The overwhelming lure of free advice: The thing is — free advice is really never free. There is a price for everything.

Here is one scenario: The advert reads, "Free medical advice!" Perhaps, you have seen a medical web-page, or attended a seminar to find out more about this free medical advice.

The medical doctor asks for questions and you mention, either in an e-mail, or in a statement to him that you have a severe pain in your side. "Right, says Mister MD, you need a gall bladder operation, and I will see you at the hospital in the morning!"

Your first thought — is this person for real? How could he possibly diagnose my having a gall bladder problem when he has not even asked about my family medical history, medications I may be taking, examined the pain-producing region, or conducted blood test assessments?

That is precisely the point — no profession medical doctor would consider doing that. Thus, the first question posed about free advice is — when offered in context of a group presentation or a web-site taking hundreds of thousands of hits a month — how can any of this advice possibly relate to your individual situation. The answer is that it cannot.

Whether the free advice is related to finances, taxes, insurance, real estate-no-money down, mortgages, estate and trusts, investments, health, Internet business schemes, etc., the second question should be what is in this for me?

The third question is — what is in this for the presenters? Almost everyone (except those wonderful altruistic volunteers who donate time and money to help those in need) has a conflict of interest when offering advice. No one, absolutely no one spends his or her time giving free advice — even me — with out expecting some sort of a return.

The benefits of the advice for both the participants and the presenters should be clearly stated so that everyone is on the same page. No one objects to receiving information accompanied by full disclosure of interest and intent.

The fourth questions is, are the persons (or websites) offering free advice qualified in that field and do they fully understand the domestic ramifications and structural processes in our offshore financial centre that can arise? The same questions and credential verification should be asked of Internet sites offering solutions of any kind.

Vaporware is illusive, however, and it may be far more difficult to drill through the site into the background of a website promoter.

Why are all these questions necessary? Demographics. We live in a community in a small town, but that is where the similarity ends. As has been often emphasised, nowhere else in the world would local inhabitants face, for starters, nine different currency choices just in making a money market selection.

The complexity increases. We have thousands of intertwined relationships. Many of our residents have multi-national marriages, dual or triple citizenships, and beneficiaries with even greater nationality latitude and status.

We tend to travel extensively; we move our money around; we purchase investments in other jurisdictions; we aren't sure how we structured our assets and what will happen to them if we pass prematurely; we take up relationships with citizens of other countries; we divorce, emigrate and come back to Bermuda; we partly retire elsewhere while maintaining income-generating property and businesses here; we form companies, partnering with dual-citizen friends and family; we straddle the pond while working in several jurisdictions, all the while trying to maintain our base in a neutral tax regime.

For tax advisory services, trusts and estate planning, for instance, Certified Public Accountants, United States licensed attorneys, and Enrolled Agents (with few exceptions) are the predominate experts. They are the only professionals that can represent you before US Internal Revenue Service if things go badly wrong. The UK, Canada and other countries have similar structures.

In Bermuda, there are four internationally qualified globally experienced tax advisers: KPMG, Deloitte, EY, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. They can negotiate the tax decision maze for you no matter where you wish to relocate or retire.

By all means, be a good consumer; you should always seek all avenues of information, filter through what you think may be applicable to you, educate yourself on the opportunities offered, but before making any decisions, you should seek a second opinion from an internationally qualified expert in the field.

You will have to pay for this advice; it will be worth every penny, and may save you (in the case of a US tax issues) years of stressful negotiations with and possible liabilities owed to US Internal Revenue Service. Comprehensive forward planning that entails a review of your entire financial profile, rather than taking a piecemeal approach to any financial decision is the best way to reach the best decision.

Free advice is never free — there is a price for everything. Sometimes, the bill just gets paid later — when you least expect it.

Martha Harris Myron CPA -NH1929 CFP® -67184 (US licences) is a dual citizen (US and Bermuda). She is a Senior Wealth Manager at Argus Financial Limited, specializing in comprehensive financial solutions and investment advisory services for individual private clients and their families, business owners, endowments and trusts. DirectLine: 294-5709. Confidential email can be directed to marthamyron@northrock.bm

The article expresses the opinion of the author alone. Under no circumstances is the content of this article to be taken as specific individual investment advice, nor as a recommendation to buy/ sell any investment product. The Editor of the Royal Gazette has final right of approval over headlines, content, and length/brevity of article.