Nervous chap here

GSP

Malthusian said:

I see IFA’s as all working in a shop and a lot of the time when you walk into that shop it’s pot luck who serves you and what kind of service you get.

But to continue your analogy, as long as you walk out with what you wanted, it matters little.

IFA’s are not robots and it would be interesting if someone went to three different IFA’s, would they get exactly the same service and advice?

No. But as long as the advice is good, the difference is likely to be marginal, and even when two advisers recommend different courses of action with a significant difference, both of them can still be right.

I came on here for opinions, how do we know if our IFA is delivering or not?

What do you want them to deliver? (You will get more responses if you start a separate thread rather than mixing it with the OP's.)

When it comes to fees, what is best one who charges a flat fee or one that charges a % of your fund balance at the time. Is the first just happy to take your money, is the second stopping you withdrawing your money so they get more?

Most people prefer a % because they don't like paying higher fees (as a proportion of the fund) when their investments are going down. Similarly it is inequitable for someone with £100,000 to pay 10 times as much to get the same value from advice as someone with £1 million to invest.
But if you don't see it that way you can ask for a fixed fee.

Sorry if you saw it like this, but there’s no way I was trying to hijack the OP’s thread. I hoped the way I had written my post was just raising and adding certain points and giving a view, not seeking answers to them.

OldMusicGuy

johnnyren said:

Just recently been feeling I could be doing with a bit of reassurance from someone that my pension pot is being looked after correctly ,   is there someone out there who looks at these things and let me know if things are ok ,   

Yes, that person is you. You need to spend a bit of time educating yourself so that you can understand what your IFA is doing and if it meets the long term objectives you have set. You should do some reading, something like "DIY Pensions: A Simple Guide to Pensions, SIPPs & Retirement Planning" by John Edwards and maybe look at a few online videos (PensionCraft ones are excellent). You need to have clear goals and also have some preferences for risk and investing style - do you prefer passive or actively managed funds for example. You should also have a clear financial plan for retirement, after all (like others said) how do you know if you are doing "ok" unless you know what you are trying to achieve?

You are not going to get any value from going to another IFA. They are either not going to criticise a fellow IFA, or they may say "ooh that chap's rubbish, come over to my custom portfolio on my platform" to get your custom. Either way, how will you know their advice is right? Employ another IFA to check them.....?

If you are not prepared to spend a bit of time reading up on one of the most important aspects of your life, just trust your IFA and forget about it. 

Having objectives will also help you avoid "portfolio envy" by reading threads on here. There are lots of people saying "my portfolio went up by xx% over this period" and you can sometimes feel bad if yours hasn't done this. This will encourage you to switch too often and chase returns (BAD move). Having clear objectives has helped me manage my portfolio better and avoid "portfolio envy" (which I definitely suffered from when I was a bit naive about pensions).

GSP

That’s a great post OMG.

johnnyren

AlanP_2 said:

OP - What does "OK" mean in your context?

What are you trying to achieve?

What "scary threads" on here are causing you to be nervous?

Thanks for your reply ,    it was the thread on the ifa advises pension move to true potential  I found a bit of an eye opener 

dunstonh

johnnyren said:

AlanP_2 said:

OP - What does "OK" mean in your context?

What are you trying to achieve?

What "scary threads" on here are causing you to be nervous?

Thanks for your reply ,    it was the thread on the ifa advises pension move to true potential  I found a bit of an eye opener 

That is a frustration but not something to be scared about.   

[Deleted User]

Put your arrangement on here and we will inform you, johnnnyren; free of charge.