Are financial advisors getting excessively risk averse???

slopemaster

jamesd wrote: »

... Invesco Perpetual Distribution, which would probably be top of my suggestion list as a non-IFA..

You're the second person on this thread to mention that one. I will definitely ask about it and/or look into it.

jamesd wrote: »

If you do use investments, ask the IFA whether we're in a bond price bubble and how you should adjust any bond components to reduce the risk related to that. The bubble is high prices/low yields (interest rates) because of all of the low interest rate policies in the developed world. Ask whether a higher than normal commercial property allocation and lower than usual high grade bond and gilt allocation may be useful protection that exploits the currently unloved commercial property sector's prices.

Yes, I have seen the suggestions that bonds are currently v expensive, so now might not be a good time.
As far as property goes, I currently own a house as well as the one I live in. I know that's not commercial property, but I probably wouldn't want to put more in property as it already represents close to two thirds of the total.

slopemaster

jamesd wrote: »

... I've made around £5,000 between Thursday morning and now using spread betting and about £15,000 of initial capital. ...You shouldn't consider using this really...

Don't worry, I won't!

jamesd wrote: »

.. typically if you're offered a capital protected product that's say linked to the stock market you can beat it with:
1. About 75% in a term deposit account for the target term.
2. The remaining 75% in an index tracker fund for whatever you're tracking.

75% plus 75% - that is clever:p
Seriously tho, I take your point.

oldvicar

slopemaster wrote: »

Funnily enough, I have a lot less faith in them now than I did 3 years ago.
Having previously despised Gordon Brown, i thought he handled that whole Icelandic 'crisis' very well as Chancellor - I was impressed.

Whereas I suspect the current lot would leave 'ordinary' savers to sink or swim, and say 'tough'...

Just to be pedantic, the madman Gordon Brown wasn't Chancellor at the time, although as Prime Minister he was also First Lord of the Treasury. It's that nice Alastair Darling you should really thank for pulling your bits from the fire.

westy22

More chance of getting a decent answer from Manuel @ Faulty Towers than most IFAs . Que?

Most IFAs are salesman, that rely on selling product rather than actually giving advice . Most have no more of an idea of what's going in the world than their "clients" therefore they opt for the easy sale . Perception will be most people don't want risk so give them "low" risk and you still get the sale. So you are correct in your assumption.

Reading your signature - I'll bet your consultancy does really well within the IFA community!

magpiecottage

Getting back to the original theme of the thread, the problem is as much the consumer as the adviser.

If the value falls, consumers blame the adviser - or an ambulance chaser does. The adviser has to spend a lot of time money and effort defending it. Then they get taken to FOS and are forced to pay a £500 fee - even if FOS has no jurisdiction in most cases.

At the end of all that, FOS may decide to uphold the complaint on something bizarre. I have been dealing with a case which FOS is upholding because the adviser did not tell a Chartered Accountant about a specific tax issue which he should have known more about than the adviser anyway.

There are ways around it but they are not straightforward.