IFA speak

dunstonh

I am pretty sure IFA 2 is FCA regulated but will check.

I would check:
1 - Are they an IFA or an FA (their terms of business will state their status as either restricted or independent)
2 - Its not whether the adviser is regulated or not (its worth checking by all means). It is whether the investments being recommended are regulated and not some weird investment, like biofuels, forestry or overseas property, that is being recommended.

Malthusian

dunstonh wrote: »

Expected is a word used on these tools but it comes with disclaimers and caveats. i.e. based on assumed average growth rates of the different assets.

The use of the word "expected" in these models comes from statistical terminology.

The peculiar way in which "expected" works in the statistical universe can be demonstrated to a layman thus: when I throw a six-sided dice, as a statistician I expect it to land on three and a half.

This hopefully illustrates the difference between expecting returns of around 6%, in the way a statistician or an IFA employing stochastic modelling would mean it, and expecting the number 47 bus.

nocash

The terms of business state Independent, Unbiased advice and the chap I spoke to is a Chartered Financial Planner.