Professional Finance people no better than amateurs

bigfreddiel

well that provoked a bit of discussion and it was what iexpected - ifa's defending themselves quite admirably - and true to their profession they contradict themselves - on one hand investing is for the long haul - but surprise - 25yrs is no guarantee for success - so in reality whatever their advice may be its really based on nothing - remember you should not rely on past peformance as an indicator for future returns - so what would you pay for advice with nothing to back it up - i know what my figure is.

anyway - thats my final comment on this one - some people seem to have been upset by my posting and its time for everyone else to make their own minds up on the subject.

cheers

fj

dunstonh

and true to their profession they contradict themselves - on one hand investing is for the long haul - but surprise - 25yrs is no guarantee for success -

How is that a contradiction? You want someone with a crystal ball. IFAs do not have a crystal ball. No-one does. It appears you wont be happy until someone does have a crystal ball.

You have brasso's excellent post and you seem to have totally ignored it.

oldvicar

I also had to fight to have a repayment rather than 'low-cost' endowment mortgage - way back in the early 1980s, and the Halifax in my case.

Actually, as everyone knows there is no such thing: its an interest-only mortgage, and a separate endowment policy paying tasty commission.

The illlustrations of possible returns aren't allowed to be forecasts - they all use the same set of arbitrary assumptions of invesment returns, so at best all they compare is the policy charges.

It should be obvious (but nobody tells you) that with the endowment route:
a) You pay MORE interest over the term of the mortgage
b) the illustrative projections show that you make a 'profit' when interest rates are high; when interest rates are low (and boy are they low now) then you are better off with a repayment mortgage.

I still recall my Halifax branch manager's final attempt at trying to sell the endowment to me, by pointing out how much I would also save because of the built-in life (death) insurace versus what a separate life policy would cost. I think he finally gave up when I pointed out that as a single person with no dependents I wasn't going to buy one of those from him either, and that the death benefit from my employer's pension scheme was plenty for my requirements.

What really annoyed me was the pressure he tried to put on with the argument "everybody else buys an endowment", trying to make me feel like some sort of wierdo. I stood my ground !

IronWolf

atush wrote: »

I am with HSBC premier now (not for my mtg though which is a lifetime tracker so i left it ;-) and they never bother me with sales calls asking me to invest in stuff. All they do is remind me by post abt fixed rate stuff maturing, and once when I forgot my reg saver had matured and I hadn't signed up for another.

Unless I have fraud on a card, all I want from my bank is silence- I can check their latest offers online when i use internet banking.

No matter what HSBC do, nothing will make up for that damn calculator thing you need to log on

atush

Iron wolf I am with you on that- and do you know you have to do it twice if you try to do an international transfer??? Bloody nigthmare I tell you. Worst thing they ever did. I have a fancy to start using my hubby ID and sign in for the joint acct, as he never uses his much and they don't make him use the calcualtor thingy.

atush

It should be obvious (but nobody tells you) that with the endowment route:
a) You pay MORE interest over the term of the mortgage
b) the illustrative projections show that you make a 'profit' when interest rates are high; when interest rates are low (and boy are they low now) then you are better off with a repayment mortgage.

Well A and B were pretty obvious to me (esp a), hence my insistance on repayment!

dunstonh

atush wrote: »

Iron wolf I am with you on that- and do you know you have to do it twice if you try to do an international transfer??? Bloody nigthmare I tell you. Worst thing they ever did. I have a fancy to start using my hubby ID and sign in for the joint acct, as he never uses his much and they don't make him use the calcualtor thingy.

i have one with my Lloyds account. Its a pain as you have to do it when you log in (which is fair enough) but to have to repeat it with a funds transfer is just frustrating.

DiggerUK

darkpool wrote: »

as opposed to the good old days when people came on here asking about the best way to invest money and everyone chorused "go and see an IFA"

In many cases it is the helpless, being guided by the hopeless.
Hopefully, with a bit of encouragement off modern communications channels, such as here on MSE, the nervous investor can take control of their own finances, for a lot less than those who take no responsibilty for their advice.
What should turn everybody away, from any sort of financial adviser, is the total lack of liabilty if the advice is bad.
..._

atush

I am telling you, I have friends who won't even come to MSE to research different things, much less learn to invest for themselves. Pittiful, I know but there are some who will always need an advisor as they can't or wont even go to a DIY platform themselves.

Lokolo

DiggerUK wrote: »

In many cases it is the helpless, being guided by the hopeless.
Hopefully, with a bit of encouragement off modern communications channels, such as here on MSE, the nervous investor can take control of their own finances, for a lot less than those who take no responsibilty for their advice.
What should turn everybody away, from any sort of financial adviser, is the total lack of liabilty if the advice is bad.
..._

You mean like "Put all your money in gold and PBs"?

By all means I try and help people, but there are certain that just tell them what to invest in which is pointless - how are they learning anything then?? (including you Digger! You don't teach, you tell, which is a shame because I think if you put the effort in, the users might actually learn something from you)