About Mekong Advisors
Who we are and how we came to be here
Mekong Advisors began as a conversation between a small group of adults in their mid-forties who found themselves frustrated by the financial education that was available to them. Most of it was either too general to be useful, too slanted toward product sales to be trusted, or built for an audience significantly younger — with time and risk tolerance that no longer applied.
The practice was established in Phaya Thai, Bangkok, with a deliberate focus: workshop-format education for adults who have accumulated some experience of life and money, and who now want to think more carefully about what comes next. Not a seminar with a pitch at the end. Not a one-size approach. A small, structured session — six to ten people — with a knowledgeable facilitator and printed materials worth keeping.
The name reflects the geography of many of our participants' lives. A significant number of the adults who attend our sessions have financial interests — family, property, savings, or work — that span Thailand and neighboring countries. The Mekong is not a boundary; it is a connection. The name is a small nod to that wider frame.
We do not manage money, sell financial products, or receive referral fees from any financial institution. That independence is, for us, not a feature we added later — it is the reason we exist.
Our Founding Principles
- Education in place of sales — always
- Small groups where questions have room
- Materials that remain useful after the session
- Honest about what we do not cover
- Content grounded in Thai financial context
- Pricing that is straightforward and transparent
The People Behind the Sessions
A small, experienced team
Robert Klaassen
Lead Facilitator & Founder
Twenty years in personal finance education across Europe and Southeast Asia, with particular focus on retirement transitions and cross-border financial considerations for long-term Thailand residents.
Prapha Mongkol
Thai Regulatory Specialist
Specialist in Thai financial regulation, provident fund structures, and the legislative framework for foreign residents holding assets in Thailand. Contributes the Thai context section of the cross-border workshop.
Anna Lindström
Workshop Coordinator
Manages scheduling, participant communications, and the printed materials programme. Ensures each workshop session runs to a clear structure and that participants have what they need before and after.
How We Hold Ourselves to Account
Standards we maintain in every session and every communication
No Product Sales
Mekong Advisors does not sell, recommend, or receive payment for any financial product. This is a structural commitment, not a promise that could quietly change.
Participant Privacy
Personal information shared during sessions stays within the session. Participant details are not shared with third parties or used in marketing without explicit permission.
Current Content
Reference materials — particularly the Thai regulatory packet in the cross-border workshop — are reviewed and updated each time a session runs, not reused from a prior year.
Feedback After Each Session
Every participant receives a short written feedback form after the session. Responses shape the next run of the same workshop.
Balanced Presentation
Where frameworks differ, the facilitator presents more than one view. Participants are not steered toward a single conclusion; the aim is better thinking, not agreement.
Clear About Limits
The facilitator is explicit about what cannot be addressed in an educational setting. Questions requiring personal advice are acknowledged honestly and redirected appropriately.
Financial Education for Adults in Bangkok
The context that shapes what we do
The financial questions that arrive in your forties are different from those in your twenties. They tend to involve accumulated assets rather than initial savings, and they often concern how to preserve and draw on what you have rather than how to build from nothing. The literature on retirement planning — much of it originating in the United States or the United Kingdom — does not always translate cleanly to the situation of an adult living in Thailand, with a mix of Thai and overseas assets, potential family commitments across borders, and a retirement landscape shaped by Thai provident funds, government pension schemes, and the particular tax treatment of foreign income.
Mekong Advisors works to make that literature accessible and to place it alongside the relevant Thai context. The workshops are not a substitute for personalised financial planning. They are the kind of foundational understanding that makes a conversation with a financial planner more productive — and helps participants recognise good advice when they encounter it.
Our participants include long-term foreign residents, Thai nationals who have worked abroad and returned, and adults approaching a career transition who want to think more systematically about the decades ahead. What they share is a preference for considered, well-grounded thinking over urgency and simplification.
Come and See if the Approach Fits
Write to us with a question or a workshop you have in mind. There is no obligation to book; we are happy to answer questions first.
Write to Us