How do you find a decent financial advisor

Linton

JohnWinder said:

Stephen7372 said:

I'd love to know. I found a website but every advistor was given 5 stars everyone !

Try some of Jason Zweig's questions from the WSJ: https://switchpointfinancial.com/19-questions-ask-financial-advisor/

Why suggest people ask UK IFAs questions that only make sense in a US context?

JohnWinder

Sorry if I've touched a raw nerve. I didn't see that a question in a .com forum, not a .co.uk, forum had anything UK specific in it. But, ever alert to the possibility, I did suggest 'some' of the questions might be useful. As well, the existing answers seemed to omit most of Zweig's points, some of which struck me as valid.

dunstonh

JohnWinder said:

Stephen7372 said:

I'd love to know. I found a website but every advistor was given 5 stars everyone !

Try some of Jason Zweig's questions from the WSJ: https://switchpointfinancial.com/19-questions-ask-financial-advisor/

Q1 - does not apply to UK
Q2 - does not apply to UK
Q3 - does not apply to UK
Q4 - mandatory in UK 
Q5 - difficult in the UK as FCA does not like variable fees with different clients without good reason.  However, discounts are sometimes given (family members of existing clients for example or maybe a special offer open to all)
Q6 - retainers are not allowed in the UK
Q7 - mandatory in the UK
Q8 - does not apply in the UK
Q9 - daft question that has nothing to do with the quality of advice.
Q10 - Regulatory permissions in the UK require IFAs to be holistic. Although FAs can restrict
Q11 - Not allowed in the UK in regulated areas but is allowed in unregulated areas.
Q12 - Good question but MIFIDII requires all advice firms to have investment governance in place.
Q13 - irrelevant question for a UK adviser
Q14 -  irrelevant question for a UK adviser 
Q15 - irrelevant question for a UK adviser
Q16 - irrelevant question for a UK adviser
Q17 - fair question but in the UK, there is a mandatory minimum that is good enough for 98% of consumers.
Q18 - The FCA dictates projection terms. 
Q19 - bad question and indicates low understanding by the writer.  The adviser will have their own objectives, timescales and risk profile and will invest to suit their situation.  Yours may be different.  MIFID1 requires the advice to be within the knowledge and understanding of the consumer.   So, you may have to use solutions that are simpler with some people but ok to be more advanced with others.

Most of the questions do not work in the UK as the UK has higher regulatory standards where the default meets or exceeds what the questions are asking and a good number of the questions seem to be aimed at investment managers rather than advisers.  In the UK, advisers are not investment managers.   

eskbanker

@dunstonh, turning it the other way round, as an IFA, what sort of questions are you asked that you'd see as being likely to be the most productive and illustrative when you're approached by prospective customers?  You must get asked plenty of daft ones but conversely you must get familiar with which are most constructive....

Thrugelmir

JohnWinder said:

Sorry if I've touched a raw nerve. I didn't see that a question in a .com forum, not a .co.uk, forum had anything UK specific in it. But, ever alert to the possibility, I did suggest 'some' of the questions might be useful. As well, the existing answers seemed to omit most of Zweig's points, some of which struck me as valid.

Inherent issue with googling something. Need to ensure it's relevant.  An all too common trait with investors these days. As leads to miscomprehension. Soon the world will be flat. 

zagfles

Not sure about finding good ones, but you can search for ombudsman decisions here so it might help avoid bad ones (I did a search for someone and found 9 decisions against the IFA they were considering using, so well worth checking):

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions