H L Financial Advisor or ALternative

redmalc

Morning All
I have finally decided I need help to look after my finances and have arranged for a visit from HL and a local IFA.
Between myself and the wife we have approx 170k in SS isa,s,140K in cash Isa,s which I need to do something with,220K in Scottish Widows Pension,National Savings 20K,shares 20K and cash at bank 35K.
We are both 60 and have no debts,house owned etc
What sort of costs should I be paying for the services of an IFA,any help appreciated
Thank You

bigadaj

I'd be tempted to speak to at least two and ideally three ifas, to get a range of prices but also to see the individuals, you don't want to deal with someone you don't get on with or trust.

Historic base figures quoted are 3% initial and 1% ongoing, reducing for larger sums. This equates to £18k and£6k for your sums which would be excessive, percentage reductions could be down to 1% initial and 0.5% ongoing, so £6k and £3k which still sounds expensive but not ridiculous.

You should just be able to get the initial set up and decline ongoing servicing, potentially getting the later on an ad hoc basis and paying an hourly rate if you need it. Hourly rates for ifas seem to be around £150-£200, so allowing a generous two days for their work, and assuming your position isn't hugely complicated than a figure of £2-3k would seem appropriate.

There is normally a minimum figure they might consider , due to practicalities, costs of pi insurance, lost opportunity etc, this will vary.

atush

On the sort of money you are talking about, I would ask for a set fee, as you would not want a % based fee on amounts of that size.

Do either of you still work? I would be moving some of that cash in isas into pensions and S&S isas.

redmalc

Atush
Hi thanks for that,I still work and am currently paying £1500 a month into my pension

george4064

atush wrote: »

On the sort of money you are talking about, I would ask for a set fee, as you would not want a % based fee on amounts of that size.

Do either of you still work? I would be moving some of that cash in isas into pensions and S&S isas.

If you can agree a fixed fee, that would be great. (So you're not 'punished' with a % fee as your investments grow)...

Have you considered the HL Portfolio+? http://www.hl.co.uk/funds/portfolio-plus

Thinking about it, HL adviser will probably recommend their Multi-Manager funds anyway.. I used to work at HL, so I know a few things there

However, I don't know much about the IFA market so I can't really comment on that.

masonic

george4064 wrote: »

Thinking about it, HL adviser will probably recommend their Multi-Manager funds anyway.. I used to work at HL, so I know a few things there

I checked, and (no surprises) it does. If you're considering investing through HL, then you'll want to make extensive use of investment trusts and ETFs, because the platform charge for funds gets quite prohibitive when you have 6 figures to invest. If seems HL is reluctant to make recommendations on those for some reason...

george4064

masonic wrote: »

I checked, and (no surprises) it does. If you're considering investing through HL, then you'll want to make extensive use of investment trusts and ETFs, because the platform charge for funds gets quite prohibitive when you have 6 figures to invest.

Yep, spot on there. I've gradually switched my UTs to investment trusts and ETFs as my portfolio has grown, the 0.45% charge on shares/ITs/ETFs/Bonds are capped at £45 per annum. The UTs have a tiered charge, starting at 0.45% but its uncapped. Which as you said, you technically get 'punished' if your investments grow and your growth is charged.

If HL were to uncap the charge on shares/ITs etc, I would be transferring provider. I have considered transferring provider recently, but after extensive research I found that every other platform a few cracks in their service which I require and HL offer (probably because they have so many assets+clients, they can easily do regular investment/dividend re-investment in a large variety of small and obscure stocks which many others do not offer).