If you are looking for savings potential beware of international school of Dhaka in Bangladesh. They force you to sign up with Alexander Beard group. It is in the contract you sign with them. It is a complete and total scam. It is one fo the companies Andrew Hallam discusses in his latest book. It is not an investment is it a gravy train for ABG. Avoid working for any schools that force you into putting YOUR money into a supposed retirement account that costs you over 6% a year and then add in inflation and you are looking at losing 9% of your money a year. Not worth it. Unless you are very desperate for a job I would not go work for any international school that forces me to invest my money in something that I do not believe in and I know is costing me more than I am making. Always ask before signing about who and where your retirement money is being put and what expenses you will incur and what kinds of penalties and fees are associated with that account.

Hi All,
I am wondering if anyone knows a bit more about schools that offer these awful teacher retirement plans through Alexander Beard Group or Raymond James. Why do they offer these plans when in reality all they really do is take unsuspecting teachers hard earned money. The fees for these ridiculous so called retirement investments are upwards of 6-7% annually. Why do the Council of International Schools and those kinds of organizations back these terrible companies? I know schools worldwide use them to try to "help" teachers save for retirement. The so called help really only creates quite the gravy train for these companies. They charge each teacher $500 to put the initial investment in imagine when a school gets 10-20 new hires a year that is a lot of free money for these companies yearly. Do the schools get a kick back from them? Why do they offer them and even put into their teaching contracts forcing a teacher to lose an immense amount of money over time? I feel like international teachers are prey to these companies because it is also ridiculously hard to get out of the investment without paying a very high surrender fee. Does anyone know why so many intl schools have signed up for this plan? Is it purely financially driven because it certainly does not have the teachers best interest in mind?

I think as a whole international teaching community we need to get this practiced stopped asap. Do administrators not know that their teachers are being ripped off by these so called retirement plans they are offering? Do they care? I think first and foremost it needs to stop being written into teachers contracts. It is our money we should be able to invest it when and where we chose.

Just wondering what others think and have found at their schools that do offer these "retirement plans" aka Annuities. Does your school let you get out of investing with these kinds of companies if you have a retirement account in somewhere else that does not charge these insane fees? In the end the individual teacher makes absolutely no money on their investment and really over time loses money on their investment while these companies and CEO's rake in millions upon millions of dollars yearly off the backs of unsuspecting teachers.

Any thoughts? Does your school force you to do this? Have you been able to get out of it using another retirement investment you have elsewhere?

We must be financially literate as international teachers or we will keep being prey to these schools and companies that insist on us investing in them.

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

The bottom line is that, and it is unfortunate, most international schools are not honest and forthright in their dealings with teachers, if they were we would not need a website like this. The problem is that the balance of power is so heavily weighted towards admin that teachers have no way to speak the truth about some of the illegal and underhanded things that schools are doing without putting their references in jeopardy. If you do not want to risk not getting a job at hte next fair then you are bound to be quiet and put up with your contract being changed or not honored or many other breaches of contract that we are all so familiar with.

I have worked at schools where admin was good but due to bad owners or greedy business managers or lack of experience they end up changing things that they normally should not be and know better.

I will never feel sorry for school owners or admin because something negative has been written about them personally or their school because usually there is a grain of truth to it and sometimes it is much bigger than a grain.

My last point is without this website, can you imagine what schools would be trying to get away with as there is no governing body to oversee fair and just treatment of employees and good admin practices. Truthfully all of you must admit you are very thankful that you have this site or at some point you would have ended up at an international school you just could not stay your contract. Knowledge is power.

I agree wholeheartedly with Helen Black's post. Whatever you do NEVER invest with Friends Provident or Zurich International or the International Teachers pension scheme. All fo these have extremely high fees. There are feeder companies like SCI that sponsor Search job fairs and all they are looking to do is make their cut from your initial investment and they will tell you anything to get you to invest so they can make their fee.

Vanguard index funds are hte way to go as an American citizen. VERY low fees wonderful service adn you will see your money grow even if you pay capital gains it really is not much. YOu can get automatic deductions from your home bank account to go into a diversified portfolio of indexed funds. Then just do the annual check up with Vanguard and rest easy. I have been investing in Vanguard index funds for years and have a nice little next egg building up slowly but surely for early retirement. I was told about Vanguard in my late teens and never looked back.

It is an unfortunate thing that there are many scams out there from FPI and ZUrich and all of these kinds of companies that prey on unsuspecting international teachers. I think it is sick. I am glad you asked your question and I hope everyone reads this and the suggestion of Andrew Hallam because I do not want any more international teachers being scammed by these companies, schools and Search associates.

Good luck!

I know many of you will be going to the london fair and other fairs where SCI is the sponsor of the fair. PROCEED with CAUTION. They will be selling you annuities that the I consider to have extremely high fees. Also you can not get out of it for 25 years or you may lose your money due to penalities.

What Gavin Snook will be trying to convince you of is to buy a retirement plan. It is not a retirement plan in my opinion, it is a VERY HIGH FEE BASED PENALTY BASED annuity through Friends Provident International. Your money will be tied up with Friends Provident for at least 25years and you will be paying 7-10% in FEES a year!

Once you invest you will end up losing money due to all the high fees and penalties.

Invest in no load mutual funds or ETF's or companies like Vanguard and use their Index funds. NO FEES and no scam artists to deal with and no withdrawing penalties.

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ISR Forum Admin Note: We have been contacted by Mr. Snook. He tells us that the above information misrepresents the facts and that the company does not sell annuities. A visit to their web site shows they sell and manage retirement and pension funds which do differ from annuities.

We have offered Mr. Snook the opportunity to post a reply to this post which we offered to put in this space.

I have been to numerous schools and am at a very good school with excellent housing now but I came from the international school of Ulaanbaatar. The International School of ULAANBAATAR has the worst housing I have ever experienced. You are housed with locals in an apartment building that is just awful. It is disgustingly dirty, NOISY and NO HOT WATER. When I lived there we had neighbors that drilled all the time! NO matter night or day or anything. I did not sleep fro 2 years! It was just awful. The apartments are terrible. We were moved from one awful complex to another called Bayan Mongol. The first set of apartments were bad and it only got worse with the move. If you like having hot showers and a good nights sleep I would think twice about coming here. They do give you a stipend to find your own housing but it is shamefully low. Housing prices the 2 years I was there went up over 35% for rent. The used furniture in the apartments is beyond used it is not usable at all. The sofa's were falling apart after 2 years I pity the person who took over the apartment. I have taught all over the world in various 3 world countries and I have to say by FAR the housing in Ulaanbaatar given to you by the INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF ULAANBAATAR is the worst I have ever experienced. It is just dreadful. I would think twice before signing on and living in this housing..if I had only known!