"Free consultations" and other things advisory firms shouldn't offer

Every relocation firm offers a free consultation. Almost none of them are actually consultations — they're sales calls with a different name, structured to get you to sign before anyone has looked closely at your situation.

Free calls are optimized to convert, not to diagnose

A call with no cost to either side has no incentive to say 'this is more complicated than a single visa filing' or 'you should talk to your US accountant before we go further.' The commercial incentive of a free call is to keep you on the phone until you say yes.

A paid session changes what gets said

When a client pays for a strategy session, the conversation shifts from persuasion to diagnosis — because the fee has already been earned regardless of whether the client proceeds. That changes what an advisor is willing to tell you, including when the honest answer is 'you don't need us for this part.'

What this looks like in practice

We still offer a free 15-minute intro call — but it exists only to confirm basic fit, not to sell a package. The actual planning happens in a paid 90-minute session. Clients consistently report that the paid session gave them more usable clarity than free consultations they'd had elsewhere, precisely because nobody was trying to close them.