Do You Need Financial Advice? When To Get It, When Not To Get It Discussion Area

Barbie_doll

dunstonh wrote: »

Depends on what options you want to discuss. Cash ISAs and buy to lets arent what you would see an IFA for. Unless you are looking to fund that capital gains tax bill on the buy to let property when you eventually sell up.

Forgive me (virgin post), need an trustworthy IFA for 70 year old Birmingham father who wants to invest £30k for income. Should be simple right? How do we contact you?

Lokolo

Barbie_doll wrote: »

Forgive me (virgin post), need an trustworthy IFA for 70 year old Birmingham father who wants to invest £30k for income. Should be simple right? How do we contact you?

Dunston is a little far away for business in Birmingham.

£30k is also quite a small amount. Head to Unbiased to search for a few IFAs. Go to more than 1 (like 3 or 4). You can write a new post on here about what they say and users will respond whether they are acting the best they can.

savemoney

stockprofits is :spam:

Westenddad

A few years ago my wife and I started using an IFA on a commission basis, and set up/ purchased a number of investments/ policies with him over a couple of years, including equity ISAs. Unfortunately his level of contact with us has dropped off over time, and he isn't reviewing our investments proactively as he said he would, e.g. suggesting changes for underperforming funds. I have also got more clued-up about investing myself, e.g. using Trustnet to assess funds, and in the last couple of years I've used Chelsea Financial Services to invest in ISA's on the Cofunds platform, to take advantage of their discounted commission and online purchasing and switching facilities.

My wife has a Cofunds ISA which our IFA set up, and basically I'd like to remove our IFA as intermediary in this case and replace him with Chelsea Financial Services. My question is therefore how do I go about doing this? Is it just a question of writing and telling him I don't want him to act for us for this one ISA; and can I expect to be able to do it for just one ISA or might he suggest it's all or nothing? This would be less straightforward as I also have life insurance and an insurance backed investment bond set up by this IFA which are more complicated and I don't think CFS would handle these. Any advice gratefully received.

Aegis

Westenddad wrote: »

A few years ago my wife and I started using an IFA on a commission basis, and set up/ purchased a number of investments/ policies with him over a couple of years, including equity ISAs. Unfortunately his level of contact with us has dropped off over time, and he isn't reviewing our investments proactively as he said he would, e.g. suggesting changes for underperforming funds. I have also got more clued-up about investing myself, e.g. using Trustnet to assess funds, and in the last couple of years I've used Chelsea Financial Services to invest in ISA's on the Cofunds platform, to take advantage of their discounted commission and online purchasing and switching facilities.

My wife has a Cofunds ISA which our IFA set up, and basically I'd like to remove our IFA as intermediary in this case and replace him with Chelsea Financial Services. My question is therefore how do I go about doing this? Is it just a question of writing and telling him I don't want him to act for us for this one ISA; and can I expect to be able to do it for just one ISA or might he suggest it's all or nothing? This would be less straightforward as I also have life insurance and an insurance backed investment bond set up by this IFA which are more complicated and I don't think CFS would handle these. Any advice gratefully received.

To change the agency you can go to the provider, but they will then keep the trail commission themselves, or you can go to a new adviser and ask them to manage it for you. They can then take care of the trail commission and you can agree the level of servicing you require.

If you want you can get Cavendish Online to set themselves up as agents of your Cofunds ISA to rebate all the commission to you for a one-off fee. If you're managing the investments yourself anyway, this is an excellent idea, though bear in mind that you will get no ongoing advice at all from them. This looks like a better deal than Chelsea for all but the smallest of ISAs, as Chelsea apparently don't rebate any trail commission and still charge an initial commission for non-ISA funds.

In any case, it would be a good idea to let the IFA know so that he doesn't chase the providers for the missing trail commission (if he notices). He won't get it, but it might sour the relationship if you do that without telling him and still expect him to service some of your other investments.

Westenddad

Thanks Aegis; I hope you don't mind if I clarify the options you've suggested.

a) I can contract direct with Cofunds? I thought most providers only work through an intermediary.

b) I instruct CFS to act as intermediary for this ISA & they inform Cofunds who then pay CFS the trail commission?

c) I'll look into Cavendish, but at this stage at least I'm more interested in the discounted purchase commission and the online purchase/ switching ability for speed (through Chelsea funds are sold/ switched the day following instruction; not ideal, but for example I e-mailed my IFA to sell some funds on Sunday and still haven't had a reply)

d) Fair point re letting my IFA know; I'll try to be tactful!

Thanks.

Aegis

Westenddad wrote: »

Thanks Aegis; I hope you don't mind if I clarify the options you've suggested.

a) I can contract direct with Cofunds? I thought most providers only work through an intermediary.

You can ask, but even if they say yes they're likely to keep all the trail commission and they absolutely won't give you any advice for it!

b) I instruct CFS to act as intermediary for this ISA & they inform Cofunds who then pay CFS the trail commission?

Yep

c) I'll look into Cavendish, but at this stage at least I'm more interested in the discounted purchase commission and the online purchase/ switching ability for speed (through Chelsea funds are sold/ switched the day following instruction; not ideal, but for example I e-mailed my IFA to sell some funds on Sunday and still haven't had a reply)

Bear in mind that Cavendish will do exactly what CFS are offering, but instead of just discounting the initial charge, they will rebate the trail commission as well, which will equate to around 0.5% of the portfolio value every year. Aside from that, you will still manage your cofunds account yourself, so any trades you wish to make will still be done in the same manner, only without any charges going to an intermediary. As such you get the reduced purchase charge and a reduced holding charge, in exchange for a single up front fee, which I believe is £25.

Worth noting that in both cases trail commission may well be turned off even for legacy investments when the FSA decides once and for all what RDR means for platforms, so you would need to factor in only 15 months or so of trail commission savings to decide which provider you want to use.

There are probably other organisations that will give you a proportion of the trail commission at no fee. ClubFinance is one such organisation, offering 100% discount on initial charges and 75% discount on trail commission with no up front fee.

In short, what I was getting at was that you shouldn't have to pay all your trail commission to any provider if you're not getting advice.

d) Fair point re letting my IFA know; I'll try to be tactful!

Always a good idea!

Westenddad

Thanks Aegis, all clear now.

MELLA_2

hi,

i had a situation a few years ago where i received money due to a payout regarding nhs and my fathers death at their hands.

anyhow from yellow pages I contacted someone called ian harrison and he has been amazing in handling the situation. he is the most honest reliable professional. he is an ifa. i know he travels distances cause he chats about the places he goes and if his clients move then he seems to stay committed.

hope this helps anyone needing any advice from someone who i can recommend and also my work colleagues and family to trust.

Mel

jademaid

I have three pots of money, totalling around 27K, that I'd like to tidy up. I'm not sure what to do with them at the moment.

They are: a) an endowment nearing maturity, b) an investment bond - orginally through Abbey but then passed to different operators, and c) an investment bond held by a Luxembourg company - also not the orginal arrangement. I'm assuming that an IFA would be able to help, though I'm a bit wary as the latter investment was made through an 'ethical' IFA who turned out to be rubbish.

Looking at IFA websites, which ask what sort of investment you're interested in, I'm not really sure that I want to invest as such. But I'm keen to get the money back, and it would seem that I need someone to act on my behalf. It's felt out of my control for a long time, and I fear especially for money held in Europe! Is an IFA what I need?