Relationship With Your IFA

robatwork

Bianchiintenso said:

[Edit] it was 3 IFAs (SJP as well) It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

Just pointing out for future thread readers that SJP aren't IFAs.

I don't think this is splitting hairs....

Exclusive: wealth manager St James’s Place misleading customers on charges – Which? News

[Deleted User]

It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

One thing I’ve learnt is that whether you use an IFA or not, you should always educate yourself.  They are advisors/consultants. You are the decision maker.  And it needs to be an informed decision; you must know enough to evaluate the recommendation and whether it is suitable for you.  Sometimes the most impressive consultants with the poshest accent are the ones to avoid.  

Some see IFAs as a shortcut: “I don’t understand anything about investments and don’t have the time to learn”. Thats a mistake.  Your family’s financial security is more important to you than to others and its worth a little time. 

And then even if you do use an IFA, you can make a better choice, provide him with better inputs and ultimately pick better options. 

Bianchiintenso

robatwork said:

Bianchiintenso said:

[Edit] it was 3 IFAs (SJP as well) It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

Just pointing out for future thread readers that SJP aren't IFAs.

I don't think this is splitting hairs....

Exclusive: wealth manager St James’s Place misleading customers on charges – Which? News

Yes well corrected. I will say that they did tell me after looking at it that it wouldn't be in my interest at the time to leave Zurich due to early leaving penalty

Linton

Deleted_User said:

It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

One thing I’ve learnt is that whether you use an IFA or not, you should always educate yourself.  They are advisors/consultants. You are the decision maker.  And it needs to be an informed decision; you must know enough to evaluate the recommendation and whether it is suitable for you.  Sometimes the most impressive consultants with the poshest accent are the ones to avoid.  

Some see IFAs as a shortcut: “I don’t understand anything about investments and don’t have the time to learn”. Thats a mistake.  Your family’s financial security is more important to you than to others and its worth a little time. 

And then even if you do use an IFA, you can make a better choice, provide him with better inputs and ultimately pick better options. 

Excellent post IMHO.  The ongoing relatrionship between the IFA and the customer is very important and it is vital that they work together.    It may be that the IFA has not completely understood what the customer wanted, perhaps the customer did not understand what they really wanted either.  Perhaps after experience of the market's volatility the IFA may help the customer understand that volatility is not a problem they first thought so a less cautious portfolio may be justified. This could lead in turn to the customer seeing better life choices.

The more the customer understands and involved in the portfolio the better service the IFA can provide.

This is one justfication for ongoing contact between the two.

GSP

Linton said:

Deleted_User said:

It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

One thing I’ve learnt is that whether you use an IFA or not, you should always educate yourself.  They are advisors/consultants. You are the decision maker.  And it needs to be an informed decision; you must know enough to evaluate the recommendation and whether it is suitable for you.  Sometimes the most impressive consultants with the poshest accent are the ones to avoid.  

Some see IFAs as a shortcut: “I don’t understand anything about investments and don’t have the time to learn”. Thats a mistake.  Your family’s financial security is more important to you than to others and its worth a little time. 

And then even if you do use an IFA, you can make a better choice, provide him with better inputs and ultimately pick better options. 

Excellent post IMHO.  The ongoing relatrionship between the IFA and the customer is very important and it is vital that they work together.    It may be that the IFA has not completely understood what the customer wanted, perhaps the customer did not understand what they really wanted either.  Perhaps after experience of the market's volatility the IFA may help the customer understand that volatility is not a problem they first thought so a less cautious portfolio may be justified. This could lead in turn to the customer seeing better life choices.

The more the customer understands and involved in the portfolio the better service the IFA can provide.

This is one justfication for ongoing contact between the two.

Which then leads us back round to think leaving it all to the IFA (who is one person on their own, human and at some point will make a mistake) and without taking an interest, checking things where you can can be detrimental all round.

Turning it around, for those who look after their own investments, yes it is their money but who is checking their work?

I think its good to let the specialist look after your funds (IFA), and another, you, checking, scrutinising etc to make sure everything is running okay. There’s the specialist providing their expertise which I would say is greater having to deal with other clients and needing to be ‘clued up’. I think there’s a key there that because of the sheer volume of looking after a number of clients, the risk of mistakes is greater from the IFA.

They need people, you, to look over things where you can as well.

Back to my OP, its difficult but only you know if you are happy or not with your IFA, there’s no benchmark.

Bianchiintenso

Deleted_User said:

It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

One thing I’ve learnt is that whether you use an IFA or not, you should always educate yourself.  They are advisors/consultants. You are the decision maker.  And it needs to be an informed decision; you must know enough to evaluate the recommendation and whether it is suitable for you.  Sometimes the most impressive consultants with the poshest accent are the ones to avoid.  

Some see IFAs as a shortcut: “I don’t understand anything about investments and don’t have the time to learn”. Thats a mistake.  Your family’s financial security is more important to you than to others and its worth a little time. 

And then even if you do use an IFA, you can make a better choice, provide him with better inputs and ultimately pick better options. 

Good points Mordko, even with my relatively limited early stage knowledge of pensions I, like a lot on here I suspect, can become a bit of a pension bore in the pub when the subject comes up. At first you think it's weird that your friends aren't interested in their financial futures and are constantly surprised at how many of them (90% I'd guess amongst my circle) just glaze over and want to bury their heads in the sand. Then when I stop to think about, "Hey, that was me just a couple of years ago".
One friend, who didn't have a pension asked me to help him set up a SIPP, this made me feel quite uneasy. Whilst I do think just getting him to start a pension at the age of 37 is a good thing, is a SIPP the right thing for him personally.
I explained why I set up a SIPP for my wife, and why I thought it was the right decision for us and asked him to read through this forum as well as some of the links in the threads and try and get at least a little knowledge on SIPPs, funds, his appetite for risk etc. I said to speak to his accountant as well, rather than jumping into it after just one chat with me.
For better or worse, he's the type of person who wants he sets his mind to something needs to act. Next time I spoke to him he'd set up a SIPP with AJBell. 
Deep down I know he's done the right thing, would he have been better off seeing IFA and having professional advice, my guess is he'd have done exactly what the IFA suggested. Instead he chose a Vanguard Lifestrategy 60 SIPP to start his pension journey.

Thrugelmir

GSP said:

Linton said:

Deleted_User said:

It could have been a totally different story of course if the IFAs had come across differently and inspired confidence that they were helping me.

One thing I’ve learnt is that whether you use an IFA or not, you should always educate yourself.  They are advisors/consultants. You are the decision maker.  And it needs to be an informed decision; you must know enough to evaluate the recommendation and whether it is suitable for you.  Sometimes the most impressive consultants with the poshest accent are the ones to avoid.  

Some see IFAs as a shortcut: “I don’t understand anything about investments and don’t have the time to learn”. Thats a mistake.  Your family’s financial security is more important to you than to others and its worth a little time. 

And then even if you do use an IFA, you can make a better choice, provide him with better inputs and ultimately pick better options. 

Excellent post IMHO.  The ongoing relatrionship between the IFA and the customer is very important and it is vital that they work together.    It may be that the IFA has not completely understood what the customer wanted, perhaps the customer did not understand what they really wanted either.  Perhaps after experience of the market's volatility the IFA may help the customer understand that volatility is not a problem they first thought so a less cautious portfolio may be justified. This could lead in turn to the customer seeing better life choices.

The more the customer understands and involved in the portfolio the better service the IFA can provide.

This is one justfication for ongoing contact between the two.

Turning it around, for those who look after their own investments, yes it is their money but who is checking their work?

I'd happily spend the amount that I do on research every year on paying an IFA a fixed fee. If I felt that I could no longer identify opportunties for myself. That takes no account of the time I spend reading research reports and annual accounts, attending AGM's, watching company presentations etc. Not enough hours in a day to cover all bases. 

As night follows day. This bull market will end. Then we'll get a better picture of which investors have evaluated their personal comfort zone in terms of taking on risk. Has been an easy decade to have been an investor. 

[Deleted User]

Instead he chose a Vanguard Lifestrategy 60 SIPP to start his pension journey.

Nothing’s really wrong with this choice and its good he started. If I were 37 in 2021, I would have gone 100% equities.  You may want to suggest Bernstein’s “Investment for Adults” series.  Good read and very helpful in formulating asset allocation strategies. 

cfw1994

Deleted_User said:

Instead he chose a Vanguard Lifestrategy 60 SIPP to start his pension journey.

Nothing’s really wrong with this choice and its good he started. If I were 37 in 2021, I would have gone 100% equities.  You may want to suggest Bernstein’s “Investment for Adults” series.  Good read and very helpful in formulating asset allocation strategies. 

I tend to agree: our kids have LS100 ISAs 👍
Do be aware that the LS100 is somewhat more weighted to UK...but at the least I would personally chose LS80 over LS60 for someone investing for 10+ years.

Of course, the most important thing is that he started investing, rather than worry about the right fund!

People sometimes (often?) agonise over picking the 'best' fund.    
The important thing is to invest early - time in the market is more important than timing the market - start early to allow the power of compounding to do it's magic 🪄😎👍

[Deleted User]

Yep.  What cfw said.  Time in the market and maximizing contributions are more important than the choice of specific investment vehicles.