Fees for advice

merl1955

I have seen an IFA for a first interview taken my details and will get back to us. What I am worried about is no mention of fees were discussed.
Call me stupid but I am worried they will charge for this initial assessment.
I want to know to if I put my lump sum in a bond do I have to pay anyone for this? and is a high interest account in a building society/ bank a better deal and safer would we have to pay for this service and does the £50000 per banking corportation for a single person what about joint accounts.
I was shocked when I found out I had to pay a lot of money for this advice how much would one expect to pay for a £70000 investment.

opinions4u

merl1955 wrote: »

I have seen an IFA for a first interview taken my details and will get back to us. What I am worried about is no mention of fees were discussed.

My understanding is that if no clarity has been given regarding fees then you will not be charged for the initial assessment. That's not to say that it won't be value for money to pay for advice going forwards.

I want to know to if I put my lump sum in a bond do I have to pay anyone for this?

What do you call "a bond"? A fixed rate, fixed term savings account? A corporate bond? A British spy? The term "bond" is extraordinarily generic and could mean literally hundreds of different types of saving and investing.

and is a high interest account in a building society/ bank a better deal and safer

Safer than what? The answer is probably safer. Not necessarily better, appropriate for your individual circumstances or more tax efficient though.

would we have to pay for this service

Sticking money in to a savings account doesn't have overtly disclosed costs. But there is a hidden cost that banks call "profits" in a savings account! They tpyically lend your money out at a rate 2% more than the rate they pay you.

and does the £50000 per banking corportation for a single person what about joint accounts.

£100k for a joint account.

I was shocked when I found out I had to pay a lot of money for this advice how much would one expect to pay for a £70000 investment.

It depends. But if a good IFA can generate a tax advantage for you of, say, 22% on £20,000 of your lump sum this would be worth an immediate gain of £5,641.

If they can generate an additional 0.5% a year in returns on the full £70k that's worth an additional £1,800 over a 5 year period.

If paying £750 in fees can ensure a rebate of £1,050 to your investments that would otherwise be commission paid to the IFA then it looks like a good deal to me.

Given the sum involved, and perhaps some of the naivity in your questions (which is where most people are when it comes to personal finance and investments), I'd suggest that paying a fee for professional advice from an IFA is exactly what somebody in your position should be doing.

When they confirm what the fee actually is, I'd suggest posting the details here for reasonability purposes.

merl1955

thanks but don't understand about tax relief? only 57 get an annual pension salary of about £14000 so paying standard rate tax. Because we had bad mortgage advise we are really worried about taking risks and advice.
sorry for being so naive

whiteflag_3

merl1955 wrote: »

I was shocked when I found out I had to pay a lot of money for this advice how much would one expect to pay for a £70000 investment.

Any decent financial adviser operating within the scope of the FSA will discuss fee/commissions at the first meeting and certainly before your sign up for anything. If your not sure /happy just walk away and find a fee based adviser as if your looking at investing £70K it would most likely be the more cost effective option.