Financial Advisor - recommendations

eaustin

I notice that a number of people on here are professional financial advisors. Is there an area on this site where people are able to recommend an advisor? I have done a number of searches but not found anything. I am looking to speak to someone and I wondered if I could find a recommended financial advisor on here.

Please accept my apologies if this is an inappropriate question for this forum.

Iancfp

There are a few search engines you can use

The largest that covers most IFAs in UK is https://www.unbiased.co.uk
It does allow you to opt for an adviser with more than basic qualifications but does not do too much differentiation

The Professional bodies Personal Finance Society (part of Chartered Insurance Institute) has a search engine including one to search for Chartered advisers the highest qualification in academic terms

The Institue of Financial Planning has a find an adviser section for financial planners if you want more of a full planning service

There is a new search system from Citywire website which is informative and worth a look

Financial advice is an intangible service - look for good qualifications and something that looks right and then meet and see if you can work with them

Bigsmak

eaustin wrote: »

I notice that a number of people on here are professional financial advisors. Is there an area on this site where people are able to recommend an advisor? I have done a number of searches but not found anything. I am looking to speak to someone and I wondered if I could find a recommended financial advisor on here.

Please accept my apologies if this is an inappropriate question for this forum.

The safest way to get one is to speak to all your friends / family and one of them will have used one they like and use them as well.

Most of my business comes through word of mouth and referrals. It really keeps me on my toes making sure I do the best job for every person that I can as my next business is coming from someone that they tell about me!

EDIT - make sure you get an IFA not a FA.. FAs will sell you things, IFAs will look after your interests.

darkpool

just remember IFA's make money by selling things........ they aren't really advisers, and they aren't really independent

it would be more honest to call them salesmen.

dunstonh

just remember IFA's make money by selling things........ they aren't really advisers, and they aren't really independent

IFAs sell advice. That is what you are buying.

It's hard to think why you think they are not independent. I can certainly understand that with the very few banks that offer "independent" advice but then stick to own brand products for a chunk of it or operate on a narrow panel but you cannot class a local "independent" IFA as not being independent.

opinions4u

darkpool wrote: »

just remember IFA's make money by selling things........ they aren't really advisers, and they aren't really independent

it would be more honest to call them salesmen.

So back up your claim that they're not independent.

Tell us where we should go for the advice.

darkpool

dunstonh wrote: »

IFAs sell advice. That is what you are buying.

It's hard to think why you think they are not independent. I can certainly understand that with the very few banks that offer "independent" advice but then stick to own brand products for a chunk of it or operate on a narrow panel but you cannot class a local "independent" IFA as not being independent.

if they sell advice why do they get commission on products they sell. is that not the sign of being a salesman?

does the commission they get not make them biased?

darkpool

opinions4u wrote: »

Tell us where we should go for the advice.

something crazy like read a book. or even ask a friend or workmate their opinion.

you go to a car showroom and you know the salesman wil try and sell you a car that gets him the biggest commission. yet people go to a financial salesman and expect impartial advice? weird.

Lokolo

darkpool wrote: »

something crazy like read a book. or even ask a friend or workmate their opinion.

you go to a car showroom and you know the salesman wil try and sell you a car that gets him the biggest commission. yet people go to a financial salesman and expect impartial advice? weird.

Read a book? It's taken me a good couple of years researching, asking questions, to fully understand financial information. Someone with a full time job will not have the time nor interest to do so.

If we all had time to do everything ourselves, we wouldn't take our car to a garage for a service. We wouldn't call a plumber if our water stopped. We wouldn't hire gardeners etc.

Asking a workmate or friend? I think out of my big group of friends, there are 2 of us who know anything financial. One is an accountant and doesn't know a lot about investments, and the other is me. Now I doubt I could even begin to explain how to invest to my friends because for starters, they don't even know the benefits of a S&S ISA and what CGT is!

Every anti IFA person on this board expects everyone to have free time to learn all this stuff, it's like they are living in their own fantasy world where time is infinite.

Sceptic001

darkpool wrote: »

something crazy like read a book. or even ask a friend or workmate their opinion.

This advice is almost as bad as the alternative suggested by Panorama, which was to put one third of your cash into savings and gamble the rest on "risky" shares.

darkpool wrote: »

you go to a car showroom and you know the salesman wil try and sell you a car that gets him the biggest commission. yet people go to a financial salesman and expect impartial advice? weird.

That is true of bank salespeople (I made the identical point here), but not IFAs, especially if you are paying a fee.

Rollinghome

We need to be realistic. People shouldn't think that financial advice can ever be totally objective in the way that advice from a Citizen's Advice Bureau might be. At the end of the day. the objective of financial advisers will be to make as much profit from their clients as possible. No one will ever care more for your financial well-being than for their own.

Where IFAs are working on commission they will rewarded by the investment companies for selling their most profitable products. Commission won't be paid on less costly investments such as investment trusts, low cost tracker funds, and direct investments in shares or commodities and so they won't be recommended. In most cases IFAs don't even seek to be authorised to recommend investments that don't pay them commission and know little about them.

Due the problems of poor advice in the past, the FSA are to ban IFAs working on commission with a deadline of 2013. They are also insisting on better basic qualifications.

As a result many IFAs are already moving away from commission based advice to a greater or lesser extent. This should result in them recommending investments other than just those that pay them commission but of of course they will still be trying to sell their services and maximise the amount of money invested through them.

In my experience, asking peole to recommend IFAs is unreliable. If they were particularly knowledgable about investment then they probably wouldn't be using one in the first place. When they recommend them it's often due a good bedside manner or sales technique and when they complain about them it's often for the wrong reasons such as a downturn in the markets that isn't the advisor's fault.

Nor can you rely on headline names. One of the most high-profile wealth managers is Nicola Horlick but that didn't stop her putting a higher proportion of her client's money into Madoff's funds without investigating where his returns were coming from.

The best way is to learn as much about investing as you can from good books then at least you'll stand a chance of recognising decent advice if you still need it.