Finding and choosing an adviser

Acc72

Hello All,


I am looking to see a financial adviser to discuss investments, pension, life assurance.


Will I find the above all with one person or is it preferable to see individual specialists ? - also, is it better to use a firm rather than an individual ?


I have looked on the "unbiased" website but am unsure who to see.


Any help would be appreciated - I know that recommendation is always preferred (are there any independent rating sites for advisers ?) and apologies if there is a guide on this board that I have missed !

xylophone

http://www.thepfs.org/yourmoney/find-an-adviser/
Another site to check.

Short of a personal recommendation, it is a case of ringing round those who have the qualifications you require.

If you would like to sketch out your situation, other posters might be prepared to comment on points to consider.

ColdIron

I haven't used it myself but Which? magazine have a local recommendations section. You might need to sign up but I think you can get a month for a pound

http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/guides/financial-advice-explained/financial-advice-how-to-find-an-adviser/

dunstonh

Will I find the above all with one person or is it preferable to see individual specialists ?

Unless your needs are non-maintream then one should cover all those.

- also, is it better to use a firm rather than an individual ?

Even an individual is part of a firm, even if its a one man band.

Large firms tend to operate more like salesforces and have higher staff turnover and less discretion. Smaller firms tend to live or [STRIKE]buy [/STRIKE] die by local reputation and you should get the same adviser to last you through. However, locating smaller firms can be harder than the larger ones with big advertising budgets.

I know that recommendation is always preferred (are there any independent rating sites for advisers ?)

There are but they are rubbish and barely have any coverage (i looked at one recently and it had a couple of people in the region). Plus, long term planning and service occurs over years and decades. Not 30 minutes after an hours meeting.

I wouldnt be too worried. IFAs have a very low complaint count and most complaints that do exist get rejected. There are not many bad ones. The main area of concern is really the cost as there is a wide difference and you do get some greedy ones.

coyrls

dunstonh wrote: »

Smaller firms tend to live or buy local reputation

I hope that wasn't a Freudian slip!

badger09

ColdIron wrote: »

I haven't used it myself but Which? magazine have a local recommendations section. You might need to sign up but I think you can get a month for a pound

http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/guides/financial-advice-explained/financial-advice-how-to-find-an-adviser/

The Which? Money magazine isn't bad for basic financially information, but the Which? Local recommendations section is dire, as most of the entries are several years old.

The magazine trial could be worth £1, but it won't help OP find a local IFA:o

DrSyn

You might find the citizens advice website could be of help to you. It has lots of useful information on it, including including about financial advisers. Go have a look. I have selected it for England but you could select other areas of the UK.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/getting-financial-advice/

Acc72

Thanks everybody who has replied - I will have a look at the suggested websites.

BananaRepublic

dunstonh wrote: »

I wouldnt be too worried. IFAs have a very low complaint count and most complaints that do exist get rejected. There are not many bad ones. The main area of concern is really the cost as there is a wide difference and you do get some greedy ones.

Those are some big claims. Do you have supporting evidence? I note that you are an IFA, hence not totally disinterested. A quick Google throws up this article:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-1569868/How-complain-IFA.html

And here too:

http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/fos-complaints-against-ifas-jump-45/a682416

So apparently there are thousands of complaints each year. The above article shows that in 2011-12 most complaints were upheld. In 2012-13 42% of complaints were upheld. So it looks as if your statement about most complaints being rejected is somewhat misleading.

There are said to be roughly 30,000 IFAs in the UK, so assuming 3,000 complaints a year (for the sake of a round number), that means 1 in 10 receives a complaint on average, and if each takes on ~100 cases per year, that suggest a complaint for every 3,000 cases, which is low, as you have claimed.

dunstonh

I note that you are an IFA, hence not totally disinterested.

We also note your anti-IFA past posting.

hose are some big claims. Do you have supporting evidence?

IFAs have around 1% of complaints at the FOS with the majority rejected. The figure floats between 0.5% and 1.5% depending on the period. FOS publish the stats.

And here too:

http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/fos-complaints-against-ifas-jump-45/a682416

Which also verifies 1% of complaints and just 4139 complaints at the FOS. Remember IFAs handle millions of transactions a year.

There are said to be roughly 30,000 IFAs in the UK, so assuming 3,000 complaints a year (for the sake of a round number), that means 1 in 10 receives a complaint on average, and if each takes on ~100 cases per year, that suggest a complaint for every 3,000 cases, which is low, as you have claimed.

You think an IFA only handles 100 transactions a year? lol IFAs account for over 70% of pension transactions for example.

TheTracker

dunstonh wrote: »

IFAs have around 1% of complaints at the FOS with the majority rejected. The figure floats between 0.5% and 1.5% depending on the period. FOS publish the stats.

Which also verifies 1% of complaints and just 4139 complaints at the FOS. Remember IFAs handle millions of transactions a year

Still trawling out this useless statistic! See earlier thread.

As I said then, the percentage of complaints that deal with IFAs are largely meaningless when used as reference to performance since the total complaints includes services IFAs do not provide. Basic maths. Much more relevant, therefore, is that as of a couple of months ago and sourced from the FOS
13% of investment complaints regarded IFAs.
20% of pension complaints are over IFAs.

The FSA (predecessor of the FCA) published this:

Mythbusting. The significance of complaints. Some IFAs argue that, because only 2% of complaints [in 2010/11] that go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (the ombudsman service) are levelled against IFAs, the independent sector provides a better service than the banks. The total figure for complaints referred to the ombudsman service includes complaints about services and products such as banking and credit, which are not provided by IFAs, so the comparison is not a fair one. The more relevant data to use relates to products and services provided by both IFAs and banks, such as investments and pensions.

Just to be clear, the regulatory agency said it is not fair for IFAs to use the statistic you just used. Please refrain in future.

You did say "IFAs account for over 70% of pension transactions for example."

It would have been much more impactful to say "IFAs account for over 70% of pension transactions but only 20% of complaints about pensions concern IFAs" than to say only 1% of complaints to the FOS concern IFAs. It's basic statistical reporting principles and ethics.