How do you select a good ifa?

dunstonh

You regularly advise people to get independant financial advise. I was kind of hoping you would explain the best route to take to obtain this advice.

I have plenty of times. Jem covered off most of the basics though. So, no need to repeat.

It would appear that many people have taken independant advice only to regret it.

Actually, its not the case. IFAs handle the majority of transactions but account for only 3% of complaints at the FOS. Even then, only a 1/3rd are upheld. Most of the problems come from FAs and half of those seeing FAs actually think they are seeing an IFA. Things are not perfect but statistically, you are unlikely to get bad advice from an IFA. Even the FOS published something a while back saying that perception does not reflect reality when it comes to IFAs. The trend on perception is improving but remember anything on the internet is more likely to be negative than positive.

Rollinghome

roysterer wrote: »

Where do you get your investment advice from? Are you happy with it?

From newspapers I find left on the seats on trains. No it's rubbish so I always ignore it.

My wife's brother in law is an IFA in Gloucester so he's bound to be great. But would you really accept a recommendation from someone on an internet forum who could be 14 years old or connecting from the secure wing of a mental hospital?

I'd suggest you get a couple of names from unbiassed.co.uk who are listed as having qualifications in investment advice and make appointments at their office. Ask about their fees and if they offer you coffee note if the cups have chips or broken handles. Ask them a question for which you already know the answer and see how they respond. Then ask them if they can guarantee to find you a return of 8% every year and if they say they can find another adviser.

It's a service, so who you consider to be the perfect provider will depend on a wide range of factors and might be very different from whom I'd choose.

whiteflag_3

kittie wrote: »

I had a personal recommendation once. The ifa gave me sound advice for one year and that was the sprat to catch the mackerel. The following year he wanted my dh to move his big pension and he would have gained fees of lots of thousands. I took the pension on myself and moved it all to a sipp, where it grew 16% over the last 2 years. In the meantime the person who recommended the ifa made contact with me asking if I was with his recommendation. I said no. I since found out that the person doing the recommending was himself in the financial world and would have received a big kickback of money

ps: his recommendations would have gone down by a LOT as he was delving into hedge funds and property funds amongst others

Yawn !!!!!!! (again)

whiteflag_3

Rollinghome wrote: »

From newspapers I find left on the seats on trains. No it's rubbish so I always ignore it.

My wife's brother in law is an IFA in Gloucester so he's bound to be great. But would you really accept a recommendation from someone on an internet forum who could be 14 years old or connecting from the secure wing of a mental hospital?

I'd suggest you get a couple of names from unbiassed.co.uk who are listed as having qualifications in investment advice and make appointments at their office. Ask about their fees and if they offer you coffee note if the cups have chips or broken handles. Ask them a question for which you already know the answer and see how they respond. Then ask them if they can guarantee to find you a return of 8% every year and if they say they can find another adviser.

It's a service, so who you consider to be the perfect provider will depend on a wide range of factors and might be very different from whom I'd choose.

As above.

I would add that all IFAs wont charge for the initial meeting so do some leg work and see as many as you can , after all £30K is alot of money so its important you deal with someone you have total confidence in, otherwise walk away.

They should tell you how they get paid and what their fees or commission would be to invest £30k. Also ask what ongoing service will be given and how it will be paid for. IF your not 100% keep looking.

That said contary to some gloom merchants on this forum there are some very good IFAs out there, so you might be pleasantly surprised.

As an IFA I read lots of posts on here and think " thank god they are not my client" It works both ways!

[Deleted User]

whiteflag wrote: »

Yawn !!!!!!! (again)

whiteflag you really should have a disclaimer on your posts

You are supposedly a professional IFA but you certainly don`t cut the mustard compared to another IFA on these threads. I know which one I would choose if I were going down that route. I believe he is in norfolk

whiteflag_3

[

QUOTE=kittie;22774615]whiteflag you really should have a disclaimer on your posts

Perhaps you would be good enough to suggest a wording ?

You are supposedly a professional IFA but you certainly don`t cut the mustard compared to another IFA on these threads. I know which one I would choose if I were going down that route. I believe he is in norfolk

[/QUOTE]

Phew !!! ill give you directions, although I would doubt he would want you to darken his door after some of your other posts.

like I said we can choose our clients as well - btw how did you get on with your PLA?

Lokolo

Rollinghome wrote: »

With the FTSE down over 35% over the last two years, any advisor who has limited losses to just 5%, especially if that's after his 5% front end commission, is doing rather well.

Who is this man? Seems to be the bloke roysterer is looking for.

Ha yes but rarely do you get threads on this forum saying "Yeh my IFA is amazing and has made me loads of money"

dunstonh

Ha yes but rarely do you get threads on this forum saying "Yeh my IFA is amazing and has made me loads of money"

Thats because happy people that have nothing to complain about dont post those sorts of things on forums. If an IFA is doing the job they are meant to do then you shouldnt be surprised. That is the norm.

Lokolo

dunstonh wrote: »

Thats because happy people that have nothing to complain about dont post those sorts of things on forums. If an IFA is doing the job they are meant to do then you shouldnt be surprised. That is the norm.

I'm a happy person and I always start threads! Crazy me eh.

I just started 9-5 job and I still struggle to stay away from MSE... bad times.

whiteflag_3

roysterer wrote: »

This forum very often refers to getting advise from an IFA? I guess this is sound advise. But how do you know that you are getting good advise? and how do you know a good IFA from a bad one?
If you look in the Yellow Pages for a plumber you dont know whether you have contacted a cowboy until after the event.
So my question is:- if you want to invest 30K via an IFA then how do you start? and what should you look out for? and how do you know whether the IFA is looking after your interest or is own?
I am considering investing to hopefully achieve an average of say 7% to 8% growth (per year) on average (compound) over the next 10 years.
Are my expectations realistic? and where do I start.
Thanks for any advice.

Perhaps you might want to give Coutts & CO a wide berth

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=188870&d=pnd2&h=pndh2&f=pndf2


I like the fact he has to raise a court action to try and find out the commission...........cant he just look at the quote.

Now let me think £65,000,000 @ 7% = £4,550,000 , yep looks fair, the Coutts adviser took commission to save the client paying a fee, after all it was 12 years work for the adviser!