financial advisers,,,are they any good,,can they be trusted...

deano72_2

mums just saling her house so will have a 100k + to play with for her retirement... ithinks its best she sees a f/a but dont know anything about them...so whats in for them,,,what makes a good one?

Stavros_3

1) make sure its an Independant financial advisor (they are not tied to any bank who will only sell you their crappy products)
2) They usually operate 2 different fee payment methods, a fixed fee agreed before hand or commission based fee, myself personly would go for the fixed fee but thats an individual choice)
3) There is a site that tells you where to find IFA's in your area, I'm sure DunstonH will be along shortly to offer his valuable advice. http://www.unbiased.co.uk/

wombat42_2

I eat 'em for breakfast, they're a bit gristly tho.:D

jem16

Stavros wrote: »

2) They usually operate 2 different fee payment methods, a fixed fee agreed before hand or commission based fee, myself personly would go for the fixed fee but thats an individual choice)

There is also a third option called the hybrid fee or customer agreed renumeration.

This is where you agree a fee with the IFA but it is paid from the commission with any excess commission being rebated back to you. This can often work to the client's advantage as no VAT is due on commission but is due on a fee.

deano72 wrote:

what makes a good one?

A good IFA will be able to show you the research that is done in deciding what recommendations to make. If they can't show you this then walk away.

dunstonh

wombat42 wrote: »

I eat 'em for breakfast, they're a bit gristly tho.:D

I could do with losing half a stone

Good advice is worth every penny. Bad advice is not but you can usually tell the good from the bad just by the quality of the explanation of why something is being done and the research provided. You may not understand it and it more bore you silly but it is worth spending the little time listening and trying to understand. No research and "just sign here" usually indicates poor quality.

IFAs account for the majority of transactions but last year only accounted for 4% of complaints to the FOS. So, statistically things are not as bad as perception. Avoid salesforces and avoid tied sales reps.

a7man

deano72 wrote: »

mums just saling her house so will have a 100k + to play with for her retirement... ithinks its best she sees a f/a but dont know anything about them...so whats in for them,,,what makes a good one?

A good IFA will save you more money then you spend on their services in the long run - they will produce an investment strategy relevant to your mums needs. 100k needs good advice as a bad investment strategy could lose a lot of money whether in performance/tax/risks. Whats in it for them? Well they need to eat so will need to be paid!

Lokolo

Yeh but obviously no-one can tell for definate what the market will be like.

I want dunstonh's prodigy when I go for an IFA haha I want to earn money, not lose it!!

a7man

no one can tell but I'd trust an expert over the average joe!

1echidna

Perhaps ask your IFA if he was recommending to his clients that they buy equity based investments eighteen months or so ago when the FTSE was around 6600. If he says yes find one with better judgement.

StevieJ

1echidna wrote: »

Perhaps ask your IFA if he was recommending to his clients that they buy equity based investments eighteen months or so ago when the FTSE was around 6600. If he says yes find one with better judgement.

I should imagine they all were (property as well), balanced portfolio you know.

jem16

1echidna wrote: »

Perhaps ask your IFA if he was recommending to his clients that they buy equity based investments eighteen months or so ago when the FTSE was around 6600. If he says yes find one with better judgement.

As an investment is for at least 5 years and not eighteen months I'd imagine any decent IFA would have some equity funds in their recommendation.