Should I pay for pension advice?

Albermarle

Is it worth paying for the financial advice or is that something which can be gleaned from freely available information?

Even if you pay for financial advice , it is still worthwhile getting some basic knowledge about investments . It's the same as taking your car to the garage . Even if you prefer that the trained mechanic mends your car , it is better to have some knowledge of how a car works so you can have a more sensible discussion with them.

[Deleted User]

SeniorSam wrote: »

Mordco, a few good books on investing will never achieve the years of learning that an IFA has to achieve to offer advice. That adviser has to undergo testing and pass exams before being allowed to advise. If you think you would reach that level with a few books, then you are most likely to fail in your own guidance.

1. The course takes 9 months https://www.libf.ac.uk/study/professional-qualifications/financial-advice/diploma-for-financial-advisers-dipfa Most of the material taught is useful to someone selling a product (Laws, selling ethics, client communication) but useless to the investor. I see no statistics or behavioural finance, both kinda crucial. Are you guys even trained to do proper security analysis? Not obvious from the course and takes a bit more maths than this course would allow. As someone who studied engineering physics I have decent understanding of distributions, standard deviations and similar relevant concepts. I studied statistics for longer than this course takes. My son who is an accountant - same thing.

2. Thank you for your concern, but I am not complaining. At the age of 48, having started investing after graduation at 25, our portfolio is well into 7 digits. That’s not counting DB pension. Would have been more had it not been for financial advice I took in the early years. I don’t blame the adviser, it was my own laziness that was responsible for following the advice without researching the subject. The thing about books - you get to learn from the best. Graham, Zweig, Bernstein, Buffett, Bogle... Any investment adviser who hasn’t read their books isn’t worth a penny.

[Deleted User]

dunstonh wrote: »

Why are you not growing your own food and lifestock? You would save money by doing that.
Why are you not servicing your own car, boiler etc? You would save money as well.



And two of the top 10 selling funds at HL are expensive "all-in-one funds" where the person is paying more than using an IFA. On top of the expensive HL platform charge.

DIY does not mean you save money automatically.

As a matter of fact, I do grow my own food (we now have 32 acres) and livestock (Indian Runner Ducks and bees). It’s a hobby rather than money saving.

Comparing farmers to IFAs is wrong. Farming takes time and effort, land and investment most people shouldn’t get involved with. Used to be that most people grew their own food but technology changed all that.

Investment policy should ensure the investment plan is simple to execute. Except for occasional rebalancing (in some cases) investment should not require any interference. Technology made it very easy to get market returns, which professionals with far more tools and education than IFAs struggle to beat. Of course IFAs advising on investment have an incentive to make it unnecessarily complex so they can justify ludicrous annual charges.

And I am sorry, but comparing costs on a few simple investment products does not take all that long, does not require a diploma and does not justify 40,000 in costs over 10 years.