Drop in well paid using IFA's

2010

TH1878 wrote: »

I tell you what, I'll show you my investment qualifications, you show me yours and we'll see who's the most knowledgeable in this area.

You're right, I came late to this thread so to save me the hassle of wading through your incoherent ramblings, why don't you just confirm my understanding of the following:

1) You 'researched' the market for investments. The total sum of your research involved comparing 4 With-Profit Bonds. Did you not look at anything else?

2) You chose what you thought the best one

3) Some IFAs were recommending With-Profits Bonds (many weren't) at the time

4) Your investment flopped because you didn't understand the risks involved - you ended up with a large MVR.

5) Looking back over 10 years, you calculated that you could have invested the money in cash deposits and obtained a better return.

6) Because some Financial Advisers were recommending With-Profits Bonds you're blaming them for YOUR choices, despite you not actually using an IFA.

If you didn't seek advice, how do you know the IFA wouldn't have recommended a different course of action like a Unit Linked Bond? Other investments have done well over that same period.

You're what I call a 'hindsight investor'. Rarely makes the right investment choice but is suddenly an expert after the event.

I`ll show you mine if you show me yours, used to say that behind the bike shed with the opposite sex.:rotfl:

1. WP formed only one part of my portfolio, the idea of good investing is to spread your exposure.

2. It was the best as it turned out and did better than the remainder

3. MOST IFA were recommending WP 12 years ago for the fat commission and selling them on the smoothing effect of good/bad years.
They seemed to forget about this aspect when a few bad years came along.

4. Wrong again, it didn`t flop, it made me money and there was no MVR at the 10 year anniversary and this was one reason I opted for this bond.

5. You`ve finally get something correct.Once agian just for your benefit, I could have done better if I had put the lump sum into a 5 year fixed rate savings account and done the same again for a further 5 years.

6. Incorrect again, I don`t blame an IFA for any of MY decisions.
Further more I`ve never consulted one and have never felt they could do any better than I could.
I take the risks with my money unlike IFA who risk other people`s and charge them fat, upfront and ongoing commission for doing so.

gadgetmind

Lokolo wrote: »

although gadget has on numerous occassions said IT graduates in the UK are crap!

Only after a few drinks.

My sober view of UK Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (etc.) grads is that there are some good ones, but you need to sort the wheat from the chaff yourself as many have good grades but pretty grim knowledge and skills.

We have several hundred open grad positions, which if filled would add 20% to our headcount, and we're *really* struggling to find the right people.

That we're getting more of "the right stuff" coming in from Greece, Italy and Spain than we're seeing home grown is deeply depressing.

One of the grads I work with who got a 1st from Cambridge doing PPE didn't know who Anne Frank was.

Golly, did he never watch Blue Peter?

Education has it's limits.

Was that deliberate?

atush

The term "RG" doesn't always mean a great deal nowadays. IT for example (although gadget has on numerous occassions said IT graduates in the UK are crap!) doesn't matter. One of the grads I work with who got a 1st from Cambridge doing PPE didn't know who Anne Frank was. Education has it's limits.

Just goes to show hot hot housing works (or indeed doesn't)- my sons know who Anne Frank is, and they also know american football and baseball.

Children need a rounded education in all things, which has stood son1 well at uni where his pub quiz team wins prizes lol. We have a family 'pub' quiz at Sunday lunch every week and have for years ;-)

one of the twins looked at Southampton this summer (we liked the campus OK), but has chosen Warwick (I think). I expect he'll let me know when it comes to pay the bill.

TH1878

2010 wrote: »

1. WP formed only one part of my portfolio, the idea of good investing is to spread your exposure.

2. It was the best as it turned out and did better than the remainder

Despite it being the best chocolate teapot, it's still a chocolate teapot.

3. MOST IFA were recommending WP 12 years ago for the fat commission and selling them on the smoothing effect of good/bad years.
They seemed to forget about this aspect when a few bad years came along.

Sweeping generalisation but you obviously agreed with the idea of WP Bonds because you invested in one.

4. Wrong again, it didn`t flop, it made me money and there was no MVR at the 10 year anniversary and this was one reason I opted for this bond.

5. You`ve finally get something correct.Once agian just for your benefit, I could have done better if I had put the lump sum into a 5 year fixed rate savings account and done the same again for a further 5 years.

Sounds like a flop to me. Your investment didn't perform as well as cash over 10 years.

6. Incorrect again, I don`t blame an IFA for any of MY decisions.
Further more I`ve never consulted one and have never felt they could do any better than I could.
I take the risks with my money unlike IFA who risk other people`s and charge them fat, upfront and ongoing commission for doing so.

Yet after your 'research' you came up with the exact same solution as an IFA?

All of this has nothing to do with an IFA, it's all about you:

1) YOU chose to invest in a With-Profits bond
2) YOU chose which bond to invest in
3) YOU are guessing that IFAs would have recommended the same course of action
4) YOU could have got a better return in cash

IFAs have nothing to do with this. If you'd sought advice from an IFA and they had recommended this course of action then I could understand your frustration but the fact is that you need to be looking closer to home.

There was no need to even bring IFAs into this. You could have just said:

"I made a bad investment decision 10 years ago - I would have been better investing in cash. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?"

dunstonh

3. MOST IFA were recommending WP 12 years ago for the fat commission and selling them on the smoothing effect of good/bad years.
They seemed to forget about this aspect when a few bad years came along.

Please support your evidence to support that accusation?

Further more I`ve never consulted one and have never felt they could do any better than I could.

Yet you are very opinionated on what an IFA can do and what they do wrong without actually knowing what they do.

2010

TH1878 wrote: »

Sounds like a flop to me. Your investment didn't perform as well as cash over 10 years.

"I made a bad investment decision 10 years ago - I would have been better investing in cash. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?"

I gave you the benefit of the doubt by replying to your incorrect guesses of the how, when and why of my WP Bond.
Clearly I`ve wasted my time by your blinkered, bigoted reply.

I don`t really want to dwell on it anymore because you seem to find it hard to understand simple points.

12 years ago all IFA were pushing WP for the vast amount of commission they received.
Most investors added them to their portfolio.
I could have gone down that road and wasted a load of money on an IFA who wouldn`t have said or done any different to me but charged me a vast amount for doing so.

An IFA didn`t know how any WP bond would perform, or any other investment for that matter, only how it had in the past.

Most people hold cash as well as investments and so look for an alternative.(it`s called spreading your risk)
I could have put my lump sum into cash but I was looking for an alternative and choose a WP Bond through an execution only broker.(saving a small fortune in charges that I would have had from an IFA)

After the 10 year period, although the bond did well, I could have done better just putting the lump sum into a fixed rate savings account.

It didn`t flop, looking back over that period, money in a fixed rate account did better than ANY WP Bond because the minute you want to get your money out there was up to 20% MVR to consider.

I don`t know what you find so hard to understand about this.

2010

dunstonh wrote: »

Yet you are very opinionated on what an IFA can do and what they do wrong without actually knowing what they do.

There`s not a day goes by without the mention somewhere of IFA mis selling because of the upfront/ongoing commission and the high rip off charges for the little they do with no guarantee of a successful outcome.

It`s little wonder the compensation for mis selling industry is booming at the moment and will continue to do so.
The IFA are giving them plenty of ammunition.

gadgetmind

2010 wrote: »

There`s not a day goes by without the mention somewhere of IFA mis selling

Would you care to provide links to maybe 5-6 news articles on this subject, either national press or specialist journals?

Note that these specifically need to mention *I*FAs.

qpop

gadgetmind wrote: »

Would you care to provide links to maybe 5-6 news articles on this subject, either national press or specialist journals?

Note that these specifically need to mention *I*FAs.

Blimey gadgetmind, are you feeling alright today?

You'll start being accused of being an evil IFA if you keep on that tack

Somebody must have slipped something in my tea this afternoon...

atush

There`s not a day goes by without the mention somewhere of IFA mis selling because of the upfront/ongoing commission and the high rip off charges for the little they do with no guarantee of a successful outcome.

It`s little wonder the compensation for mis selling industry is booming at the moment and will continue to do so.
The IFA are giving them plenty of ammunition.

the newspapers often mention IFA misselling, but many times it is poorly written/researched and the IFAs are FAs. What is so hard to understand about that?

I don't use IFAs much if at all, not because I don't trust them, but because I am cheap and I have to time to learn and make my own investments.

But unlike you and others, I know people who are too stupid or uninterested to do it themselves and so need an IFA. And I have no axe to grind. Who is behind your axe grinding? Because grinding you are.