IFA with a straw in my pension fund

dunstonh

What I can't get my head around is ... Yes you pay for them to sort the situation an that is only right they should be paid, but why do you have to pay money for the rest of the time that you have the policy/ plan

You don't have to. It is a choice.

1) it can be the method of payment. So, instead of paying up front, you factor the payment over the period. (look at HL. Nothing up front but x% p.a.)
2) many people have ongoing servicing, such as rebalancing and bed & ISA. Or reviews of contacts.
3) if you dont have servicing then you will pay for any job you request explicitly. The cost of which would frequently be more than having servicing (servicing has an element of cross subsidy - explicit charging does not). Lots of people contact an IFA as a sounding board or get a valuation, opinion etc which isnt full advice.

For example, this week I just changed a pension over from one to another and didnt charge any initial fee for it as it fell under the ongoing servicing. However, we hadnt really done much work for some years but this was the second bit in a few months as I also did their ISA top ups a couple of months ago, also no initial charge. It was still cheaper to do it under the servicing than it was explicit.

It is a choice. If you prefer explicit charging, as and when, then that is your choice. Not the advisers choice.

elantan

Cheers for clarifying that dunstonh