Will IFA's Always Have Your Best Interests at Heart

dunstonh

I was just using annuities as an example atush. Would be the same question if any product became beneficial to move into or buy. If these did not incur ongoing annual fees, would the IFA recommend them.

asked and answered.

but appears you will have to do your own research and monitoring of what's out there and if its a good time to move into.

Why does it appear you need to do that?

GSP

Not that any changes or opportunities will happen overnight, but my take dunstonh is that people need to keep abrest of what's going on and what's out there.
Some IFA's may, but some won't keep their clients informed on everything.
Just an example but if your income from clients was mainly pension based, would you advise them to switch from flexi access drawdown into an annuity if rates were good (again may never happen but just an example of a product), and your income from these people was severely dented.

dunstonh

Not that any changes or opportunities will happen overnight, but my take dunstonh is that people need to keep abrest of what's going on and what's out there.

Basic general knowledge is never a bad thing.

Some IFA's may, but some won't keep their clients informed on everything.

If you are paying for ongoing servicing then you will be informed of things that are relevant.

Just an example but if your income from clients was mainly pension based, would you advise them to switch from flexi access drawdown into an annuity if rates were good (again may never happen but just an example of a product), and your income from these people was severely dented.

An IFA's income is not going to be mainly pension based. As has been said several times now, clients come and go. Clients do things on the transactional/one-off basis and servicing. It is just part of the natural activity that occurs. You get some natural drop-offs for all sorts of reasons. For example, we had a client with over £300k invested on ongoing servicing die earlier in the year. Full withdrawal and paid out. However, the amount invested on that platform exceeded the withdrawal within a month through natural top ups and regular contributions and investment growth.

People with large funds don't buy annuities (or at least not with all of it - mix and match is quite popular). Remember drawdown is not a new thing. It was around when you could get 8% annuity rates. Didnt seem to be an issue then. Don't see why it would be in the future.

This is just a non-issue.

GSP

Thanks dunstonh.