Savings and pension advice pls

FelidaeUK66

Hi there!

Firstly, sorry, this is a little lengthy but looking for some wise advice if poss please. I’m not savvy with ins/outs of financial info. I save, contribute to a pension but anything other than that, it all tends to go over my head!

So. Following a conversation with Pension Wise, they suggested we get in touch with some IFAs. It may seem this is all pension-based and yes, this post has been submitted to the pension thread, but it's intrinsically about, what do we do with our savings - where would they be best used to bump up our finances. Now recently having seen two advisers who have now given their fees as follows:

• First IFA: Initial consultation £150; looking at pensions and producing a pension report £395 plus £50 per pension (I have 3) + VAT, so around £834. (For financial planning this will be fee based. )
• Second IFA: Initial consultation – free. Looking at pensions and producing a pension report £650 inc VAT. (For financial planning thereafter, 0.55% ongoing, yearly charge.)

Does anyone have any thoughts about these costs? Seem expensive or reasonable?

We basically feel we need some advice for the following reasons:

Our question to the two advisers were therefore:

We have savings of £30k which are in fixed term deposit accounts of 2% and 1.8%, and with additional monies of £10k waiting to be put somewhere.

We are regular savers so with any future savings – should we :-

• Continue to put monies into ISAs?
• Increase the amount either myself or my husband pay into our current workplace/company pension, or even my previous Royal London pension (and yes, they do allow further contributions)?
• Buy more NI contributions for my husband?
• Do something else with the savings?

With regard to pensions:

Me: I am 52 and have an i) old, frozen, Scottish Widows Private Pension (unitised with Profit), ii) a fairly recent Royal London company pension (profit share account) and finally iii) a current People’s Pension. I am only paying into the latter pension at the standard 4% with my employer paying 3% and the provider the last 1% for the total 8%. My salary is £30k plus.

My husband: 55 and has just one pension, a company scheme which he has been paying into for the last three years, contributing 10% and company 8%. Because he’s been in the UK only since 2012 he will not be able to achieve full state pension at 67. His salary is less than £30k.

I would like to have a minimum £20k when I retire at 67 especially as my husband will have much less. How can I achieve this?

Finally, we don’t have a mortgage but unfortunately pay private rent. We don’t have any debts.

Are the above queries worth the cost of a financial advisor or, with research and possible help from forums like this, it’s something we (or rather, I) could manage ourselves?

Any thoughts gratefully appreciated and thank you in advance.

Alexland

The IFA costs (assume you have checked they are truly independent) don't look unreasonable as everyone had to make a living somehow.

I would be reluctant to pay for an initial consultation as it suggests the advisor isn't really seeking new customers and it could be an expensive way to find out you don't get on with each other. Suggest you meet up with the second IFA and consider if they could help you.

In terms of managing the money yourself there are a lot of us doing it but you need to be capable and willing to dedicate time to learn more, in places like this, and might make a few mistakes along the way but at least you will have lower costs.

Alex