Appointment with Halifax

hobbesandco

Dunstonh, this is correct but it didn't stop the adviser from advertising himself as an independent.

Bjornki

Okay, I just got back from the appointment and she was a personal finance adviser.

She spoke about the share Isas and the PIP's. The latter sounded very interesting but too good to be true. They promise a return of 18%, ie you will have more than doubled your money in 5 years.
We have around 14K which we want to invest but since we're foreigners, I have no idea who to trust here. As people already mentionned, Halifax is trying to push you to their own products. As Barclays, Nationwide,.. would do.
I would like to know if anybody has a share isa or a personal investment plan with Halifax.

grumbler

Bjornki wrote:

...They promise a return of 18%

I just like this ....:rotfl: Haven't you asked them to put this in writing?

regularsaver1

i have a shares isa

anyhow, least you made an appointment - you wouldn't believe how many people expect to walk in there and then to be seen

dunstonh

She spoke about the share Isas and the PIP's. The latter sounded very interesting but too good to be true. They promise a return of 18%, ie you will have more than doubled your money in 5 years

Pigs might fly. They have no product (nor does anyone else) with an 18% a year return. I know they product they are referring to and its rubbish. They have either misrepresented it or you have misunderstood. Either way dont touch it.

We have around 14K which we want to invest but since we're foreigners, I have no idea who to trust here.

In the UK we have 4 types of investment class advisor. Tied, multi-tied, whole of market and independent.

Tied sell the products of one marketing group
Multi-tied sell products from a limited panel of providers (anything from 3 to 7 average)
Whole of market can sell products from the whole of market but rely only on commission
Independent can sell products from the whole of market but can be paid by commission or by fees. The choice being yours not theirs.

Independent Financial Advisors (IFA) are the best option. Not the banks tied salesforce.

It is also considered better to see an independent IFA as well. Not one attached to a regional/national salesforce or one part owned by an insurance company or consortium of such.

Bjornki

Pigs might fly. They have no product (nor does anyone else) with an 18% a year return. I know they product they are referring to and its rubbish. They have either misrepresented it or you have misunderstood. Either way dont touch it.

I said that it sounded too good to be true. I surely didn't misunderstood her. She has a 'fancy' programm where she filled in our amount(14K) with the interest over 5 years which would give a return of 14,620. I said to her that this is just too much and asked if she didn't mean that we would get the 620 pounds. 'No you would more than double your money' was her answer.
My parents bought a share package from a national bank in Belgium approx 10 years ago and the 3000 euro is now worth a 'massive' 3500 euro. I mentionned this to her but she confirmed that it certainly wouldn't be the case here. Both products are similar so she is wrong.

My OH and I discussed the product this afternoon and we are going to decline it. But this still leaves us with the ISA problem. We're not sure whether to chose for a cash or a shares one. And which financial institution to chose. Halifax' rates seem okay.
And we want to invest money since we don't have any plans for it. We don't plan to buy a house for the few years that we are here. And we don't mind any risk involved because we don't need it in the next 5-10 years.

How can I get in touch with reliable independent financial advisers?

Cook_County

I note that you say you are "foreigners". Does this not mean that you are domiciled outside of the UK for tax purposes so could invest offshore and pay zero UK tax?

If you did not receive this advice from HBOS then you certainly did not receive best advice.

dunstonh

How can I get in touch with reliable independent financial advisers?

How can you get a reliable plumber or reliable doctor or teacher.... Its much the same thing.

You can find a database of IFAs are www.unbiased.co.uk You can postcode search to find your local ones. To help the chances of getting a good one, avoid national addresses that appear in your postcode search and avoid 0845/0870/08xx numbers as these tend to be call centres, indicating that the person works within a salesforce. A true independent IFA is usually regarded as the best.

Pondasher

I invested the lump sum part of my pension with Halifax just over twelve months ago. The adviser informed me he only dealt with Halifax products (I believe they have to tell you this under financial regulations) and established my approach to risk for a longer term investment. My first annual statement for the investment arrived recently and shows an increase of just over 18% which I am more than pleased with.

dunstonh

The adviser informed me he only dealt with Halifax products (I believe they have to tell you this under financial regulations)

Yes they do and you still did it?

and established my approach to risk for a longer term investment.

Again correct.

My first annual statement for the investment arrived recently and shows an increase of just over 18% which I am more than pleased with.

Is that all? Everything went up over the last 12 months. It was hard to invest and not go up. However, 18% is nothing to be happy with in that period.

25% would be closer to the mark for a cautious portfolio, with around 40% on a medium risk one.

No-one is unhappy when things go up. Its when things go down that you really see how good your investment strategy is. This is where the tied advisor will fail because they are not allowed to give portfolio advice, recommend switching of funds and can only recommend funds which directly match your attitude to investment risk (not above or below).

Why you would want to invest in Halifax funds when you have the likes of Fidelity, Invesco Perp, Jupiter etc out there, I do not know.