Independent advisor

Peter24

Hi all,

Can anyone give me some advice please. A year or so ago I retired (I'm 65 in October) and subsequently withdrew my company pension and put it in a managed fund with a reputable investment company. Both the fund manager and my advisor take their fee as usual. My two questions are these:

1. Can I change my financial advisor and keep my fund at the same investment company without penalty?

2. Can I deal with my fund manager without a financial advisor?

atush

are you talking about a Drawdown pension? you'd have to see if the one you chose will work with customers rather than thru an IFA.

Second, your advisor has a 'trail' comission I see. What does he do for it? If he provides 6 monthly or yearly checks/changes on your investment, and you want that going forwards, it could be cheaper (depending on your fund size) to keep the trail going than to now pay cash for advice (in the post RDR environment).

If you are happy with your investments, or allowed by your DD provider to make changes on your own, I assume you can 'cut' the trail commission but you haven't given enough info.

I'd call your provider.

liltdiddylilt

Hi

The poster above me makes some good points. I just wanted to add, if you move to another IFA, effectively, them taking over the policy via a letter of authority, will stop the trail being paid to the old adviser but will likely have a trail to the new adviser instead, or, if they change any part of the policy, an 'ongoing fee' which is effectively the same thing as trail, a commission paid monthly, with a new name.

You may be able to contact the provider and ask them to remove the authority for that company to act on your behalf. This would also stop any commission from being paid, but I am unsure. If they transferred the pension to a new provider when you joined the IFA, they will automatically have authority to act on your behalf, as they created it. I don't know that you could 'revoke' that as such.

As for dealing with the fund manager yourself, yes, you are able to do this. It's your money after all. But, you may be charged higher fees than you are currently as the IFA may have a lot of business other than yours with the provider, which gets them reduced fees on your behalf.

Definitely check!

dunstonh

1. Can I change my financial advisor and keep my fund at the same investment company without penalty?

yes

2. Can I deal with my fund manager without a financial advisor?

Depends on the arrangement. If you have a discretionary investment manager service then they will only handle the investments. They will not handle the advisory side or the administration (such as reviews). They may also be linked commercially and be a package.

If its just a normal investment fund(s) you have then the fund manager will not adjust your fund holdings. That is the role of the adviser. The fund manager just controls the holdings within the fund.

Drawdown is a service that it is expected to have an ongoing review. If you cease this with the IFA, then the IFA will usually issue a warning letter about the consequences and this will reduce your consumer protection going forward as if you leave investments that are designed to have reviews and rebalancing and do not take on this responsibility yourself then you will likely end up with lower returns and/or a greater level of volatility as time goes on. You woudlnt succeed on a complaint at that stage.

If you know what you are doing and can pick your own investments and do your own rebalancing and research then DIY is a good option to consider. If you dont know what you are doing then sacking the IFA and becoming a lazy investor or making a mess of your investments can end up far more expensive.

bigfreddiel

Peter24 wrote: »

1. Can I change my financial advisor and keep my fund at the same investment company without penalty?

2. Can I deal with my fund manager without a financial advisor?

just out of interest - why?

1 do you have a problem with your fa?

2 can you do better than yourr fa?

cheers

fj