Independent Mortgage/Financial Advisor?

scottishgirl87

We would like to speak to someone with regards to seeing what we could possibly afford to buy (if anything at all!).

Am I looking for an IFA or an IMA? Or are they the same thing?

Also, apart from personal recommendations (which I don't have), is there any other ways to find recommended IFA/IMA's in my area other than just picking from Google?

Brand new to this so really don't have a clue.

G_M

An IMA advises on mortgages.

An IFA advises on finances, generally investments but often including mortgages too. Ask.

If you don't have a referral, go via yellow pages whatever. Make sure you understand from the start whether they will charge a fee and if so when and how much. If not, presumably they get a commission from whoever you take out a mortgage with so check whether they wll be biaised towards lenders who pay higher commission as opposed to lenders who offer good products for you.

erghblah

You can use the following site to find an IMA in your local area... unbiased.co.uk. Whole of market is where they will look at every provider, although you'd probably pay a fee if you did go with a provider who doesn't pay them commission. We've seen two IMA's and neither charged a fee for consultation but I second reading the fine (or is it small?) print!

scottishgirl87

Thank you both.

As I said, we are basically wanting to talk about the possibility of a mortgage so I guess I'm really looking for an IMA.

kingstreet

erghblah wrote: »

You can use the following site to find an IMA in your local area... unbiased.co.uk. Whole of market is where they will look at every provider, although you'd probably pay a fee if you did go with a provider who doesn't pay them commission. We've seen two IMA's and neither charged a fee for consultation but I second reading the fine (or is it small?) print!

Just to clarify - whole of market normally means products from lenders who pay a commission to the intermediary, but probably not direct to lender offers.

Independent means intermediary will also take into account direct-only deals which don't pay a commission but where intermediary will charge a fee.

You'll also get independent mortgage intermediaries (like me, for example) who are happy to charge a fee but will refund the commission to the borrower on completion if a commission-paying deal is the best one available.

prudryden

Whole of Market has more to do with "the ability to search the entire market for the products that you are authorized to advise on" and not be restricted to one product provider.