St James Place Pension Fund - Stay or Transfer to a SIPP

ColdIron

racey wrote: »

I emailed to ask how much this advice would cost but haven't heard back yet.

Don't worry, you will

racey

ColdIron wrote: »

Don't worry, you will

I had emailed asking for the charge for their service. This was ignored but I got a reply asking me to call.

racey

The Times has a weekly article on how to invest £10000. They ask 3 fund managers for their advice.
I don't know if this advice ( or opinion - I'm not sure what the difference is) is uninformed, biased or crooked. I doubt it though.

dunstonh

racey wrote: »

I had emailed asking for the charge for their service. This was ignored but I got a reply asking me to call.

That will be because email is an audit trail. It has the date, time, content of the email and who from/to.

A phone call has no audit trail. You can be told a load of BS over the phone.

I don't know if this advice ( or opinion - I'm not sure what the difference is) is uninformed, biased for crooked. I doubt it though.

It is certainly not advice. It is opinion of three individuals with no consideration made for the knowledge, behaviour, risk profile or capacity for loss of the individuals. Advice has to be tailored to the individual. Newspaper articles are comment and opinion and unfortunately, many financial articles are often promotions for the advertisers.

We often see people posting on here who are new or inexperienced investors who took their "advice" from the papers and when they list their funds, it tends to be fashion investing or very high risk. Usually both. So, you must be on guard when following media articles. Yes, read them. Some can be useful but just keep an open mind. Look to see if certain companies are named and if they are giving input. e.g. is the article praising SIPPs and the main contributor to the article a SIPP provider. Maybe a SIPP provider that the article refers to a s Low Cost SIPP provider. That is marketing.

racey

I was dubious about following up and even more so when they don't answer my question about charges.
Anyway, thanks for the insight into the murky world of investment advice. It's must a good target area for dodgy dealers as investors have obviously got some money.
I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has followed up "ukmoneysite". As you mentioned earlier, it's difficult to spot bad advice in the short term.

dunstonh

Anyway, thanks for the insight into the murky world of investment advice. It's must a good target area for dodgy dealers as investors have obviously got some money.

If you stick to regulated companies it is much cleaner.

it's difficult to spot bad advice in the short term.

As above, if you stick to regulated advisers then you rarely have issues (the only real negative things people seem to moan about with advisers is the cost nowadays). You get consumer protection with regulated advice. If you use unregulated individuals (who may give themselves titles they are not really meant to use) then get little or no consumer protection.

Please do not become another person that falls for an unregulated company using sales tactics to sell you you inappropriate investments. We see people on this board caught out by these on a weekly basis nowadays.

Your choice should either be to use an IFA or to DIY using regulated investments. Every other option should be disregarded.

racey

dunstonh wrote: »

Your choice should either be to use an IFA or to DIY using regulated investments. Every other option should be disregarded.

How do I know if an investment is "regulated"?

dunstonh

racey wrote: »

How do I know if an investment is "regulated"?

That is a good test. Anybody who is capable of doing DIY investing would know that. If you can't tell then perhaps DIY investing is not suitable for you and you should use an adviser instead.

However, pension funds, unit trusts and OEICs are regulated. There are others.

Stubod

....we have recently changed from SJP to a new IFA.....way lower cost (SJP 5%, current IFA 1% initial fees), + they have offered lots of good advice re pensions options etc. SJP not very helpful when it came to offering pensions advice etc.

racey

Stubod wrote: »

....we have recently changed from SJP to a new IFA.....way lower cost (SJP 5%, current IFA 1% initial fees), + they have offered lots of good advice re pensions options etc. SJP not very helpful when it came to offering pensions advice etc.

How much do IFAs charge, roughly?
I realise it will vary but I would like some idea.