Towry Law, again!!

thesandrats

I obviously should have done my homework first, but this is my predicament.
I have had investment bonds held in various accounts through Towry Law since 2003. They have admittedly not done very well but as they hadn't gone down I chose to bury my head in the sand and leave them alone.(Nobody from the company had spoken to me in all this time) I was recently contacted by a wealth management representative of Towry Law who came to see me on the 14/10/11.
Her line was to move all these investments and further savings that I hold into there 'holistic off the shelf investment'
She stated that the only cost to me would be a one off payment of £800 -£1000 for the work put in to rearrange the investmets.(Giving me the line that the normal 5% or so usual commission would ultimately cost me a lot more)
She has made no mention of the 2% interest I have now read on here is also taken. Catagorically stating that the only further cost to me would be if I as her to do more work.
I have signed the client fee agreement, which I thought was just to give them the go ahead to work out the costs of the work involved and that nothing would be done until I agreed to this cost. Now I'm not so sure and I'm afraid the terms and conditions are written in goobledygook as far as I am concerened.
Do I still have the 30 day cooling off period in this instance and basically what is my best move now? Or alternitavely is this still a good way to invest for someone who has no idea of the markets. Help in words of very few syllables please..

darkpool

tbh, from the limited information you provide i'd say get your money out and invest it in investment trusts. i'd phone and try and cancel any agreement.

dunstonh

tbh, from the limited information you provide i'd say get your money out and invest it in investment trusts. i'd phone and try and cancel any agreement.

What about the tax liability? Have you worked that out before giving your recommendation?

I have signed the client fee agreement, which I thought was just to give them the go ahead to work out the costs of the work involved and that nothing would be done until I agreed to this cost. Now I'm not so sure and I'm afraid the terms and conditions are written in goobledygook as far as I am concerened.
Do I still have the 30 day cooling off period in this instance and basically what is my best move now? Or alternitavely is this still a good way to invest for someone who has no idea of the markets. Help in words of very few syllables please..

Towry Law are not well regarded. Whilst IFAs only get under 2% of complaints at the FOS, Towry Law accounted for the majority of them. They are also very expensive. Whilst they say they work on a fee basis, it is actually a higher fee than commission. You are probably better off getting a local IFA who you can build up a long term business relationship with (get in with owner, partner, director IFAs and you know they should be there long term) and pay less for.

darkpool

dunstonh wrote: »

What about the tax liability? Have you worked that out before giving your recommendation?

i gathered that the original investment has made no profit? hence no tax to be paid.

dunstonh

i gathered that the original investment has made no profit? hence no tax to be paid.

The OP said they havent gone down.

All we know is that it is in investment bond(s). We dont know if they are onshore or offshore and what the tax position of the OP is. We dont know the amounts involved. So, a large amount with a small gain could see a significant tax liability whilst a small amount with a large gain could see no liability.

darkpool

I took the quote below from the Towry Law website. I also happened to come across a website (link below) started by Towry's customers. People on MSE.com seem to bang on how important it is going to an IFA, yet the customers of Towry seem less than happy with the service they provided I think there is a lesson there somewhere....


"We provide independent financial advice and independent investment management to private clients."

http://www.treatingcustomersshabbily.co.uk/index.php

Linton

darkpool wrote: »

I took the quote below from the Towry Law website. I also happened to come across a website (link below) started by Towry's customers. People on MSE.com seem to bang on how important it is going to an IFA, yet the customers of Towry seem less than happy with the service they provided I think there is a lesson there somewhere....


"We provide independent financial advice and independent investment management to private clients."

http://www.treatingcustomersshabbily.co.uk/index.php

So what is your argument here?

People complain about a company providing independent financial advice. Therefore everyone providing financial advice is to be avoided. Lets think this through - does this make sense? Is it convincing?

What about plumbers? Dont some of them get a bad press?

The screech I am hearing most be those axes grinding again.

cloud_dog

Linton wrote: »

The screech I am hearing most be those axes grinding again.

Yes, the noise gets very tiresome after a while.

EDIT: Linton, please do not start talking about plumbers..... It can cause all sorts of upset to some....;)

darkpool

Linton wrote: »

So what is your argument here?

People complain about a company providing independent financial advice. Therefore everyone providing financial advice is to be avoided. Lets think this through - does this make sense? Is it convincing?

What about plumbers? Dont some of them get a bad press?

The screech I am hearing most be those axes grinding again.

be honest, there seem to be hundreds of people on that website that aren't happy with TL. My point is that sometimes "Independent Financial Advice" is sometimes rubbish advice. Something that a lot of customers of IFAs should think about.

If you get a bad plumber you'll generally know about it when he fails to fix the problem. If you get a bad IFA you might not know for decades, and some people are so stupid they'll never realise they have had bad advice.

Linton

darkpool wrote: »

be honest, there seem to be hundreds of people on that website that aren't happy with TL. My point is that sometimes "Independent Financial Advice" is sometimes rubbish advice. Something that a lot of customers of IFAs should think about.

If you get a bad plumber you'll generally know about it when he fails to fix the problem. If you get a bad IFA you might not know for decades, and some people are so stupid they'll never realise they have had bad advice.

IFA's can give bad advice. But then they can be sued if the advice is inappropriate for the customer's stated situation and attitude to risk.

As to "stupid" customers (or rather those with no real understanding of money) - arent the chances of them making a mess of their finances if they DIY much higher than the chance of an IFA doing it? Look at the number of people posting here wanting to cash in their public sector pensions.

Ark_Welder

The need to describe others as 'stupid' is usually a sign of insecurity