Affordable IFA advice

grizzly1911

doughnutmachine wrote: »

To be honest, nothing you've ever written convinces me that paying £200 an hour to an IFA is cost effective. So yeah, I'm not likely to use an IFA in the foreseeable future.

Dunstonh provides lots of sound advice.

It is always difficult to justify high rates and it is no different to main dealer vehicle or British Gas servicing rather than a trusted local independent.

What I find disappointing is that there is little degree of price differentiation based on complexity/size and little competition on pricing. High pricing doesn't equal quality service or necessarily recognise the complexity (or lack of it).

I am sure that for many good quality well priced advice will bring benefits. Sadly there will be many that pay over the odds for mediocre advice that doesn't make a vast difference to them.

Solicitors aren't cheap either and basic conveyancing isn't rocket science. Somehow jumping legal hurdles seems to make their fees easier to to bear. The same as a garage providing you with the part they have replaced gives some comfort.

jimjames

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Dunstonh provides lots of sound advice.

I'm not an IFA and haven't used one for many years but I find some of the personal attacks on Dunstonh to be quite offensive such as checking post times etc. There are a lot of people on this board who have hugely benefitted from feedback given and it would be a shame if that was lost due to the negative attitudes of a few posters.

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Solicitors aren't cheap either and basic conveyancing isn't rocket science. Somehow jumping legal hurdles seems to make their fees easier to to bear. The same as a garage providing you with the part they have replaced gives some comfort.

When I bought a house recently I was very pleasantly surprised how cheap the solicitors were. Compared to the work done by the estate agent for example the cost of the solicitors was a fraction of the amount. Another one to consider like the photographer example earlier - the unregulated, unqualified estate agent charges significantly more. Maybe there is a pattern emerging here!

jimjames

doughnutmachine wrote: »

Maybe I'm just suspicious by nature. But I just think the chances are that someone that has made 70 thousand posts and claims to work full time as an IFA is being paid to post.

He has been asked if he is paid to post and he hasn't denied it....

So what if he is? Being available to post useful info is surely beneficial to the site and to forum members. Maybe there are others also paid to post, who knows but it still doesn't affect the quality of the info given - if anything someone paid is likely to give better info.

In your previous post you list 5 posts made most of which were outside working hours - how does posting on Sunday night affect being able to do a full time job?

Freecall

jimjames wrote: »

...... I find some of the personal attacks on Dunstonh to be quite offensive such as checking post times etc. .

I have to say that I tend to agree.

Although I am one of those who has suffered financially at the hands of greedy IFA's and would therefore advise extreme caution before buying anything from one, that does not mean that just because someone has chosen that path as their profession, they are automatically a bad individual.

Personal attacks on individuals who, at the very least, have a good knowledge base and a willingness to help is in my opinion not at all constructive.

Many people on here value the input given by duntonh and others and without them MSE would be much the poorer.

Daniel54

I am tired of this and have reported your post,which I choose not to quote in reply

doughnutmachine

Freecall wrote: »

Many people on here value the input given by duntonh and others and without them MSE would be much the poorer.

getting free samples from a supplier is fairly standard marketing. it's like when you go to a supermarket and get a free serving of cheese etc, it's so that you buy the product in future.

Q. do you think the presence of dunstonh makes people more likely or less likely to go to an IFA?

A. His presence makes people more likely to go to an IFA.

Lokolo

doughnutmachine wrote: »

Maybe I'm just suspicious by nature. But I just think the chances are that someone that has made 70 thousand posts and claims to work full time as an IFA is being paid to post.

He has been asked if he is paid to post and he hasn't denied it....

So your view is that anyone with a high post count gets paid to post on here?

Oh man, my bank account says differently!

I also think you should browse some of the other areas of MSE, you would find that Dunston actually have quite a lot post count in comparison!

But in the end, everyone is going to respect Dunston here more than yourself, because he actually posts helpful responses, not just argumenative posts.

grizzly1911

jimjames wrote: »

When I bought a house recently I was very pleasantly surprised how cheap the solicitors were. Compared to the work done by the estate agent for example the cost of the solicitors was a fraction of the amount. Another one to consider like the photographer example earlier - the unregulated, unqualified estate agent charges significantly more. Maybe there is a pattern emerging here!

I recently purchased a house and the solicitors fees (not total cost) was around half the estate agents cost, but significant non the less.

As I posted earlier there are DIY house sales sites now, that even link to the popular search sites. AIUI you don't need a solicitor to do your conveyancing for you either, although if you need a mortgage the lender would not allow it.


I am sure different photographers do offer differentiated services at a range of prices rather than a pretty bog standard percentage rate based on previous historic expectations.

wigglefish123

If he is getting paid to post here it is a conflict of interest. Is he serving the users of MSE or the people that pay him?

I think being paid to post here is part of his job.....

Without dunstonh people would post their negative stories of IFAs and MSE readers would be put off going to an IFA. With dunstonh posting and being such a helpful chap it encourages people to go to an IFA.

70,000 posts and he's never ventured onto any other board apart from the financial ones.... Is that because he has no other outside interests/ opinions on anything? Or is it because if he posted a personal opinion elsewhere readers might take offense and not go to an IFA?

doughnutmachine

why would it benefit this site for people to see an IFA - they are self employed in the main and therefore I can't see it making much difference to them what is posted on here??

bigadaj

It can Certainly be a problem when things get too personal, and spoils what can be an interesting discussion.

Dunstonhs posts are very informative in giving an IFAs viewpoint and also providing some justification for costs in terms of expenses incurred in undertaking the role. Similarly in any business one has to acknowledge that the customer has to be happy with the price paid for a commodity or service and as a supplier be able to justify that cost, which I think can be difficult to do.

People obviously use IFAs for various reasons. I've met several people whose main reason for using an ifa is to boast that they have one. Similarly it can be a time and cost issue but for many people the costs are relatively high in terms of value for their time and difficult to justify. This becomes even more of a problem when you see that by the time you approach seven figures or even less it seems you move from ifa territory into wealth management type firms.

So long as people have the choice to ifa or DIY then that's fine and it's all down to the perceived value in the cost incurred.