Advice without sales pressure

EffieBubbles

When living in Asia my husband was approached by The Devere Group re pension and savings plans. He signed up with them and transferred his pension to the QROPS scheme in Malta that they recommended. 

We have now read many bad reviews about Devere and are concerned. 

We have approached several IFA’s re finding out if his pension is now at high risk but all have come back to us with their own sales packages. 

Where can we get independent advice re The Devere Group? 

We are now living back in the UK. 

Thank you for your advice. 

dunstonh

We have approached several IFA’s re finding out if his pension is now at high risk but all have come back to us with their own sales packages. 

Are they IFAs as in UK standard or are they IFAs in another country (which may not mean the same thing as this country).  In the UK, there isn't a sales package.   The IFA gives you their price and you agree to it or not.  

FAs will usually have a sales process but that is why you shouldn't deal with FAs.

[Deleted User]

Don’t know them but Truspilot  reviews look bad. Particularly the 5 star reviews; they all appear to be written by the same person. 

Also, a transfer to the QROPS in Malta has a 0.00001% chance of being a good idea.

What are the ongoing charges? Which particular products did you buy? 

garmeg

Deleted_User said:

Don’t know them but Truspilot  reviews look bad. Particularly the 5 star reviews; they all appear to be written by the same person. 

Also, a transfer to the QROPS in Malta has a 0.00001% chance of being a good idea.

What are the ongoing charges? Which particular products did you buy? 

Looks very bad ...

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.devere-group.com?languages=en&stars=1

Sandtree

Assuming you are in the UK, then Independent Financial Advisors is where you go to get independent advice. 

There are typically two engagement models, one where you pay them up front for their time/effort and the second where they only receive a commission from the products they sell. The Financial Conduct Authority regulate the IFAs and ensure that advice given is based on best intentions and not best commissions. 

Ultimately commission is their income and so they will try and sell you a product, especially if you are engaging them on a commission only basis.  If you are paying for their time directly with fees then they may entertain you better on a pure advice basis but if the advice is that you're not in a good place it would be remis of them not to present to you better options based on the information you've provided to them.

dunstonh

There are typically two engagement models, one where you pay them up front for their time/effort and the second where they only receive a commission from the products they sell. The Financial Conduct Authority regulate the IFAs and ensure that advice given is based on best intentions and not best commissions. 

In the UK, commission has not been an option since January 2013.  Fee only since then.

Linton

Sandtree said:

Assuming you are in the UK, then Independent Financial Advisors is where you go to get independent advice. 

There are typically two engagement models, one where you pay them up front for their time/effort and the second where they only receive a commission from the products they sell. The Financial Conduct Authority regulate the IFAs and ensure that advice given is based on best intentions and not best commissions. 

Ultimately commission is their income and so they will try and sell you a product, especially if you are engaging them on a commission only basis.  If you are paying for their time directly with fees then they may entertain you better on a pure advice basis but if the advice is that you're not in a good place it would be remis of them not to present to you better options based on the information you've provided to them.

No, in the UK IFAs cannot receive commission from investment products, their income comes from explicit charges for advice and other work carried out.  FAs can, that is why the advice is to make sure that your Advisor is a registered IFA and not an FA.
Outside the UK the situation can be very different.

steampowered

The first priority is to get a grip on exactly what your husband has got invested with DeVere. Your husband should start with carefully reading all of his statements.

I suspect the investment is still there. I don't believe DeVere are a scammer type firm, but he is likely to be paying DeVere very high fees.

The lack of understanding indicated in your post is concerning. We are presumably talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds here - so your husband really needs to get a grip where that money is; what it is invested in; what fees he is paying.

That would apply no matter where his money is invested. There was an interesting article recently explaining that, if you invested £1 million with St James Place over 20 years (another high fee investment firm), that might cost you £1 million fees. Have a read of https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/whos-paying-for-the-drinks/.

When your husband understands what he has got, he can then make a decision as to whether he wants to transfer his pension into something like a SIPP (assuming that is possible) or whether he wants to pay an IFA to help him manage it.

EffieBubbles

Thank you to everyone who has responded so far, you have been very informative and helpful and I truly appreciate you taking the time to help me. 

Albermarle

I would find all the paperwork and take it all to an IFA to have a look at .
If they can organise a transfer into a more mainstream UK based product it could potentially save you a lot of money .
Probably a lot more than the IFA's fees.