To see an Inprendent financial advisor or visit the bank.

GJSearle1985

i am 33 year old locum (self contracting meidical man. I get no benefit of the NHS and money is via an umbrella. Company. I was originally concerned about pension but a financial advisor has suggest payment protection incase of an accident was paramount. I've had various calls from independent advisors happy to push forwards with a pension. It all got me very confused and i am not a banking/financial expert.

Would your advice to proceed with a advisor or approach one of my banks (Natwest and lloyds) to steak to an expert there to arrange my finance
Many thanks in advance.

JAry

MovingForwards

An independent financial adviser will be your best bet as they have access to various companies, a bank will only be able to discuss their products.

Linton

Certainly not your bank. Generally they are motivated to sell their own products or those of companies with which they have sales agreements. An independent advisor should have better specialist knowledge of the options available across the whole market.

Pensions and income protection are vital for your long term term well being. You need to sort out both especially in your case where you do not have the benefits that come with being employed by the NHS. A good independent advisor should be able to help you with both.

fred246

You'll have to work a few months extra to pay for the financial adviser. Ask them about their hourly rate. It'll be many multiples of yours. Can't you just arrange them yourself? We had a family member who was an Independent Financial Adviser. They used to make a fortune out of commission. One day she brought me life insurance quotes. She had scoured the 'whole of the market' for the best quote. She produced a list of all their providers and she recommended I go for the cheapest. I googled 'life insurance' and five minutes later I had a cheaper quote from Tesco. She wanted me to pay more every month for 25 years so she could get the commission. I went with Tesco and she wouldn't talk to me for months!
Pensions and income protection are easy to do yourself. An IFA will charge you a fortune. IFAs won't normally talk to you about pensions unless you have hundreds of thousands in a pension already.

Linton

Tesco income protection insurance is sold through Go Direct who are financial advisors. Cheap and cheerful Life Assurance is very different to Income Protection insurance.

Malthusian

Linton wrote: »

Tesco income protection insurance is sold through Go Direct who are financial advisors. Cheap and cheerful Life Assurance is very different to Income Protection insurance.

But Fred won't find out about that until he has an accident and has to live off PIP, after which he can blame his relative for not making the difference clearer. Same applies if he did manage to take out income protection but it's on an any occupation basis or will rack up the premiums year on year because he did the job on the cheap.

Anyway, back to the OP, before we get sidetracked further - to reinforce the above, you should always use an IFA, never a bank salesman.

The IFA is right to suggest you prioritise income protection. The general hierachy (there is an acronym but I've forgotten it) puts protection first, then pensions.

There is no point sticking all your money in pensions and nothing in income protection if you suffer an accident or illness after a couple of years and become unable to work, leaving you relying on State Benefits and a pension fund of a few thousand quid for the rest of your days.

However it should be protection and pensions, not either/or.

GJSearle1985 wrote:

I've had various calls from independent advisors happy to push forwards with a pension.

Presumably because you called various independent advisors and asked them to get in touch. Independent financial advisors do not cold call.

LHW99

Independent financial advisors do not cold call.

The most important aspect IMO.
You can DIY, or use an IFA, but if you are phoned out of the blue by someone offering to "review" your pension, "move" it or anything else and you haven't called them after checking they are properly regulated - run a mile

tacpot12

Aviva do good Income Protection policies. You need an income protection policy. Deferring the payout for 52 weeks will keep the cost of the policy down, as will specifying that the policy only has to cover you if you can do no work of any type. (Such policies usually have to option to specify that they will pay out if you can't do your current job, or if you can do no work of any type.)

Once the Income Protection Policy is in place, your pension should be your next priority. I would arrange both yourself unless you feel you need advice from a professional, in which case use an IFA.

dunstonh

I've had various calls from independent advisors happy to push forwards with a pension.

IFAs do not cold call. Especially on pensions which is banned from cold calling. However, for the best part of the last decade, unregulated scammers have been cold calling on pensions. Do, not mistake them for actual advisers. No matter what they may say on the phone.

Permanent Health Insurance policies (the best form of income protection) can generally see you classify most plans into budget, standard and comprehensive level coverage. Those are not official classifications but a way of viewing them. Budget plans are often awful and should really only be an option of last resort. There are a lot of differences in the policy types and this is often not reflected in the premium level. Some expensive plans are poor quality and some cheaper plans are better quality. There is no one best solution as insurers will often focus on certain types. Then you have the payment protection form of PPI which is below the budget version.

there is an acronym but I've forgotten it

A blast from the past. I don't think I have heard it since the 90s. PIMPSI

fred246

IFAs certainly used to cold call. They had a product which payed serious commission and if they could find someone to buy it they would make thousands. They were a nightmare at the start of my working life. Later on they just targeted the high earners in our company. Any number of free seminars for the high earners only. The workers with good medium salaries they ignored totally.

AnotherJoe

Here are some hot pins IIIIII
The order of priority should be, IFA, IIII in eyes, bank.