Financial Advisor - how to find a good one?

kangoora

Langtang said:

dunstonh said:

A lot of advisers work from home.  Often firms that have 3-5 advisers will have the individuals working from their homes.  City locations tend to have a shop front whereas rural locations tend to be offices in a converted garage or barn or along those lines.

I recall an article some years back that still referred to the majority of firms as a cottage industry.

The 3rd had lots and lots of staff (and mentioned wm)

Massive generalisation but that would be the one to avoid.     WM would hint at discretionary management and you needing to fir their model rather than the other way around.

Someone earlier in the post suggested the adviserbook website. It was very helpful but when I filtered, I was left with 3.

Its a relatively new directory. So, many firms have not put their status on there yet.   Unbiased has ceased to be an IFA directory and is now a lead generation site.  Most of the IFAs I know don't appear on there apart from the free basic entry.    Vouchedfor was expensive when they last contacted me.   So, i don't personally have a good opinion of it.  Plus, when I checked out to see what other firms were on there local to us, none of them were.  There was little coverage in our area.  It was mostly the city based wealth management firms and the new advisers that a trainee firm churns out regulalary that need the business as they are new.

To be honest, google is not a bad option.  It will often show you the firms that dont advertise.

I had a look through the fca website and most in my area worked for St James' ...... wealth management, although they all had home addresses (which would tie in with you comment above)

I'll probably regret posting this, but....

If only we knew someone we feel we could trust, a proven source....

You only need to do a forum search with St James Place to gather the general opinion on the forum for this firm (hint: It isn't pretty )

Best of luck in your search, if you live in a rural area don't be afraid to search wider - I'd imagine rural based firms wouldn't be scared of a 25 mile radius.

[Deleted User]

A sideways option is to look for articles about IFAs in your area.
Example, type this into google and replace Ipswich (for example) with your local town (this one is interesting because the first few articles are a firm you definitely don't want to be involved with)
site:https://citywire.co.uk/ IFA ipswich

Langtang

Deleted_User said:

A sideways option is to look for articles about IFAs in your area.
Example, type this into google and replace Ipswich (for example) with your local town (this one is interesting because the first few articles are a firm you definitely don't want to be involved with)
site:https://citywire.co.uk/ IFA ipswich

Couldn’t get it to work for Aberdeen, all I kept getting were articles about Aberdeen Asset Management. It was an excellent website though and gave me a top 20 Scottish IFA’s, so thanks. 

Langtang

Am I right in thinking that it is better that the IFA live in the “general” vicinity.? Looking through some of my FIL’s old files, I see he had used Brewin Dolphin, Aitchison & Colbourne and was latterly using Bentley Redmayne. Anyone any thoughts on those 3?

cfw1994

A pal of mine who retired a year or two back uses Brewin Dolphin.   Big company, he had a neighbour/friend who worked there & was perhaps the reason he moved.
I know for some time (during some decent growth), he had stayed in cash for much of his pot.....not sure if that was their advice or his, but felt wrong to me at the time (& has, I feel, proven so).   
Problem is that no-one wants to admit they made a bad choice, and one doesn't have those conversations with friends.

On locations, given the way this year has gone, I suspect many advisors could cover any distance - we live in a zoom world!!

BritishInvestor

Langtang said:

Am I right in thinking that it is better that the IFA live in the “general” vicinity.? Looking through some of my FIL’s old files, I see he had used Brewin Dolphin, Aitchison & Colbourne and was latterly using Bentley Redmayne. Anyone any thoughts on those 3?

Brewin:
Restricted
https://www.brewin.co.uk/sites/brewin-corp-v2/files/globalassets/pdf/introduction-to-wealth-management-for-partners.pdf
2.4% all in on a £500k pot!!
https://www.brewin.co.uk/sites/brewin-corp-v2/files/globalassets/pdf/our-services-and-charges-sept18.pdf

Aitchison & Colbourne: Website seems a tad out of date "Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Services_Authority#:~:text=turn was subsumed.-,FSA,force on 1 December 2001.

Bentley Redmayne: Seems like a firm that focuses on "managing your money" which may or may not be what you want

Langtang

BritishInvestor said:

Langtang said:

Am I right in thinking that it is better that the IFA live in the “general” vicinity.? Looking through some of my FIL’s old files, I see he had used Brewin Dolphin, Aitchison & Colbourne and was latterly using Bentley Redmayne. Anyone any thoughts on those 3?

Brewin:
Restricted
https://www.brewin.co.uk/sites/brewin-corp-v2/files/globalassets/pdf/introduction-to-wealth-management-for-partners.pdf
2.4% all in on a £500k pot!!

Bentley Redmayne: Seems like a firm that focuses on "managing your money" which may or may not be what you want

Thanks for your reply. How does this (taken from the Brewin website) tie in with what you mentioned above about Brewin? Are we talking about different things here? “ We are bound to no corporate group, so offer unbiased recommendations from a broad universe of investment opportunities”

Regarding Bentley, to be quite honest I’m not sure what I want/need. Just to talk to someone/ anyone in the first instance. 

dunstonh

Thanks for your reply. How does this (taken from the Brewin website) tie in with what you mentioned above about Brewin? Are we talking about different things here? “ We are bound to no corporate group, so offer unbiased recommendations from a broad universe of investment opportunities”

They only offer their own options.   An independent has to offer solutions from the whole of market.  Brewin make their services available to IFAs (although personally, I am not a fan of DFMs)

Malthusian

Langtang said:

Thanks for your reply. How does this (taken from the Brewin website) tie in with what you mentioned above about Brewin? Are we talking about different things here? “ We are bound to no corporate group, so offer unbiased recommendations from a broad universe of investment opportunities”

Classic tied salesman weasel words. In fact that's one of the more egregious examples I've seen. "Bound to no corporate group" makes absolutely zero sense. Brewin ARE a corporate group.

The key word is "independent". If they say they are "independent" advisers they almost certainly are. If they don't use the word "independent", they are almost certainly restricted, i.e. tied. The term "independent adviser" is prestigious, so you don't put a lot of effort into being able to use it and then not use it.

Langtang

Malthusian said:

Langtang said:

Thanks for your reply. How does this (taken from the Brewin website) tie in with what you mentioned above about Brewin? Are we talking about different things here? “ We are bound to no corporate group, so offer unbiased recommendations from a broad universe of investment opportunities”

Classic tied salesman weasel words. In fact that's one of the more egregious examples I've seen. "Bound to no corporate group" makes absolutely zero sense. Brewin ARE a corporate group.

The key word is "independent". If they say they are "independent" advisers they almost certainly are. If they don't use the word "independent", they are almost certainly restricted, i.e. tied. The term "independent adviser" is prestigious, so you don't put a lot of effort into being able to use it and then not use it.

Even more confusing (for me) further down the page: bound to no corporate group. As you say, they are a corporate group. Across markets... individual companies... 

“Independent minds

We are an independently-owned firm, listed on the London FTSE 250, bound to no corporate group. We have an award-winning research team, who undertake research across markets, asset classes and individual companies. They develop unconstrained views and insights for our advisers to draw upon so they can best manage your wealth”