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

BananaRepublic

bowlhead99 wrote: »

By asking someone with the exact same financial circumstances as you, who used the adviser over the next twenty years, how they got on. Unfortunately it will take twenty years to get the answer.

You could ask for references from previous clients who had the same goals as you. But how do you know that those clients, who you don't know, know how to distinguish a good adviser from a bad one and would know whether the results were good or bad given the circumstances, economic conditions and tax law of the time (which will likely differ from the ones you face over the next decade or two) and whether the result was luck or judgment? You may need to interview a thousand happy (and unhappy) customers before you get a statistically useful sample of "results".

Whilst you make valid points, some assessment can be made. I dealt with an IFA a few years ago (he was employed to handle workplace pensions in the company I worked for) and he was clearly touting for more work. He released confidential information of many people, and would not listen to me when I described my attitude to risk, and my investment goals, and tried to impose his views which oddly enough involved a large role for him. I am sure you agree that I could reach an assessment of him, even though I have no idea if technically he was any good. Interpersonal skills, and client privacy, are surely worth rating? Yes, as you say, you cannot rate long term performance easily, but you can probably work out if he appeared to do a decent job, if he appeared to consider all options, and so on. That does require some knowledge of what an IFA should do of course.

I once had a visit from a chap to assess the installation of a woodburner. He gave me the creeps from the word go. Again, interpersonal skills were important. I had a visit from another company. The chap was pleasant. I spoke to several staff many times in the shop, lovely people. Guess who I went with? And they did a good job, I do think you can - to some degree at least - sniff out conscientiousness and competence.

And at the end of the day, if you like the chap/lass, then it makes it easier to pay the fees does it not? An honest sum for an honest job?

dvlouis

Visit Financial Service Directory to search for qualified local financial advisors. Simply google financial service directory.

dunstonh

dvlouis wrote: »

Visit Financial Service Directory to search for qualified local financial advisors. Simply google financial service directory.

Absolutely useless. I suspect it it is spam.
First of all, it wouldnt accept the spelling "adviser". It used "advisor".
Secondly, it returned no results in my test searches.

Stick to the main search engines. The PFS directory, MAS or unbiased (but turning off filter to show paying advisers only)

bk_1

Im looking at a new build and the sales rep told me to contact a mortgage advisor to check if I can afford it. They obviously gave me a leaflet to the one they recommend but I'm not sure if they enforce who I have to use (will ask next time I go) but beyond that is it possible to have advisor tell me if I can in a 30min free session through Unbiased? I know exactly my deposit amount, salary, expected living cost and so on.

chanya_Pakdeepong

I have a house with a buy to let mortgage. The house is worth around £200,000 and the equity is £100,000.
I would like to transfer the name in the deed into my son’s and my ex-husband’s name. (I owe my ex some money).
I rang the mortgage lender, they will not let me transfer the name. They said I will have to sell the property.
My ex told me he and my son cannot find a new mortgage until the name in the deed are his and my son’s.
It sounds very complicated for me.
How can I transfer the name in the deed and not end up having a big mortgage to pay and not having a house.
I don’t have much knowledge in finance.
Do I need a financial advisor or solicitor for this advice?

Aegis

chanya_Pakdeepong wrote: »

I have a house with a buy to let mortgage. The house is worth around £200,000 and the equity is £100,000.
I would like to transfer the name in the deed into my son!!!8217;s and my ex-husband!!!8217;s name. (I owe my ex some money).
I rang the mortgage lender, they will not let me transfer the name. They said I will have to sell the property.
My ex told me he and my son cannot find a new mortgage until the name in the deed are his and my son!!!8217;s.
It sounds very complicated for me.
How can I transfer the name in the deed and not end up having a big mortgage to pay and not having a house.
I don!!!8217;t have much knowledge in finance.
Do I need a financial advisor or solicitor for this advice?

A solicitor to arrange the transfer of the title and to advise you of the legal and tax issues on doing so, and a mortgage broker for the recipients if they need to borrow against the property as part of the conveyancing process, i.e. using new borrowing to repay the old borrowing.

jones440

I'm trying to help my mum and auntie who are struggling to keep track of their auntie's finances.

Its all very complicated and I think they need some quite specialist advice but I'm not quite sure where to being in terms of finding it.

The situation is as follows:

Their auntie lived in Canada most of her life and she saved away a relatively significant sum of money in all sorts of confusing Candian savings schemes.

She now lives in England and unfortunately has dementia so is living in a nursing home and my mum and aunt have power of attorney. She has a UK bank account which gets her Canadian pensions paid in but this is dwindling away over time with the fees for the care home being rather substantial.

They are also paying extortionate sums of money to Lloyds every time they do an international transfer.

All the while there are some large amounts of money earning measly interest stuck over Canada and my mum and aunt find it very difficult to find out more whenever they speak to the Canadian banks.

To my mind the most logical thing to do would be to try and withdraw it all to a UK bank where they can get advice over here, but I've no idea whether there is any impact on inheritance tax.

Can anyone give me any advice on where I should go next. I don't doubt we need to pay for some financial advice, I just don't know how to find someone with the correct knowledge and experience.

Many thanks in advance.

sjp999

It sounds like you are already able to shift funds out of the Canadian accounts into Lloyds.

I'd consider talking to a specialist FX outfit to handle the international part of the transaction, at least get an idea of what they charge - Lloyds might do you a better price if they know they've got competition.

Basically, the FX outfit receive the funds into their C$ account, pass it on to their UK£ account and then on to you.

Usual caveats apply, do your own research into the FX outfit and, if you want to get a sanity check, come back here and ask.

If you do need further ideas, start your own thread - you'll probably get more attention with a more specific thread title.

KittaKatta

Hi,
I wonder if someone can point us to the right direction.
One of my friends is thinking of moving (back) to Switzerland (she has a British and Swiss passport). She is retired and owns a property in the UK.
Where should she be looking for advice in relation to her situation, and in particular taxation (for instance will her ISAs lose their “tax free” status once she moves? Is it preferable for her to keep the house in the UK and rent it out, or would it be preferable to sell it)? Are there any financial advisers who specialise in international matters?
Many thanks :T

Malthusian

KittaKatta wrote: »

Where should she be looking for advice in relation to her situation, and in particular taxation (for instance will her ISAs lose their “tax free” status once she moves?

She may want to try a forum for UK-Swiss expats or ask some friends in Switzerland for a recommendation. Be cautious however as there are a lot of sharks in the expat market, even in a country like Switzerland which you'd assume would have a high standard of regulation.

They will still be ISAs but that will have no meaning within the Swiss tax system; they will be taxed the same as any other offshore investment.

Is it preferable for her to keep the house in the UK and rent it out, or would it be preferable to sell it)?

If she had a few hundred grand in cash right now would she invest it all in a single buy-to-let property in a foreign country? And why the UK in particular? Because ignoring capital gains tax and similar issues, it's the same decision from an asset allocation perspective.

In addition to the usual risks and hassles of asset-specific risk, voids, bad tenants, maintenance, etc, she will also have the issue of either running the property or finding a decent letting agent from 500+ miles away, and staying up to date with taxation and legislation issues in a foreign country.

This assumes she won't want to ever return to the property or use it as a pied-a-terre. And the other benefit of keeping the house is that with a UK residential address she can open new accounts in the UK and keep her money within the UK regulatory system if she prefers (a limited number of providers will potentially accept business from Swiss residents if they have a UK address).