IFA Advises Pension Move to True Potential : Thoughts Please?

BritishInvestor

GSP said:

ZingPowZing said:

Foresty_Forest:
https://www.tpllp.com/true-potential-portfolios/
Scroll halfway down the page for the performance of their 5 main TP portfolios. Note, in each case, how the performance has stalled after a good initial year. You can easily compare them with alternatives like Vanguard.

GSP:
re your charges, you are paying your adviser £75 per week. How does that compare with your other expenditure? What do you imagine you are getting for your money?

That’s the point, I don’t really know. Is 0.5% the going rate for advisor charges? One thing, I could never and would not have the confidence to do the investing on my own. Is it something you would advise someone to do, a complete novice as to me it looks a minefield out there?
Just looking back, fund manager fees were 0.31% in 2019 and 0.14% 2018, so they have climbed quite heftily this year, but he has put me into more of these. Said the hoped increase return would more than offset the fees.

"Is 0.5% the going rate for advisor charges? "
Depends on the pot size and what they are doing for you.
"Fund Manager Charges 0.64%."
Given that you can buy the world for 0.2% what are the extra 0.45% pa bringing you?

"One thing, I could never and would not have the confidence to do the investing on my own. Is it something you would advise someone to do, a complete novice as to me it looks a minefield out there?"
Investing is the easy part of retirement planning

BritishInvestor

ZingPowZing said:

Foresty_Forest:
https://www.tpllp.com/true-potential-portfolios/
Scroll halfway down the page for the performance of their 5 main TP portfolios. Note, in each case, how the performance has stalled after a good initial year. You can easily compare them with alternatives like Vanguard.

GSP:
re your charges, you are paying your adviser £75 per week. How does that compare with your other expenditure? What do you imagine you are getting for your money?

You "should" be paying for a number of things
Education
Confidence that you are not going to run out of money
Encouragement to spend/gift (if applicable)
A sounding board
Prevention from making a big mistake.

GSP

BritishInvestor said:

GSP said:

ZingPowZing said:

Foresty_Forest:
https://www.tpllp.com/true-potential-portfolios/
Scroll halfway down the page for the performance of their 5 main TP portfolios. Note, in each case, how the performance has stalled after a good initial year. You can easily compare them with alternatives like Vanguard.

GSP:
re your charges, you are paying your adviser £75 per week. How does that compare with your other expenditure? What do you imagine you are getting for your money?

That’s the point, I don’t really know. Is 0.5% the going rate for advisor charges? One thing, I could never and would not have the confidence to do the investing on my own. Is it something you would advise someone to do, a complete novice as to me it looks a minefield out there?
Just looking back, fund manager fees were 0.31% in 2019 and 0.14% 2018, so they have climbed quite heftily this year, but he has put me into more of these. Said the hoped increase return would more than offset the fees.

"Is 0.5% the going rate for advisor charges? "
Depends on the pot size and what they are doing for you.
"Fund Manager Charges 0.64%."
Given that you can buy the world for 0.2% what are the extra 0.45% pa bringing you?

"One thing, I could never and would not have the confidence to do the investing on my own. Is it something you would advise someone to do, a complete novice as to me it looks a minefield out there?"
Investing is the easy part of retirement planning

Is it? I look at the holdings names in my portfolio and they don’t really mean much to me in truth. Equities, Baillie Gifford accounts, American B accounts, Emerging markets, Asia Pacific Sustainabilty, Merian UK Mid Cap, Liontrust Sustainable future growth, Goldman Sachs India Equity, and a number more. Just draws a blank for me and I “trust” the advisor. He advises several new ones at least each review, and sure in the summer he took more action concerned about all the uncertainty.
I assume the extra 0.45% is bringing me a better chance of growth.

Joey_Soap

I think ZPZ makes an excellent point. Having put your money into some funds that themselves have management, what exactly is your advisor now bringing to the party that is worth £75 a week to you? I know what I believe the answer to be, likely the same as ZPZ.

BritishInvestor

GSP said:

BritishInvestor said:

GSP said:

ZingPowZing said:

Foresty_Forest:
https://www.tpllp.com/true-potential-portfolios/
Scroll halfway down the page for the performance of their 5 main TP portfolios. Note, in each case, how the performance has stalled after a good initial year. You can easily compare them with alternatives like Vanguard.

GSP:
re your charges, you are paying your adviser £75 per week. How does that compare with your other expenditure? What do you imagine you are getting for your money?

That’s the point, I don’t really know. Is 0.5% the going rate for advisor charges? One thing, I could never and would not have the confidence to do the investing on my own. Is it something you would advise someone to do, a complete novice as to me it looks a minefield out there?
Just looking back, fund manager fees were 0.31% in 2019 and 0.14% 2018, so they have climbed quite heftily this year, but he has put me into more of these. Said the hoped increase return would more than offset the fees.

"Is 0.5% the going rate for advisor charges? "
Depends on the pot size and what they are doing for you.
"Fund Manager Charges 0.64%."
Given that you can buy the world for 0.2% what are the extra 0.45% pa bringing you?

"One thing, I could never and would not have the confidence to do the investing on my own. Is it something you would advise someone to do, a complete novice as to me it looks a minefield out there?"
Investing is the easy part of retirement planning

Is it? I look at the holdings names in my portfolio and they don’t really mean much to me in truth. Equities, Baillie Gifford accounts, American B accounts, Emerging markets, Asia Pacific Sustainabilty, Merian UK Mid Cap, Liontrust Sustainable future growth, Goldman Sachs India Equity, and a number more. Just draws a blank for me and I “trust” the advisor. He advises several new ones at least each review, and sure in the summer he took more action concerned about all the uncertainty.
I assume the extra 0.45% is bringing me a better chance of growth.

"He advises several new ones at least each review, and sure in the summer he took more action concerned about all the uncertainty."
I guess if that's your adviser's "value add" he has to be seen to be doing something. Some would argue doing nothing is sometimes the best "action".

"I assume the extra 0.45% is bringing me a better chance of growth."
It's moderately unlikely over the longer term.

Cus

I would expect the advisor to be regularly reviewing the selection of funds chosen, their performance, whether it fits with the clients risk profile, asset allocation, move funds based on perceived market trends, researching fund manager performances, speaking with fund managers, looking for new fund opportunities, consistently reviewing investment strategy etc.
If this leads to an overall better performance (maybe over 3 years) for the portfolio after fees than what the client would likely have decided to do DIY then job done.  If not, either change or do it yourself.  Of course going DIY needs personal discipline.  There are some on this forum who have panic sold, over traded etc, and would likely have been better relying on an IFA.

GSP

Joey_Soap said:

I think ZPZ makes an excellent point. Having put your money into some funds that themselves have management, what exactly is your advisor now bringing to the party that is worth £75 a week to you? I know what I believe the answer to be, likely the same as ZPZ.

I suppose he is managing/overseeing the managed funds. Seeing that they are ‘doing the job’.

GSP

Cus said:

I would expect the advisor to be regularly reviewing the selection of funds chosen, their performance, whether it fits with the clients risk profile, asset allocation, move funds based on perceived market trends, researching fund manager performances, speaking with fund managers, looking for new fund opportunities, consistently reviewing investment strategy etc.
If this leads to an overall better performance (maybe over 3 years) for the portfolio after fees than what the client would likely have decided to do DIY then job done.  If not, either change or do it yourself.  Of course going DIY needs personal discipline.  There are some on this forum who have panic sold, over traded etc, and would likely have been better relying on an IFA.

Not sure how you could measure this, but that wouldn’t be too hard in my case as I know nothing!

BritishInvestor

Cus said:

I would expect the advisor to be regularly reviewing the selection of funds chosen, their performance, whether it fits with the clients risk profile, asset allocation, move funds based on perceived market trends, researching fund manager performances, speaking with fund managers, looking for new fund opportunities, consistently reviewing investment strategy etc.
If this leads to an overall better performance (maybe over 3 years) for the portfolio after fees than what the client would likely have decided to do DIY then job done.  If not, either change or do it yourself.  Of course going DIY needs personal discipline.  There are some on this forum who have panic sold, over traded etc, and would likely have been better relying on an IFA.

"I would expect the advisor to be regularly reviewing the selection of funds chosen, their performance, whether it fits with the clients risk profile, asset allocation, move funds based on perceived market trends, researching fund manager performances, speaking with fund managers, looking for new fund opportunities, consistently reviewing investment strategy etc."
This is 2020, not the 90s. 

Joey_Soap

GSP said:

Joey_Soap said:

I think ZPZ makes an excellent point. Having put your money into some funds that themselves have management, what exactly is your advisor now bringing to the party that is worth £75 a week to you? I know what I believe the answer to be, likely the same as ZPZ.

I suppose he is managing/overseeing the managed funds. Seeing that they are ‘doing the job’.

Come on. £75 a week? I doubt the adviser spends more than half an hour every six months on this client. If that. Highly likely he has any number of clients with the exact same portfolio. I am sorry but it simply reinforces my opinion about advisers.