what should I do?

ok364125247

atush wrote: »

IFAs work 2 ways. fee based (you agree a fee in advance) or commision based (you don't pay them but they take commissions form the investment companies).

Get an IFA (try word of mouth or unbiased.co.uk) then get some ideas and quotes. Self investment isa committment and takes time and efort to learn. Personally i'd start now with a fantasy portfolio, or do one of thos alongsode a small one.

From what you have told us I don't think you are immediately ready to manage your own portfolio. But if you stick to come cash based and other conservative assests, I see no reason why you couldn 't play the market with say 10% of your funds?.

Thank you for that info!

I have actually spoke to an IFA yesterday, he's an IFA from RBS, as a rule, is it better to go from a totally independent IFA or one from a bank?

jem16

ok364125247 wrote: »

Thank you for that info!

I have actually spoke to an IFA yesterday, he's an IFA from RBS, as a rule, is it better to go from a totally independent IFA or one from a bank?

Banks don't have IFAs - they have FAs.

An IFA is independent and they do not work for a bank. Stay away from banks for investment advice - they are tied to their own products which are usually of poor quality and more expensive. The charge for investing £500k through a bank would be horrendous!

See an IFA and go fee basis.

gadgetmind

ok364125247 wrote: »

Could anyone share how much time on average one needs to spend in order to look after their investement per week or month?

It took me a lot of time up front, but this was mostly creating my spreadsheets to model the next 20 years. I needed to do this as tax can easily eat your gains, and taxation when you have a mixture of earned income (work and pensions), interest income, dividend income and capital gains, is quite complex, particularly for a married couple.

Once I understood how this worked, and the areas of pension regulations that applied to us, I could look at how much we needed in/out of various tax wrappers at various times, how much we'd draw on investments, and how to optimise things for tax.

I then knew where we did/didn't want capital gains, and ditto for income/dividends. After that, it was *just* choosing the actual investments.

So what you are doing for yourself is the job of an IFA, I guess, so that you can control all your moves!?

Yes, absolutely. No way will you be able to match the knowledge-base of someone who's trained in this area, but you don't need to as 95% of what they know probably won't apply to your specific situation, so you "only" need to learn that 5%. I got the pension and tax knowledge I needed online, mainly from HMG web sites and/or here, and most of what I know regards investments from here, Monevator and Motley Fool. I've also just ordered a book someone has recommended on asset allocation.

ok364125247

jem16 wrote: »

Banks don't have IFAs - they have FAs.

An IFA is independent and they do not work for a bank. Stay away from banks for investment advice - they are tied to their own products which are usually of poor quality and more expensive. The charge for investing £500k through a bank would be horrendous!

See an IFA and go fee basis.

Thank you for that! Its funny because the FA kept on saying although he worked for the bank he did offer totally independant advice and would not really invest in products todo with his bank!??

He also told me that his advantage was that since he dealt with that many clients that he would have more weight in order to get some better deals from fund managers!??

Would that be the case??????

MoneySaverLog

ok364125247 wrote: »

Thank you for that! Its funny because the FA kept on saying although he worked for the bank he did offer totally independant advice and would not really invest in products todo with his bank!??

I find that hard to believe, I would have thought that a salaried bank employee (FA) would not be allowed to divert business away from their bank / banking group.

FATHEROFTWO_2

You could always have a look at the jupiter merlin fund of funds portfolios .They offer 4 types of investment risk from income,balanced,growth to worldwide all with different attitudes to risk.They are normally in the top quarter of the top fund lists and basically have a team who pick the best funds to invest in that is spread far and wide into what is called asset allocation to make it a bit safer.If you google the above funds it is interesting reading.

Anyone who has 500K to invest should do a lot of research before investing anywhere and look at ALL your options as there is a lot of sharks out there who will relieve you of your cash.

God comparison websites are citywire,morningstar and trustnet .

Have a lok at the citywire fund compariosn section and then cross refer them with trustnet and morningstar and then lok at what funds jupiter have in there funds of funds folios.

Its all quite scary at the start but if yiou have a bit of time you can learn a fair bit to get going with

jem16

ok364125247 wrote: »

Thank you for that! Its funny because the FA kept on saying although he worked for the bank he did offer totally independant advice and would not really invest in products todo with his bank!??

I wonder if RBS know that he wouldn't place business with them?

Was it through RBS Private or Personal Banking?

He also told me that his advantage was that since he dealt with that many clients that he would have more weight in order to get some better deals from fund managers!??

Would that be the case??????

Most IFAs belong to a network that allow them to offer better deals to their clients. I doubt that one RBS FA would have enough clout to better a whole network.

Out of interest what suggestions did he make for investing the money? Did you discuss cost?

EDIT : it seems that there is an RBS IFS - was it this lot you saw?

http://www.rbs.co.uk/microsites/personal/rbs_ifs/

ok364125247

gadgetmind wrote: »

It took me a lot of time up front, but this was mostly creating my spreadsheets to model the next 20 years. I needed to do this as tax can easily eat your gains, and taxation when you have a mixture of earned income (work and pensions), interest income, dividend income and capital gains, is quite complex, particularly for a married couple.

Once I understood how this worked, and the areas of pension regulations that applied to us, I could look at how much we needed in/out of various tax wrappers at various times, how much we'd draw on investments, and how to optimise things for tax.

I then knew where we did/didn't want capital gains, and ditto for income/dividends. After that, it was *just* choosing the actual investments.



Yes, absolutely. No way will you be able to match the knowledge-base of someone who's trained in this area, but you don't need to as 95% of what they know probably won't apply to your specific situation, so you "only" need to learn that 5%. I got the pension and tax knowledge I needed online, mainly from HMG web sites and/or here, and most of what I know regards investments from here, Monevator and Motley Fool. I've also just ordered a book someone has recommended on asset allocation.

Thank you for that, but do you trully believe that someone, such as myself, ie. someone knowing abolutely nothing about shares and portfolios and so on, can learn enough from website informations in order to go and invest £500Ks???

ok364125247

jem16 wrote: »

i wonder if rbs know that he wouldn't place business with them?

Dont really know?

was it through rbs private or personal banking?

Through our business banking!


Most ifas belong to a network that allow them to offer better deals to their clients. I doubt that one rbs fa would have enough clout to better a whole network.

Out of interest what suggestions did he make for investing the money? Did you discuss cost?

We did not go in all this but when I told him that we would like to go and live in France he said it would be good to invest offshore (the channel islands). Did not reallly discuss cost at that stage.

Edit : It seems that there is an rbs ifs - was it this lot you saw?

To be honest, not quite sure? It was an fa that our business bank manager introduced us to.

westy22

Divide the total figure by 10 - so, say you had £50,000 to invest and that was your total capital. Having researched how you would choose to spread your risk and diversify your investments you decide on a portfolio or basket of investments. If you were confident enough to invest say £5,000 of that (10%) into something like Aberdeen Emerging Markets fund, then why would you not be confident of investing £50,000 (the same 10%) there?

Just because you have £500k to invest does not mean that you necessarily have to broaden the spread or invest in hundreds of different things - it is just a number! You have obviously operated a highly successful business and made a great deal of money so clearly a sound knowledge of maths, business acumen, trade experience and good judgement are already skills you possess - all you need to add is some investment knowledge and some research.

Investing is not rocket science and remember, no one will look after your money as well as you will! Good Luck!