Drop in well paid using IFA's

oldvicar

Meeper wrote: »

Ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner.

Please tell that to the FSA.

I'm a Winner ! :j

gadgetmind

oldvicar wrote: »

IFA, with all the bells and whistles and the thoroughness which regulation requires., simply cannot be economically delivered for many ordinary folk.

Accountants don't need quite as much regulation as there isn't as much of a selling element to what they do, but it's roughly comparable, and the degree of training and complexity of role far exceeds that of an IFA.

Why can an accountant charge less per hour, not help himself to an ongoing commission, and yet still do well for himself?

dunstonh

You can`t EVER guarantee anything because you don`t know yourself how they`ll perform, and as I keep pointing out, only how they did in the past.

You are wrong. The advice is guaranteed and there is consumer protection in place to make sure it is.

If this thread gets read by anyone thinking of going to an IFA, with all the charges and dubious goings on in the financial industry, at least they have been forewarned that they could be ripped-off and suffer serious financial loss.

I will tell that to the person that I recently saved £150k. I am sure they will agree that paying £150,000 for something they were not aware of is better than paying my fee.

oldvicar

gadgetmind wrote: »

Accountants don't need quite as much regulation as there isn't as much of a selling element to what they do, but it's roughly comparable, and the degree of training and complexity of role far exceeds that of an IFA.

Why can an accountant charge less per hour, not help himself to an ongoing commission, and yet still do well for himself?

I don't know any IFAs, so I can only guess. Perhaps some of these things:

• Lower costs of 'sale'
• Fewer 'free initial consultations'
• Much less work generated simply to produce reports justifying advice given
• Much much smaller compliance departments
• Lower overheads of compensation costs across the profession

Do accountants REALLY charge less per hour? You have surprised me with that assertion.

gadgetmind

oldvicar wrote: »

Do accountants REALLY charge less per hour? You have surprised me with that assertion.

It certainly seems that way to me, but I welcome evidence to the contrary.

As an anecdotal data point, I made heavy use of my accountant last year to do a lot of tax and pensions planning due to the forest of new rules and regulations. Total bill, with a tax return, was just under £2k.

My IFA, who I hadn't seen for five years, was taking well over a grand in trail commission every year. How many hours a year did it take one of this minions to rebalance my SIPP on Skandia?

I don't want something for nothing, I just want value for money.

oldvicar

dunstonh wrote: »

The advice is guaranteed and there is consumer protection in place to make sure it is.

Another reason for the (some say) high costs of advice

dunstonh wrote: »

I will tell that to the person that I recently saved £150k. I am sure they will agree that paying £150,000 for something they were not aware of is better than paying my fee.

This kind of confirms my suggestion that IFA might be OK for the wealthy, but be too expensive to flog to the masses. The client in this example was probably worth a lot more than £150K, yet on these boards we keep seeing suggestions that people should consult IFAs about comparitively trivial 5-figure sums

darkpool

oldvicar wrote: »

This kind of confirms my suggestion that IFA might be OK for the wealthy, but be too expensive to flog to the masses. The client in this example was probably worth a lot more than £150K, yet on these boards we keep seeing suggestions that people should consult IFAs about comparitively trivial 5-figure sums

yeah, it annoys me when people come on here with 50k to invest and the IFA groupies say "go and see an IFA".

i mean that recent thread with the woman with 80k to invest went to an IFA and was told to buy a bond that paid 3% annual fees. if that's IFA advice it's pretty poor.

IronWolf

gadgetmind wrote: »

It certainly seems that way to me, but I welcome evidence to the contrary.

As an anecdotal data point, I made heavy use of my accountant last year to do a lot of tax and pensions planning due to the forest of new rules and regulations. Total bill, with a tax return, was just under £2k.

My IFA, who I hadn't seen for five years, was taking well over a grand in trail commission every year. How many hours a year did it take one of this minions to rebalance my SIPP on Skandia?

I don't want something for nothing, I just want value for money.

My girlfriends accountant charged her £192 to do her tax return, which was fairly straightforward, must have taken all of 30 minutes.

I've told her that next year I'll do it for half that

oldvicar

Of course this thread started of with the assertion that its the wealthy, not the poor, who are deserting IFAs.

gadgetmind

IronWolf wrote: »

My girlfriends accountant charged her £192 to do her tax return, which was fairly straightforward, must have taken all of 30 minutes.

My wife doesn't work, and we do her tax return, and it takes us *much* longer than 30 minutes, and this is despite us keeping meticulous records of interest, dividends, contract notes, and such like.

Even though all of my earnings are via PAYE (wage slave), mine is complicated by pensions, but most years it's less than £300 even though there is often research needed regards some aspects of what I'm doing.