Pension Company vs Independent Financial advice stitch up !

DJPench

Annuity as in expecting £150.00 a month guaranteed for life for the rest of your life to top up your state pension. I thought that was the only option.

OldMusicGuy

I am neither an IFA nor a pension company employee. I'm very happy with the pension investments that I have and the pension platform I use (although I am thinking of moving as it is not the cheapest).

What I would suggest is taking a look at the Money Advice Service website under the retirement section and familiarizing yourself with all the different types of pension, see: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en# . Go to the "Retirement" tab and read through the information there, it's pretty good.

If you don't want to use an IFA straight away or ever (I don't use them myself now but I have in the past), a good book to read is "DIY Pensions: A Simple Guide to Pensions, SIPPs & Retirement Planning" by John Edwards.

You have many choices open to you, far more than in the past. You can buy annuities if you want, but you don't have to. There's plenty of information out there to help you and if you have specific questions, it's best to ask them here from a position of at least some knowledge.

dunstonh

Finance people love risky things as that is where they earn most,

No they don't. You pay the fee. The fee is the same whether you use low risk or high risk.

Every time you go bank and they see you have a few quid.. it is .. "ok do you want to see one of our advisors sir to make the most of your money?" (which means tie it up for longer so they can exploit it more and make it more complex for you to get back out ! For some peanuts interest)

The majority of banks pulled out prior to 2013. Banks dont have IFAs. They had FAs. They were sales reps of the bank. Don't mix up FAs from before 2013 with IFAs. Banks like pushing their own products when you went into them because they didnt want you going near an IFA.

So they can stick your money in some complex and convoluted bond/account where you have no chance of accessing it when the proverbial hits the fan.

It is rare for investments to have any tie and that has been the case for 20 years or so.

Oh well looks like stuffing it in the bank is best

You mean like Northern Rock.....

Annuity as in expecting £150.00 a month guaranteed for life for the rest of your life to top up your state pension. I thought that was the only option.

Nope.

unless some down to earth useful advice comes along by someone generous and not with vested interests.

Go buy a roll of bacofoil to make some hats and line your walls. You are really being quite silly.

DJPench

"That is not called subsidising. Pension firms do not pay anything to IFAs. They do not keep IFAs in business."

It may not be called it because that would be calling it out for what it actually is !

Some clearly DO keep them in business as they will NOT allow you as a private individual deal with them direct as a private company, the company says "You must use an IFA and absorb their fees accordingly". That is a stitch up and supporting the middle man IFA directly, it is not possible to dispute.

There is no point in advice if you do not use it, might as well burn £50.00 notes for fun. It means IFA clairvoyance is even more pointless other than to invest in a specific company of choice that won't allow you to deal direct.

When I said.."Can you just simply set up a pension with company X of MY choice for me for a fixed fee?" He was off the phone before you could say : "Not worth my time mate."

Seems punters are just cash cows for fat salary IFA's.

You want a better rep as an industry? Then change this brick wall pension company/IFA back scratching leech like system.

Northern Rock was an example. And the example was online accounts that were totally locked and people could not get a penny out of them when the crash happened. I am having grave difficulty seeing the lack of transparency with pensions as being better than a bank right now. What a terrible, terrible system for the average man and woman, shameful operations.

dunstonh

It may not be called it because that would be calling it out for what it actually is !

So, where is this money then because IFAs are not seeing it?

Some clearly DO keep them in business as they will NOT allow you as a private individual deal with them direct as a private company, the company says "You must use and IFA and absorb their fees accordingly". That is a stitch up and supporting the middle man IFA directly, it is not possible to dispute.

If you read the posts rather than rant you will see the reasons for this. You say you are not a troll but you appear to be living under that bridge.

There is no point in advice if you do not use it.

And this thread is a good example of it.

When I said.."Can you set up a pension with company X for me for a fixed fee" he was off the phone before you could say "Not worth my time mate."

Maybe it was the other bits of the conversation that were enough to put him off.

You want a better rep as an industry? Then change this brick wall pension company/IFA back scratching leech like system.

The thread is now 27 posts in and we can pretty much say that you would still have zero knowledge after 270 posts.

I am actually quite enjoying this joke of a thread whilst I sit on the phone waiting for a company that is apparently subsidising me despite me never having placed any business with them and they have never paid me anything.

OldMusicGuy

DJPench wrote: »

When I said.."Can you just simply set up a pension with company X of MY choice for me for a fixed fee?" He was off the phone before you could say : "Not worth my time mate."

You don't have to use an IFA! You can set up your own pension.

Take a breath, stop ranting and do some reading as I suggested ;-)

And there are alternative ways of saving if you don't trust investing, like cash ISAs/LISAs and fixed interest bonds. But you may struggle to match inflation with those.

DJPench

"So, where is this money then because IFAs are not seeing it?"

Of course you are. It is obligatory to see an IFA and absorb their fees in order to get a pension with a company of my choice who clearly said I cannot deal direct.

This clearly lines the pockets of IFA. When I asked him if he could set this pension up for me with company X for a fixed fee.. he was gone in a flash as that was obviously not convoluted and lucrative enough for him.

It cannot be more clear.

DJPench

Oldmusicguy can you please just PM a decent company that you use for example. Then I can investigate for myself. Many Thanks

IFA leeches with their massive salaries can jump, especially those who insult you on this thread, that speaks volumes and is nothing you would not expect when someone calls out their stitched up easy ride.

My take on IFA is that they use smoke and mirrors to bamboozle people..they want complexity and depth and complication so they can hide behind. They know virtaully nothing more than a what people can research and charge a fortune for it. When you call a spade a spade and want them to do a job for you.. set up pension with company X they drop you like you don't exist, you are not cash cow-y enough for them to drain your cash with vague fee schemes.

kidmugsy

wjr4 wrote: »

Why is it that people pay for an accountant, solicitor, builder etc and don't have issues paying them.

If you look at the Cutting Tax board you'll read about various people who object so strongly to paying a solicitor that they try to avoid IHT all on their own. Frequently they muck it up so badly that the result will be a higher tax bill.

OldMusicGuy

DJPench wrote: »

Oldmusicguy can you please just PM a decent company that you use for example. Then I can investigate for myself. Many Thanks

It's not as simple as that. You need to understand the difference between pension platforms and the investment choices you then make on those platforms. Or if you want a stakeholder pension (cheaper, simpler but limited in fund choices) as opposed to a SIPP.

Please take a look at the link I posted to the Money Advice Service and do some reading there. You need to understand more about how pensions work before getting too far into things.

I don't know anything about stakeholder pensions, but common SIPP providers are companies like Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell Youinvest.