DIY or IFA?

BananaRepublic

EdGasket wrote: »

That's fine if you want to hear a sales pitch; don't expect anything useful for free!

It depends what you expect to achieve from the initial meeting. You won't get investment advice, but you will get to meet her, and decide if you like her, and if you feel you can get on. There's no point hiring someone who gets up your nose. And there is no point hiring someone who does not communicate well, and allow you to communicate. My own dealings with 3 of them (one free meeting with one, and two who tried to charm their way into my wallet when I met them as a result of a company pension scheme) were not good. But I might have gone with an IFA had they been better at convincing me of their worth. Anyway, the only way to find out is to meet some, and form an opinion.

As has been stated before by others, the profession is highly regulated, and it is not rocket science, so in my view they should earn their fees. As to whether DIY is better, I cannot answer that. I made my choice of DIY because I am a contankerous so and so. And I enjoy making these decisions myself. The only way to learn is by doing.

bowlhead99

BananaRepublic wrote: »

It depends what you expect to achieve from the initial meeting. You won't get investment advice, but you will get to meet her, and decide if you like her, and if you feel you can get on.

"her" eh? I thought OP was looking for top notch financial advice? Doesn't that require a city boy in a sharp suit and shiny tie? Though I'm sure exceptions can be made to suit the local Yorkshire market...

[ducks]

As to whether DIY is better, I cannot answer that. I made my choice of DIY because I am a contankerous so and so. And I enjoy making these decisions myself. The only way to learn is by doing.

It is jolly good fun having control of your own destiny and only yourself to blame if it goes titsup.

I made my choice to DIY when the numbers were relatively small in the grand scheme of things and it's probably safer to "learn by doing" in that situation rather than wait until you get to pre-retirement and find yourself with a life's accumulated wealth and no accumulated financial experience.

With more assets it can become more economical to outsource the job -but by the same token things like active fund manager fees will be larger absolute amounts of money and some people will want to try and conserve costs wherever possible when they are going to stop having a nice salary rolling in to pay for it all.

At the end of the day, lots of people of whatever level of assets and whatever age could really benefit from some sound advice, but others (many on this forum who are keen investors and penny pinchers, as the website name and board name suggests) would benefit a lot less in relative terms, because they're already sorted, confident and comfortable with what they're doing. For those who aren't, IFA is always a sensible suggestion for hundreds of thousands of pounds, but it isn't always the eventual solution.

eskbanker

bowlhead99 wrote: »

if it goes titsup

You might need to duck again if you're planning on using vernacular like that in mixed company....

bowlhead99

eskbanker wrote: »

You might need to duck again if you're planning on using vernacular like that in mixed company....

Yeah sorry, my bad, bit of a cockup...

BananaRepublic

bowlhead99 wrote: »

Yeah sorry, my bad, bit of a cockup...

That is appalling language. I am sure that you meant to say:

"Yeah sorry, my mistake, bit of a cockup".

BananaRepublic

bowlhead99 wrote: »

"her" eh? I thought OP was looking for top notch financial advice? Doesn't that require a city boy in a sharp suit and shiny tie? Though I'm sure exceptions can be made to suit the local Yorkshire market...

[ducks]

Yorkshire folk keep money in tin on mantelpiece. Does tha kno' nowt lad?

bowlhead99 wrote: »

It is jolly good fun having control of your own destiny and only yourself to blame if it goes titsup.

I made my choice to DIY when the numbers were relatively small in the grand scheme of things and it's probably safer to "learn by doing" in that situation rather than wait until you get to pre-retirement and find yourself with a life's accumulated wealth and no accumulated financial experience.

With more assets it can become more economical to outsource the job -but by the same token things like active fund manager fees will be larger absolute amounts of money and some people will want to try and conserve costs wherever possible when they are going to stop having a nice salary rolling in to pay for it all.

At the end of the day, lots of people of whatever level of assets and whatever age could really benefit from some sound advice, but others (many on this forum who are keen investors and penny pinchers, as the website name and board name suggests) would benefit a lot less in relative terms, because they're already sorted, confident and comfortable with what they're doing. For those who aren't, IFA is always a sensible suggestion for hundreds of thousands of pounds, but it isn't always the eventual solution.

I pretty much agree with the above. I too started with a modest amount - £6,000 in a PEP - over 19 years ago, and as you say, it wasn't the end of the world when after a year I found I had bought a dog, and consequently moved the funds into what turned out to be a star performer. That money is now worth £44,000. :xmassign: My other funds have not been quite so succesful, sigh, so let's brush over those. Someone with a large fund might well be best to use an IFA at least initially, with care taken to minimise fees.

Sally57

BananaRepublic wrote: »

That is appalling language. I am sure that you meant to say:

"Yeah sorry, my mistake, bit of a cockup".

Now, now lads calm down otherwise I will have to set my Whippet on to you all!

Sally57

My friend has just had an annual meeting for re-balancing with her IFA and I have posted the current holdings in my OP as well as the additions or minus to each fund.

Interestingly, after just 1 year he has completely sold out of 4 funds and added an additional 4 funds to replace these, so much for for long term investing. He only made additions to 7 funds and the biggest addition was for Jupiter European from the initial holding of 4% to 6%.

Just an observation but it seems a hell of a lot of tweaking or re-balancing for a period of just over a year? The fund delivered a return of just over 9% over the year.

TheTracker

Sally57 wrote: »

My friend has just had an annual meeting for re-balancing with her IFA and I have posted the current holdings in my OP as well as the additions or minus to each fund.

Interestingly, after just 1 year he has completely sold out of 4 funds and added an additional 4 funds to replace these, so much for for long term investing. He only made additions to 7 funds and the biggest addition was for Jupiter European from the initial holding of 4% to 6%.

Just an observation but it seems a hell of a lot of tweaking or re-balancing for a period of just over a year? The fund delivered a return of just over 9% over the year.

I think it within the scope fo service to ask for some explanation for each trade, though the answer may not be very illuminating.

My basic basket of trackers seems to be up almost 12% in 12 months (money weighted). No fund changes in the last 12 months. Meanwhile VLS60 is up a little over 8%.

Each to their own ...

dunstonh

Interestingly, after just 1 year he has completely sold out of 4 funds and added an additional 4 funds to replace these, so much for for long term investing.

Why do you see that as a problem?

Just an observation but it seems a hell of a lot of tweaking or re-balancing for a period of just over a year?

Not necessarily. Our last six monthly update had 7funds added to our preferred list and 4 removed. The one before had 3 additions and 10 removals. Whilst most people would not be holding every fund on that list, a number of the removals were long-term big funds. If you are balancing the underlying assets, then removing a fund could then result in you needing to make a couple of other changes to bring back the allocations you are after. So, you may remove a fund that is perfectly fine just because it cant give you the asset weightings you want.

Plus, fixed interest sector, in particular, has seen some movement in many models.

There are different models and methods but movements happen. Each is for a reason. It would be better to ask your adviser why rather than people on the internet who will not know what model you are following.