investments and IFA's

Al.

You can have a good adviser in a bad network, and vice versa. Similarly, you can have a good, or bad, directly authorised adviser. Wait, it gets better! A bad adviser might (inadvertently) give you good advice and a good one might offer you poor service. The suggested course(s) of action may out/ overperform even if the advice was bad.

But you have to start somewhere. Speak to a few, don't rush things.. ellicit some personal recommendations and try to get a feel for what your beauty parade/shortlist is like.

Check too, that your advisers are used to dealing with your needs. An adviser might be great but if his clients don't reflect what you're after, is his finger sufficiently on the pulse of your specific needs? For instance, I only have two clients in (aged) drawdown.. if your needs were similar and complicated, I would feel compelled to refer you to an adviser who dealt specifically with that particular profile in order to give you a higher level of service than I might be able to.

I think we're getting past the days of general practice advisers now - I'm happy to be challenge PhD on that one though.

dunstonh

I have read about a firm called seseme. Am I right in thinking they are a network? Sounds like they have issues. Is this normal?

Sesame were the biggest. The biggest always hit the headlines. At the time, the fine they got seemed large. However, when you read the FCA report, you find its a collection of smaller fines for a range of things. Other networks have had FCA action since which have had greater fines or wider ranging S166 reviews. The problem for networks seems to be that they were sluggish implementing changes. Both historic and changes the FCA have made. Not all will be. Smaller networks may be more adaptable to change. The larger a firm, the more you have to think about and the longer it can take to "show and tell" that you are doing things right. A speedboat vs an oil tanker taking a turn.

Al and dunstonh, who are your networks? and do they offer advice themselves?

No, they do not offer advice themselves. It is the network members that offer advice.

You are over focusing on business model. There is no real difference between a network IFA and a directly authorised IFA for a consumer. A directly authorised firm has to have a compliance officer. A network has to have a compliance officer. Both have to ensure the company works to FCA rulebook. In the case of the network, they have to make sure every network member is working correctly whereas a directly authorised firm only focuses on its own staff. So, a network will likely have a compliance department which has multiple staff who report to the compliance officer and the duties are delegated. Just a different scale for doing the same thing.

There are just over 20,000 advisers today. Way down on the over 200,000 there were 15 years ago. The industry has got rid of most of the insurance agents, bank sales reps and has moved from commission to fee. The qualification levels were increased in 2013 (previous level was set in 1994). Those that are left are generally good advisers. IFAs have tiny numbers of complaints at the ombudsman despite the volume of transactions they handle. The main focus with advisers nowadays is not quality but cost. You do still have some pricing on old fashioned levels.

redmalc

Morning Guys
just thought i would update you all to the meeting i had with HL,the charge for initially cleaning up my affairs was 5K plus vat, and ongoing advice would be 1,5%plus vat, plus fund and platform costs of approx 0,9% which to be honest i could not justify spending.
I have gone it alone for twenty years but felt the time had come to get all of it into one portfolio but at that cost i will keep going with my gut feelings

gadgetmind

Yes, that's silly sums both up front and ongoing.

jem16

redmalc wrote: »

Morning Guys
just thought i would update you all to the meeting i had with HL,the charge for initially cleaning up my affairs was 5K plus vat, and ongoing advice would be 1,5%plus vat, plus fund and platform costs of approx 0,9% which to be honest i could not justify spending.

HL were always considered expensive but those prices are just greedy.

Why not see a small local IFA firm? With £500k you could well find someone who is prepared to take this on with no initial cost and 0.5% ongoing charge. At most initial advice should be £2k.

Linton

I see from your earlier thread that you have £230K to manage. For that amount of money, given your lack of experience in investing and large scale money management, I think that advice to diy is dangerous and foolish. Investing to provide a secure income in retirement is multifaceted and complex. The optimum approach will be dependent on the details of your situation. It cant be taken straight out of a beginners book. By all means undertake some basic education but perservere with finding an IFA you are happy to work with.

redmalc

Jem 16 that will be my take in the new year,i just could not justify spending that type of money because in my eyes i have done very well for myself over the years with some twitchy bum times and still taking the risks,the main issue was consolidation of what i have for my retirement

redmalc

Linton putting everything in the pot we have in excess of 500K

dunstonh

redmalc wrote: »

Morning Guys
just thought i would update you all to the meeting i had with HL,the charge for initially cleaning up my affairs was 5K plus vat, and ongoing advice would be 1,5%plus vat, plus fund and platform costs of approx 0,9% which to be honest i could not justify spending.
I have gone it alone for twenty years but felt the time had come to get all of it into one portfolio but at that cost i will keep going with my gut feelings

HL are not IFAs. They dropped their independent classification earlier this year. Plus, those charges are high. However, HL are not known for being cheap. 5k is just obscene in 2015. Plus, it should not have VAT added to it. VAT is not charged on intermediation. i.e. where you seek advice that is likely to involve the purchase of a product, then no VAT should be charged (even if the product is not bought). If you seek advice and no product is likely to be bought then VAT is chargeable.

Ongoing advice fee can also avoid VAT where the ongoing advice includes annual use of ISA allowance through bed & ISA (the "intention" to use the annual ISA allowance is a product purchase).