IFA Fees

lmsco

Do these fees sound about average pls?
Initial meeting to discuss current situation and future financial aims is free
Thereafter
Tier 1: up to £250k  = 3%
Tier 2: £250k-£500k = 2%
Tier 3: £500k+ = 1%
eg for £300k you would pay 2.8% overall

Tailored plan includes:
• One planning meeting a year. • Annual assessment of your goals, and personal circumstances. • Annual assessment of the tax efficiency of your financial arrangements. • A distinctive approach to investment management. • Annual assessment of your attitude to investment risk and capacity for loss. • Monitoring and adjusting of your plan.

Ongoing planning fee
1% per annum fee, based on the overall value subject to a minimum of £1k. eg £300k would attract a £3k fee. The amount you pay will fluctuate either up or down depending on the value of your investments.

dunstonh

Initial is at the higher end (unless small amount)
Ongoing fee is ballpark for smaller values but there appears to be no tapering for larger values.  Which would make it expensive for medium to larger values.

IvanOpinion

It is important to note that you could do this yourself with a little bit of research and save those fees.  Even if you are not comfortable doing that at this point, there are plenty of good low cost trackers that you could use while you investigate further.  Assuming we are talking about a fund value of £300K (mentioned twice) why would you spend £8400 unnecessarily.

If you don't have the confidence to DIY then you have little choice but to pay these fees, but you should be able to find better value than that which you mention.

[Deleted User]

You haven't mentioned anything to do with investments or investment platform. Is this purely planning advice and not handling your investments as well?

Albermarle

In general looks expensive for a typical local IFA . Are they some kind of larger /national/wealth management company who tend to be poorer value ?

Speedbird676

These are similar to the fees I was quoted a year or so ago.

I ended up going DIY after a little research and some advice from this forum.

Alexland

What's left for you as the investor if your returns are being taken by such high charges?

The_Green_Hornet

What does A distinctive approach to investment management mean?

[Deleted User]

The_Green_Hornet said:

What does A distinctive approach to investment management mean?

I think it means the IFA has a strong focus on managing the client’s expectations, rather than the performance of the investment.

To gauge the value of the IFA proposition, lmsco may care to frame the question another way: how do the charges compare with other expenses : repayments on a car, upgrading the kitchen? What are you getting for your money? 
For example, when you pay Council Tax, you help support the local infrastructure and get your bins emptied every fortnight. As far as can 
be judged from the op, the whole ongoing service is wrapped up in one planning meeting a year, in which the other • points would be covered.

The_Green_Hornet

ZingPowZing said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

What does A distinctive approach to investment management mean?

I think it means the IFA has a strong focus on managing the client’s expectations, rather than the performance of the investment.

Thanks, I just thought it was marketing bull.

garmeg

The_Green_Hornet said:

ZingPowZing said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

What does A distinctive approach to investment management mean?

I think it means the IFA has a strong focus on managing the client’s expectations, rather than the performance of the investment.

Thanks, I just thought it was marketing bull.

It is.