on my investment! This 6% was on top of the 1%-2.5% that the fund managers took on the mutual funds they had recommended  So after much pushing, they finally conceded to me that indeed, the mutual funds would have to perform at better than 7.5% for me to see any returns.  In fact, they would have to perform at 15% in order for the historical average of 7% to actually apply to my account. It was only at that point that I realized I had been played for a fool and a sucker.  To date, I have invested a little over $140,000 and have a total return of 2% (as the account is in USD and the USD has lost quite a bit of value against the RMB this 2% is actually around -3% with the shift in currancy exchange).  That equates to .33% growth annually---I currently put all my cash into an investment account with China Merchants Bank and get 3.8% interest with no fees and my RMB cash is liquid and gains steadily against the dollar.  I am okay with the lesson and take full responsibility for my stupidity.  Austen Morris reps basically dumped me when I stopped putting money in and as most of their big commission is paid upfront with my initial investment, they no longer wish to advise me on how to manage the $140,000 I have with them.  I'm stuck.  I will wait for the non-locked portion to go up some and then pull out all but my initial investment.  As I never plan on seeing that initial investment earning anything, I will probably gamble a bit with this and find a couple of high risk/high potential return accounts and see what happens.  I would advise anyone to not lock you money up in schemes like these and never agree to pay more than 1% (if that much) for a financial advisor to help you out.  Austen Morris doesn't care about you are your plans for the future, they are only interested in their commissions and making sure they keep bringing enough suckers to line their pockets with. 

Similar bad experience here. I invested into a retirement plan. I was told I could not touch this money for the first 23 months, but that it would be accessible later on although with penalties. Two years have passed and the funds have performed poorly with a loss of around 5%. Anyway, due to financial difficulties, I requested to withdraw the investment and am now told that after deduction of aministrative fee, my value is less then USD 1,000 out of an investment of 12.5k. So, don't trust the alleged 2% admin costs. At first, they don't explain to you how it's calculated, and now I am told that the admin costs make up the entire 23 months investment. So actually, whether now or later, I would never be able to access this money because it would be used up to pay for admin costs.  Yep, two years of saving gone to pay these guys for nothing. Don't trust their numbers, they're not telling you the full picture and just want your money.

You can find Austen Morris where they rightfully belong...

http://worldwolfwatch.wordpress.com

When they were in Beijing my flat mate worked for them just long enough to smell the coffee and bail.  He confirms it is genuine boiler room with zero regulatory oversight that cannot be bought. The SEC has no jurisdiction in China and neither do the U.K. regulators. They can lie, cheat, and steal with impunity - an do.

I used to get interview chance from them.

My father gave me good advice when I was a young man. Never eat at a restaurant called mom's, never play poker with a guy named pops, and never take unsolicited financial advice. If their investment was such a sure thing, they would put their money in it, not yours. 

I met with them and simply told them I would never put my money in something that locks it up for twenty to thirty years. Their are simply to many options where you can take your money out as you see fit.

Austin Morris! sounds like a scam to me. Anyone with any knowledge of the  motoring industry would know that this 'Name' belongs to the Austin Morris Group, later becoming British Leyland then Austin Rover. The company was founded in 1912 by William Morris

WR MORRIS(1912–1952)

BMC (1952–1967)
BRITISH LEYLAND (1967–1986)
ROVER GROUP (1986–1988)
BAe (1988–1994)
BMW (1994–2000)
MG ROVER GROUP(2000–2005)
 NAC (2005–2007)

The name and title Austin Morris is ' copyright protected' and cannot be used by another establishment. The is a motor industrial affixed title and name, nothing what so ever to do with so-called investment plans, saving plans, insurance plans or all the other scamming plans. Fools and the money are easy parted, usually because of greed, play with fire and you get burnt. Happy motoring everyone. 'well' with the the exception of the scammers of course.

I JUST GOT A CALL FROM THEM. I THOUGHT THEY MIGHT BE FROM SOME JOB I APPLIED TO. THE CALLER WAS FRIENDLY AS CAN BE. AND THEN BAM SHE MENTIONED THE INVESTMENTS...AND I THOUGHT MAYBE IT WAS FROM SOME JOBS I APPLIED TO THAT THEY SOLD MY INFORMATION TO THEM. BUT I READ IN SOME COMMENT HERE THEY BUY OUR EXPAT INFO FROM THE EXIT/ENTRY PLACE? I JUST WENT THERE TODAY... 

Austen Morris were pestering me some time back. Got rid of them eventually as all they seem to sell are long term investment plans where they make a huge commission. 

Then this week, out of the blue, get a phone call from Devere's, also based in SH. Seems an old friend of mine is talking to them and stupidly gave them my mobile number! Haven't left me alone all week with pestering phone calls. They're all like the Mortgage Endowment sales people in the UK in the 1980's...promise the moon on a stick & then don't deliver!

Here is what you need to know about Austen Morris Associates...and you need to beware of Austen Morris Associates

http://john8323.wix.com/amacheats

Here you go with what you need to know about Austen Morris Associates

http://austenmorrisama.weebly.com/

to all folks, get a tax id number to invest directly in a us broker account, put all your money in the symbol "o" realty income and sleep at night and tell all the hustlers to kiss your ass.

put some in an oil company mutual fund also uranium if you want some risk. they call me and i always tell them i retired early and don't need any more money, i have enough, now i worry about inflation making it useless, bought my first stock at 16 and invested small amounts for 36 years. just wish i had saved more, i spent so much on drinking, and women, the rest of it i just wasted.

God Bless