WEALTH at work?

Alexland

MallyGirl said:

well that was quick - it turns out my appointment was with a financial coach and not a financial advisor. Apparently I should have had a pre-session link to fill in some financial info but I didn't get one of those. 5 mins conversation and they decided I fell outside their criteria and they were unable to help me.

They just want to 'help' the mugs eh? Did you mention you were a board guide on MSE?

MallyGirl

Funnily enough, that didn't come up!

I did go to a free (day off from work) seminar on 'being within 5 years of retirement' plans - supposedly employer specific. By the end the poor chap leading it was just looking to me after each point to check that he was right

zagfles

Our union did a "retirement course" which had a session with an IFA, they were trying to sell the idea of taking the max commutation from a DB pension, even at rubbish rates like 12x, and investing it with them. While at the same time making a big deal about how they don't do DB transfers (at maybe 35x). So they think it's a good idea to commute at 12x but not to transfer out at 35x

I guess as the decision to commute doesn't require any advice, and the idea seemed to be to contact them after commutation, they're off the hook for the decision to commute.

aliad62

Hi 
Me and my husband are at this exact point as the OP.  Wading through a lengthy ‘report’ from Wealth @ work.
We’ve pretty much decided that the charges are way more than we’re prepared to pay (£4k initial and £2.5k annual fee) and we’ve got an online meeting with the advisor on Monday.
Do you know if they make a charge for the work already done, and the fancy brochure?
We haven’t signed anything other than the initial forms giving them authority to get info from our pension companies.
Thanks 😊

dunstonh

Me and my husband are at this exact point as the OP.  Wading through a lengthy ‘report’ from Wealth @ work.
We’ve pretty much decided that the charges are way more than we’re prepared to pay (£4k initial and £2.5k annual fee) and we’ve got an online meeting with the advisor on Monday.

That ongoing fee would put you on a pot of around £500k.   The initial, whilst higher than you can get wouldn't be considered bad for £500k.

Do you know if they make a charge for the work already done, and the fancy brochure?

You cannot be charged until you are told you would be charged beyond that point and given the opportunity to end without charge.

cfw1994

aliad62 said:

Hi 
Me and my husband are at this exact point as the OP.  Wading through a lengthy ‘report’ from Wealth @ work.
We’ve pretty much decided that the charges are way more than we’re prepared to pay (£4k initial and £2.5k annual fee) and we’ve got an online meeting with the advisor on Monday.
Do you know if they make a charge for the work already done, and the fancy brochure?
We haven’t signed anything other than the initial forms giving them authority to get info from our pension companies.
Thanks 😊

I bet 94% of that report was identical to the one my relative got 🤣
No, you will not have any costs so far with them.  

Obviously they will be VERY keen in your meeting on Monday to persuade you to give them your business, so if you have made your decision, I would suggest you make it clear and shut the meeting down.  

My guess, if you don’t, is that they will lower that initial and annual fee until you agree to say ‘yes’.

Bottom line to me is that they are simply NOT independent financial advisors.  

As dunstonh often says, the choice really should be either IFA or DIY.  

Anything else is just giving a chunk of your money to someone who is picking from a restricted market, often of their own funds. 

Just my 0.02 👍

aliad62

Thanks very much for the advice.  
We spoke to the adviser earlier today and very politely told him we weren’t in a position to proceed.  In fairness to him (Ryan) he was very courteous and didn’t try to ‘hard sell’. 

As advised we will now look for a good IFA, as apart from our pension funds we’ve got savings that aren’t earning us much.  Now we’re approaching retirement we need to get our backsides into gear!

Thanks again.

p.s…. dunstonh… fyi, our pension pot is only £200k so definitely too expensive!

Albermarle

aliad62 said:

Thanks very much for the advice.  
We spoke to the adviser earlier today and very politely told him we weren’t in a position to proceed.  In fairness to him (Ryan) he was very courteous and didn’t try to ‘hard sell’. 

As advised we will now look for a good IFA, as apart from our pension funds we’ve got savings that aren’t earning us much.  Now we’re approaching retirement we need to get our backsides into gear!

Thanks again.

p.s…. dunstonh… fyi, our pension pot is only £200k so definitely too expensive!

Yes with a pot that size + some other funds you will probably be looking at an initial fee of £2.5K and maybe an ongoing fee of 0.75% 

Sausages_Folks

I'm in the exact same position now and this thread has really made me think twice ... in fact more than twice !  I'd be really interested to know what aliad62 ended up doing. (This is my first post - am not sure how to link back to the previous comments) .     I've been looking at other investment managers in the hope of finding a table of their service charges and performance..... people like Fisher Investments vs Standard Life vs Fidelity vs Vanguard etc.  Has anyone done this or got recommendations ?   I can find the odd comparison but these are all US based - are there any UK services comparisons ?   Thanks

Sausages_Folks

Albermarle said:

aliad62 said:

Thanks very much for the advice.  
We spoke to the adviser earlier today and very politely told him we weren’t in a position to proceed.  In fairness to him (Ryan) he was very courteous and didn’t try to ‘hard sell’. 

As advised we will now look for a good IFA, as apart from our pension funds we’ve got savings that aren’t earning us much.  Now we’re approaching retirement we need to get our backsides into gear!

Thanks again.

p.s…. dunstonh… fyi, our pension pot is only £200k so definitely too expensive!

Yes with a pot that size + some other funds you will probably be looking at an initial fee of £2.5K and maybe an ongoing fee of 0.75% 

I'm in the exact same position now and this thread has really made me think twice ... in fact more than twice !  I'd be really interested to know what aliad62 ended up doing. (Have now worked out how to "quote").   I've been looking at other investment managers in the hope of finding a table of their service charges and performance..... people like Fisher Investments vs Standard Life vs Fidelity vs Vanguard etc.  Has anyone done this or got recommendations ?   I can find the odd comparison but these are all US based - are there any UK services comparisons ?   Thanks