IFA annual commission on pension pot

SonOf

If you are not going to use the IFA again for transactions or advice in the near future then you don't need the ongoing servicing.

Mick70

SonOf wrote: »

If you are not going to use the IFA again for transactions or advice in the near future then you don't need the ongoing servicing.

The Advisor has said that , once transferred into Royal London, I would need to use an IFA (either them or somebody else) in order to contact the pension provider etc etc ?

SonOf

Mick70 wrote: »

The Advisor has said that , once transferred into Royal London, I would need to use an IFA (either them or somebody else) in order to contact the pension provider etc etc ?

Some transactions will have to be done via the adviser. Some can be done direct.

cfw1994

SonOf wrote: »

Some transactions will have to be done via the adviser. Some can be done direct.

What transactions could not be done direct?

I only ask as I have never used an advisor on my work scheme with Aviva, & have no difficulty doing anything (getting information from them, selecting funds, changing sums going in, etc).
In this day & age, it feels odd that someone might NOT be able to do those things.
Not that I am saying people don't need an advisor: the folk on this forum clearly have an interest and are probably way more knowledgeable than the general "person on the street"....

I'm curious what it is that ONLY an advisor can do!

MallyGirl

some pension providers only interact with advisors and are not geared up to deal with the general public. If you don't want to pay for an IFA you just don't use a provider like this.

Linton

cfw1994 wrote: »

What transactions could not be done direct?

I only ask as I have never used an advisor on my work scheme with Aviva, & have no difficulty doing anything (getting information from them, selecting funds, changing sums going in, etc).
In this day & age, it feels odd that someone might NOT be able to do those things.


I'm curious what it is that ONLY an advisor can do!

What choice of funds do you have for your work scheme? Is there a default one?


Out in the real SIPP world there are 1000s of funds and there is no default. The choice is yours. Many people choose seemingly at random or choose the funds they have heard about. This can end in disaster - see Woodford or read the posts about having been scammed. A comparatively few people may peruse this forum and choose something sensible.



But its not just choice of funds where an IFA can help. There is also the question for example as to whether you are putting sufficient into your pension to meet your retirement objectives. Do you know if you are? Do you have retirement objectives? Many peope clearly dont. They may well carry on working until they decide to stop and then find they have a standard of living far below what they expected or were used to. With a bit of numeracy, knowledge/understanding and familiarity with spreadsheets you can work it out yourself. Sadly many people do not have those skills.

During the accumulation pohase you will need to monitor progress to see how your funds are increasing suffiicently to meet your objectives. If not something will need to change. I would expect the IFA to manage this process.



When you retire financial management then gets more interesting. Drawdown hasnt been mainstream long enough to see whether the general public will be able to manage it.

cfw1994

MallyGirl wrote: »

some pension providers only interact with advisors and are not geared up to deal with the general public. If you don't want to pay for an IFA you just don't use a provider like this.

Yes, I get that.....I guess I just thought “Royal London” sounded a bigger company than one who only worked with advisors.

@Linton: I do understand the value a decent financial advisor can give the “average” person who either has little financial understandings or perhaps just no time....I was specifically asking about the point made here:

SonOf wrote: »

Some transactions will have to be done via the adviser. Some can be done direct.

Curious what someone could do direct with Royal London against what only a FA could do.

msallen

Deleted_User wrote: »

...while customers have guns to their heads. If they want more control over their hard earned money, their only option is to pay for IFA insurance (and other costs and profits). It’s really a scheme for subsidising IFAs. I wouldn’t blame “capitalism” for this particular regulation

Utter drivel

SonOf

.I guess I just thought “Royal London” sounded a bigger company than one who only worked with advisors.

Remember that IFAs have historically dominated the pension market. I recall a year or so back seeing that Royal London were the largest provider of drawdown in the UK.

Curious what someone could do direct with Royal London against what only a FA could do.

They will not give any advice but they will accept fund switch instructions and they will allow drawdown instructions directly now. I don't believe they will accept increments/top ups/transfers in without an intermediary (at least they didnt last time I tried).

cfw1994

SonOf wrote: »

Remember that IFAs have historically dominated the pension market. I recall a year or so back seeing that Royal London were the largest provider of drawdown in the UK.


They will not give any advice but they will accept fund switch instructions and they will allow drawdown instructions directly now. I don't believe they will accept increments/top ups/transfers in without an intermediary (at least they didn't last time I tried).

Ahh, yes, I don't expect ANY of the pension providers to give advice - that would be why one might use an IFA!

Aviva don't give me advice.
Well, technically they could...at a price....& I did speak this week with an advisor there just to clarify some mechanics of their system (when moving towards drawdown) - he had taken a look through my funds and felt they were pretty good, we left it at that!

Linton wrote: »

What choice of funds do you have for your work scheme? Is there a default one?

Failed to reply to this bit: Aviva offer me just over 80 funds. I very much appreciate there are a million others I *could* be with, but there seems to be a fair choice within those 80!

There is indeed a default fund which was "okay" (IMHO), & there is a "wind down to retirement" mechanism for them to shift to lower risk as you approach a selected date.....although technically they all look to have a similar risk in their fact sheets, I think because they are "risk" compared with others in their sector.

However, a smart colleague & myself spent a "slow work day" MANY years ago printing and perusing multiple fact sheets, & decided some others looked better (obviously based on past perf, no guarantee to future, etc), so we shuffled things about a bit around 15 years back....& I have tweaked it perhaps 3 or 4 times since.

Most cost 0.25% in "annual management charge" fees, a few go up to 0.81%, but that is it: no other platform fees for me to pay.

My amateur analysis of the funds I am in (with the % spread between them) suggests I have managed around 10% pa over the past 10 years, which feels reasonable. Perhaps just been lucky, but I certainly have a better grip on where the funds are invested...& the overheads are low!

Hope this clarifies it.