Quote from Swan Noir:
dima, the big divide is between educational services and advisory services. Those that find a way to squeeze into education fly very much under the radar while trade advice is now a pretty heavily regulated business almost everywhere.
In the 70's I, with a partner, owned small investment banking concerns in New York, London and Lugano, Switzerland. It was a simpler world then. If you can avoid having clients in first world countries -- the US, UK, Western Europe -- and can concentrate on pulling clients from South America, Asia etc. the chances are you will be left alone. You can pick a tax shelter type domicile for incorporation -- Monaco (expensive) Isle of Mann (somewhat less expensive), British Virgins (BVI) (even less expensive) -- and probably make it work.
One of the keys is to NEVER open an account for ANYONE and Never hold even a penny of customer funds. My partner and I incorporated a bank in Anguilla and swore a blood oath to never accept a deposit -- we never did. Once the regulators, particularly outside the US and the UK, realize you hold zero customer funds they put your file on the bottom of their big pile and never get to it again.
Incorporate in a place that specializes in bull shit paper companies and want the annual fees, pick a non-financial name (Evans & Morgan Ltd. as opposed to First Financial Services Ltd.), have ZERO advisory clients in countries with deep capital markets and keep a reasonable set of books for the company and personally.
If you do have problems they will probably be small and manageable. I am not an attorney and give no legal advice. This is practical business advice. If I can help ... PM me.