IFA fees advice- does this look OK

lynzpower

Hello again

Here I am again with the most basic of questions.

After my other L&G thread, time is now to find an IFA to help us out of the S&S ISa hell we seem to have painted ourselves into .

I have found an IFA through unbiased, and thinking of booking an appointment with them tomorrow. They are called Holland Hahn & Wills and are based in London Ec4

http://www.hhw-uk.com/

PLease let me know if there is any reason I should not use this firm?

Also here is thier fees schedule, but cant work it out.

I am simply after advice on moving 2 failing S&S ethical ISAs ( about 11k) into something that might ust make some money as weve made quite a bit loss over the last year or so. http://www.hhw-uk.com/howourfeescompare.asp

what is institutional funds??!

ADVICE PLEASE Cheers

turbobob

Can't help with any information about that firm. Institutional funds - if you look at unit trusts on sites like https://www.trustnet.com you will often find funds have retail or R class units and institutional or I class units. The R class units are what are sold to the general public and have higher management charges than I class units. The institutional units are bought by for example large pension funds or other collective investments. They are usually large deals, and so qualify for the lower costs of the I class units.

dunstonh

1.8% initial is the typical average. So, if they are taking 1% so its better than average. 1% has become the typical NMA style initial charge. More recent trends have seen a minimum and maximum figure added to that as well and their wording suggests they do that.

They mention annual management charges and that they have an annual charge but dont actually say what that charge is. I would guess they agree that with you depending on what level of servicing you want.

They are chartered financial planners. This means that the majority of advisers in their firm have to hold the highest qualifications available for financial advice. That puts them on par with solicitors and accountants as far as qualification goes. Only around 1100 advisers in the country hold this level currently.

Their competitor examples are showing absolute extremes. The typical maximum on collectives is 3% with 0.5% p.a. trail. The FSA published average is 1.8%.

what is institutional funds??!

They are the funds that are typically used by institutions rather than retail. Retail being the consumer. Charges tend to be broken down more so you can see who gets what. Usually the charges are lower but you require more money to be able to access these or require a tax wrapper that allows access to them.

ADVICE PLEASE Cheers

I fear that you wont get these low charges with an 11k ISA (assuming that is the only bit of business). Given the low number of chartered financial planners in the country you tend to find they can justifiably charge more. However, they tend to offset that more by being focused on high net worth clients. 11k is small in IFA terms. HNW tends to be those with hundreds of thousands of pounds at least to manage in a portfolio. Many IFAs (with standard qualifications) wouldnt be interest in less than £20k.

I think you have aimed too high in quality for what is a very simple transaction and the acutal costs wont be worth it. Perhaps a bit like a asking a brain surgeon to put a plaster on a cut.

edit: having seen their fees list, it clearly is aimed at the high net worth client. The annual cost is 0.85%. Quite fair and good value for high net worth clients wanting access to chartered financial planners but above the more typical 0.5% that you would expect to see with other IFAs.

lynzpower

I fear that you wont get these low charges with an 11k ISA (assuming that is the only bit of business). Given the low number of chartered financial planners in the country you tend to find they can justifiably charge more. However, they tend to offset that more by being focused on high net worth clients. 11k is small in IFA terms. HNW tends to be those with hundreds of thousands of pounds at least to manage in a portfolio. Many IFAs (with standard qualifications) wouldnt be interest in less than £20k.

I think you have aimed too high in quality for what is a very simple transaction and the acutal costs wont be worth it. Perhaps a bit like a asking a brain surgeon to put a plaster on a cut.

thanks a lot for this , both of you, that really does help.

the only reason I picked this one was because it was first on the list, and I only selected for "investment advice" and "ISA,stocks & shares"

maybe Ill come back with another option, as i did think I was quite small fry when I looked at the website