Advisors and pension dompanies

Treesie

Thanks to you all. Things here are quite clear, Lighthouse lights are being switched off. Intestingly (and slightly insulting) the report includes quite a number of pages printed directly from Trustnet, Royal London website and AbbeyLife website.

Should I expect to pay a report fee from any/all IFAs in this new financial era?

philwal_2

How many hours work do you think are involved in a compliant transfer not just the adviser time involved there are other costs to be taken into account

philwal_2

No not at all many ifas will provide a report with no fee.

Aegis

Good_bad_and_ugly wrote: »

I see hourly costs for some advisers and it amuses me.

True, and mine are probably quite funny too. I don't tend to operate on this basis largely because I don't really want to keep track of every minute I spend working on a client file. I prefer to work on an agreed fee basis for initial work and a mixture of fixed fee and variable fee for ongoing work. Clients seem happy with that.

If an IFA prescreens and segments clients in advance properly, has a brutally efficient system, then £500 covers it.

I'd really love to see how you come to that figure. Prescreening and segmentation costs (whether in time or money) and from what I've seen the most efficient systems tend to churn out the worst reports. When I worked for a bank I used to be able to churn out a planning report in 30 minutes, but it was utter rubbish. Now the majority of my work is bespoke but consequently the advice I give is highly personalised to the individual and wholly relevant. In other words, it's a far better product than what I would be able to offer if I limited my fee to £500.

If the business objective is to grow funds under management and to make money on insurance if appropriate, profit is achievable.

Given that funds under management is a very bad business idea since RDR (anyone can now turn off all ongoing fees with a single request) and possible future insurance sales are by no means guaranteed, this is not a sustainable approach to conducting business as a professional advice firm.

Treesie

Thanks, that's good to know. Pity I didn't realise but I haven't used an IFA for 20 years. The last one I used was struck off for mis-selling so excuse me if a little wary.

Aegis

Treesie wrote: »

Should I expect to pay a report fee from any/all IFAs in this new financial era?

Probably. Some will quote an all-in fee if they're confident that you will give them your business, but I'm seeing far more uses of an up front fee to cover the report and research followed by an implementation fee for any advice issued.

Aegis

Treesie wrote: »

Thanks, that's good to know. Pity I didn't realise but I haven't used an IFA for 20 years. The last one I used was struck off for mis-selling so excuse me if a little wary.

Unfortunately there are a few bad ones out there, but they do seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

Treesie

Aegis, seeing more up front fees, does that imply the number of individuals handing over their business over to an IFA is becoming less also given that the number of individuals taking up SIPPS is growing?

Good_bad_and_ugly

Aegis,

It's all down to the marketing proposition, the buy in, the route to market, the brand. I agree, FuM is dodgy, but it gives power back to the consumer and it makes the IFA work hard to fullfil his/her part of the deal. That's not a bad thing! :beer:

Aegis

Treesie wrote: »

Aegis, seeing more up front fees, does that imply the number of individuals handing over their business over to an IFA is becoming less also given that the number of individuals taking up SIPPS is growing?

The number of smaller cases might well be falling, but the number of SIPPs is a red herring, as the "Self Invested" bit is for pension legislation definitions only - most SIPPs are probably set up by financial advisers.