Does anyone know about Independent Financial Advisers?

Mrs_P_Pincher

Two very quick questions:

1. is an IFA supposed to confirm instructions in writing like a solicitor does?

2. if you have a meeting with an IFA and agree to do something, eg cash in one investment and purchase another, should you be notified of a cooling off period?

Thanks

Mrs P P

RadoJo

Your IFA should give you a copy of their Ts and Cs which detail their obligations to you (or at least mine always have) - what do they say?

mountainofdebt

Mrs_P_Pincher wrote: »

Two very quick questions:

1. is an IFA supposed to confirm instructions in writing like a solicitor does?

2. if you have a meeting with an IFA and agree to do something, eg cash in one investment and purchase another, should you be notified of a cooling off period?

Thanks

Mrs P P

I would say that its good practice to confirm everything in writing and as for the cooling off period do you mean having a bit of thinking time before the switch is made or being informed of the cooling off period of the new product?

If its the later situation then I would say that you should be given the key features sheet of the new product which I would have thought would have given any details of cooling off periods etc

Mrs_P_Pincher

This is not me, it is my DH. He had a meeting with an IFA three weeks ago, agreed and signed up to cash his pensions in and invest the proceeds on the stock market - he is five years off retiring and they weren't performing v well - sold to him by the same IFA donkeys years ago. All he had after the meeting was some publicity material about the IFA company.

He has heard no more from the IFA and assumes it is all going through.

I am deeply suspicious of this IFA, although I have checked him out on the FSA website and he looks OK.

This doesn't smell right to me, but DH won't discuss it.

Mrs P P

Brighton_belle

IFA's are regulated by the FSA and have to be able to show why they gave the advice they did, and back up advice with evidence of performance of the investments they recommend vs the ones they choose you give up and why and show evidence of assessing the clients attitude to risk as part of the why they advise what theydo so yes, any advice and suggested course of action has to be in writing.


You won't have a cooling off period if you have agreed a course of action because one something is sold, it is sold. I think only the purchase of insurance policies come with a cooling off period.

What can happen of course, is that a client can insist on a course of action dispite an IFA advice, which your husband may equally have done? But the same would apply - they would write confirming what they think you should do, and that the actions you have instructed go against their advice to protect themselves against formal complaints.

Mrs_P_Pincher

Thank you. That helps. I am very uncomfortable about this IFA and disappointed that my husband will not discuss the fact that he may have prejudiced our retirement income without any reference to me.

To be honest, I am actually wondering whether I still have a marriage.

Mrs P P

claretmatt

In terms of documents I provide, business card, terms of business, quotes for any recommended plan, key features of the product, replacement contract information and report. These are given before, during and after the advice process, but never more than 2 weeks after the forms have been signed.

Within all this you should know exactly what you are taking out, the reasons why, how it meets your objectives, the associated costs / charges and cancellation details.

Although people can forget whats said verbally if someone doesn't know why they have made a particular action and how it benefits them then it is a bad situation.

With regards to the specific advice there is something not quite right. Within private pensions you can invest in a wide range of stock market based investments spanning the globe together with other less risky investments. Changing the pension for this reason is not justification in itself.

With regards to the actual transaction you can not "cash in" a pension you typically from age 55 purchase an annuity (25% tax free lump sum / 75% taxable income).

There are companies who say you can sell or cash your pension in, but this will cause huge problems in the future either by excessive charges or HMRC fines. There is a sticky on the pension board which provides more details.

lika_86

Just as an aside, solicitors have no obligation to confirm their instruction in writing but it's very good practice to do so in order to protect them from professional negligence claims. When things don't go quite as they hoped clients have a tendancy to 'forget' all the advice they received on possible consequences of action/inaction and on risk, recording advice in writing allows solicitors to show they were not negligent should such allegations be made. I imagine IFAs are the same.

Mrs_P_Pincher

Clare

Thank you for your very useful post, which suggests quite strongly to me that my husband does not understand properly what he has done.

He told me that he had ''signed on the dotted line'' to cash in his pension plans, thus releasing a lump sum of the value of those funds to invest on the stock market through another product. From what you are saying this would not be possible. DH is 60.

I have even more concerns now. Best go and look at the pensions board.


Mrs P P

TBeckett100

Is he releasing tax free cash and going into drawdown? Cashing in an investment wrapper because it performs badly sounds like churning. Most products offer sufficient fund availability etc. Hope there are no guaranteed annuity rates etc on those pension policies.

Go and seek a second opinion. As his wife you have a right to know about his pensions as you may or may not get an income on his death

meritaten

I do not know if this is relevant, but some years ago my OH and myself consulted an Independent Financial Advisor about a mortgage for our property which we were purchasing under the 'right to buy'.
She gave carp advice and some years back we took the case to the Financial Ombudsman, who found in our favour and we won our case and had money refunded.
They were only able to do this because we had kept the scribbled notes and financial 'Projections' she had left behind and we had kept with our mortgage agreement! I wont go into details - but, we had very little other information from them - just a standard letter with no personal details.

you have every right to know about details like this - especially if you are entitled to money if your OH predeaceses you.