Cost of advice for an Ombudsman claim

stevet2607

I have a neighbour who is an IFA.
I discussed with him that I thought my own IFA has mis-advised me about my pension. He agreed that I may have been poorly advised and suggested that I initially write to the IFA who subsequently rejected my complaint. I then, on my neighbours advice, took my complaint to the Ombudsman who has upheld my complaint and we have now agreed some recompense.

My neighbour helped me write my initial complaint letters to the IFA and the ombudsman and then helped with answers to the Ombudsmans questions. I did most of the other work. I would estimate that he spent a couple of hours on it. I want to reward my neighbour and because he gave the advice rather than his firm, I would like to give him something directly.

Does anyone have any idea what this should be. I'm thinking £250? I wonder what the cost would have been if I had gone to a firm of IFA's

dunstonh

Does anyone have any idea what this should be. I'm thinking £250? I wonder what the cost would have been if I had gone to a firm of IFA's

£250 is fair and matches what I have been given in similar scenarios. I never used to charge but I did one for someone that resulted in a few hours work at the start and then multiple bits here and there over the following months and it got the person back over £70,000 and they didnt even say thank you and never used me for any other advice.

BJV

I think it sounds like your neighbor was trying to be nice. Not so much in a professional come in to my office way more a hello neighbor do you need some help way.

I think it would be a nice gesture to offer him the £250 and I hope he will be sincerely happy at the token/thought.

PeacefulWaters

Bottle of his favourite spirit.

Take it round and then offer the cash. He'll probably accept the drink and decline the cash.

zagfles

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Bottle of his favourite spirit.

Take it round and then offer the cash. He'll probably accept the drink and decline the cash.

Or just take him the bottle to say thanks. He was doing you a favour as a friend, not engaging you as a client. Why even think of paying him? Paying might result in you being able to claim against him if anything went wrong, and he would need to declare it as income for tax purposes etc.

People on this board collectively spend hundreds of hours giving people they don't even know free help without any expectation of reward (perhaps with certain exceptions ).

Please send me a fiver for this post

bigadaj

zagfles wrote: »

Or just take him the bottle to say thanks. He was doing you a favour as a friend, not engaging you as a client. Why even think of paying him? Paying might result in you being able to claim against him if anything went wrong, and he would need to declare it as income for tax purposes etc.

People on this board collectively spend hundreds of hours giving people they don't even know free help without any expectation of reward (perhaps with certain exceptions ).

Please send me a fiver for this post

I think you'd need a few hundred to cover your pi insurance.

Freecall

Is that not what neighbours do?

I would definitely give the bottle of scotch and hope that one day you can use your own skills (whatever they may be) to properly repay the favour when your neighbour is in need of help.

:beer:

green_man

As above, I would buy a nice bottle of something, or if you know him well enough to know his hobbies something nice as appropriate for him

Malthusian

If I were your adviser I'd want the bottle of scotch (or similar). A half-decent IFA gets £250 every single day, several times, whereas a nice gift from someone to show they sincerely appreciated your help is much rarer. If he wanted to be paid for his time rather than to help out a friend he'd have issued you with a fee agreement.

If you use his services for any future pension planning or recommend that any friends who need advice do the same, that will probably be ample reward from a business perspective.

rpc

It sounds like he did this as a friend, not as a client.That makes cash seem a bit impersonal to me.

Something nice to eat or drink, meal voucher to a nice restaurant? Something like that?

stevet2607

Just an update for all those who replied. The neighbour is teetotal doesn't eat out! I decided on a £100 M&S voucher. Having now dumped the IFA who gave me the bad advice it is my intention to make my neighbour my new IFA so he will benefit professionally from that too.
Many thanks to all those who read and replied