FAO brokers

homer_j_3

Hi

Just looking to see if any of you guys/girls are a member of personal touch network or have any experience of them?

Cheers

_Andy_

Used to be - haven't got anything good to say about them I'm afraid!

dunstonh

I know two IFAs that are PTFS members. My experience of PTFS is that I am a consultant for those IFAs in that I do their research and recommendation reports. PTFS have 100% checking on cases and its not uncommon for them to come back with comments that something is wrong. In each and every case, PTFS have been wrong. examples of PTFS incompetence in the last 12 months.
1) asking why a CAT standard ISA wasnt recommended (CAT standard abolished two years earlier)
2) saying that a recommendation should be changed to put unit trusts in the wife's name and not joint as she could claim the tax back (not been able to do that since 1999)
3) complete lack of knowledge of taxation on bonds and unit trusts. Failure to consider the CGT changes.
4) they have to recommend pensions (at least on suitability report) for every investment case they do even if the actual need and aim doesnt match. i.e. a 30 year old wants a 10 year investment for lump sum growth would still need them to say that a pension was considered (even though the age and aim doesnt match).
5) they use past performance in recommending funds (not future potential) and their process suits the use of single fund investing and not portfolio building (when you portfolio build, it seems to confuse the checkers).
6) they have allowed SMPI projections to be compared with monetary growth projections which could easily allow a mis-sale to occur.

Other issues I have are they dont allow independent fund research to be used (i.e. Morningstar or Financial Express). Their risk profiles are amateur and if you actually read them, you cannot really fit many products into it. e.g. cautious risk profile says investments with some guarantees whilst the level above (medium) says managed funds should be used (no differential in the risk that exists between different managed funds).

The IFAs have also had to pass business to me to process through my company as PTFS wont allow it. eg. Pension transfers cannot have a penalty of more than 1% per year until retirement age. eg. if someone is retiring in 10 years, the transfer penalty cannot exceed 10%. This is even if the comparable illustrations show the new contract is cheaper over the period or the old contract is on zero bonus.

The IFAs frequently tell me that they never get told about changes and that they rely on me to tell them.

There are more but if you are looking at them as an IFA I would avoid them at all cost. They are a mortgage network that have a small number of IFAs and that is obvious from the way they handle investment cases. If it is mortgage only and always will be, then I think most of the above problems wont apply as I do hear they are better on that front.

oh, and not to forget, Every single life and pensions case pays less commission than I get or product charges are not as competitive. The other IFAs chose PTFS because they were cheap. It looks like they get what they pay for.

homer_j_3

Thanks guys for the information.

Dunston, I will email you with my query. Hopefully you will be able to advise.

Andy, I will PM you with the same query - hopefully you will be able to help also.

Geoff13_2

Hi Homer

I'm with PTFS currently - agree with dunston - they are a mortgage network - no real issues with them on that side - did contemplate changing due to a couple of problems in the past but not been able to find anyone better!! Happy for you to pm me too if there's anything specific.

Dan_1976

I just left them. They are ok. Problems I had was attitude, making us feel like we work for them, then the rsc issues.

Went to a nice meal at the emerates and nobody mentioned the crunch and lenders got an ear bashing about dual pricing!

Pm me if you eant my nolonger a broker views.