What information should I provide to an advisor?

Ganga

Albermarle said:

wjr4 said:

gm0 said:

Any of the advice factories won't let you near the IFA until the disclosure/fact pack is done with the admin staff and para planner. 
A sole trader IFA might do the "are you for me and me for you screening discussion" but next meeting would be fact find heavy

Advice ‘factories’ may not do this but a normal IFA would have an initial meeting before asking for the client’s life story. The initial meeting is to establish trust. I wouldn’t be giving my information to anyone before meeting them either. OP - you’re better off finding an IFA away from the company and going through the process with them if you need advice. What advice are you actually looking for?

The problem with this 'advice' is that the OP is being offered the services of an advisor free . If they went to a an IFA they would have to pay . So it looks like they have a choice .

Either provide all the requested personal details and get a free session with an advisor and presumably some recommendations for future action. ( There might be a suspicion here that the initial free advice might be quite restrictive and  regarding only the  pension  specifically, and anything else will attract a charge ) 

Or refuse the offer of free financial advice and go to an IFA and pay for it . Some personal details not to be given until trust builds up .

Or do nothing /manage their own finances/investments .

Fully agree with this , the problem they may face in the future is they may have a better financial future if the advisor had all the facts to work with. 

MX5huggy

The information you seem
most concerned about withholding is in the public domain already. The registers of births deaths marriages and electoral register. 

cfw1994

coyrls said:

theblond1 said:

My employer offers pension advice via a third-party in respect of the company DC pension scheme and pays their fee. 

OP states that their employer is paying the fee.

But is it an Independent Financial Advisor?
I discovered a relative's company (local government!) arranged free 'advice', but I found (by agreeing to sit on the call) that it was NOT independent.   
Second call had them making ludicrous recommendations, where even their OWN 94-page document proved that their recommendations would pretty well lose money!
Frankly a disgrace on behalf of the employer.

Beware!

gm0

As always it pays to be clear about incentives and cui bono.  

If it's a genuine and well thought out mandate to help you they will have something to show you other than their retail advice journey explaining what it is and what is included and to expect. 

If they don't have that then you have essentially been passed across as a sales lead ticking a compliance box for pension comms for the trustees en passant.  Act accordingly.  Ask, consider then shop around if you want actual advice. 

But consuming some free guidance sponsored by your scheme is fairly harmless and good preparation for DIY.  What matters is whether they are competent and view you as a target wealth management client/a clear but bounded sponsored mandate to discharge professionally/something unwanted on their shoes

theblond1

MX5huggy said:

The information you seem
most concerned about withholding is in the public domain already. The registers of births deaths marriages and electoral register. 

In fact my concern is that a single organisation would be holding a large amount of very personal data which would be immensely valuable to fraudsters and potentially very damaging to me and others should there be a data breach.  Whilst some of it is already in the public domain I can't think of another example, with the possible exception of a mortgage application, where a single organisation would hold data of such a range and detail.

dunstonh

theblond1 said:

MX5huggy said:

The information you seem
most concerned about withholding is in the public domain already. The registers of births deaths marriages and electoral register. 

In fact my concern is that a single organisation would be holding a large amount of very personal data which would be immensely valuable to fraudsters and potentially very damaging to me and others should there be a data breach.  Whilst some of it is already in the public domain I can't think of another example, with the possible exception of a mortgage application, where a single organisation would hold data of such a range and detail.

Most mortgages are arranged by advisers.    And lenders do not require all the information that an adviser obtains.   So, mortgage advisers would hold more than mortgage lenders.

jamesd

theblond1 said:

westv said:

What personal questions though? Surely all they need to know is where your money is currently, how much you earn and how much is being added to the money you have?

In my case they want to know much more than this: all the usual address, phone, email details plus number of passport or driving licence, NI number, all your and your spouse's incomes, savings and investment values, health condition, the medication you and your spouse are taking, names of your spouse, children and any other dependants, with their dates of birth, value of your property, outstanding mortgage, all assets and liabilities, then there's all your needs, objectives and plans for retirement which cover many pages. 

That seems like an excellent and appropriate set of information to seek. It's pretty common for me to wish I had more of that sort of thing when offering plans to consider here, even as an unqualified person. Not names and passport type, but the financial information.

Driving license or passport will be for identity checking, a legal requirement.

Savings and investments are needed to establish current capital, as are property values.

Medication is part of health to help to identify conditions that might reduce life expectancy and increase annuity payment rates. that in turn affects potential income and how early retirement might be desired to maximise retired time.

Children is to help establish need fr possible insurance if parents were to die early and to consider how to provide for their possible other needs. Also part of considering inheritance desires.

The direct retirement questions are probably more obvious.

Ultimately, if they are going to do a properly comprehensive job an adviser needs to have a comprehensive understanding of your current financial situation and objectives. The more you tell them, the better they can do that. While here I can accept the limitations, a pro has to seek enough information to do a truly comprehensive job.

cfw1994

theblond1 said:

MX5huggy said:

The information you seem
most concerned about withholding is in the public domain already. The registers of births deaths marriages and electoral register. 

In fact my concern is that a single organisation would be holding a large amount of very personal data which would be immensely valuable to fraudsters and potentially very damaging to me and others should there be a data breach.  Whilst some of it is already in the public domain I can't think of another example, with the possible exception of a mortgage application, where a single organisation would hold data of such a range and detail.

How is your employer paying the advisor/s….and (per my question above), is it a firm of FAs, or IFAs??

From my experience (see above), it is likely to be a fishing trip for the financial advice firm…..& I would bet a pound to a penny it is not a firm of Independent Financial Advisors.   Do reply with which it is, I am happy to be wrong!

They will be happy to only land one or two catches from which to claw their monies from.  

gm0 said:

As always it pays to be clear about incentives and cui bono.  

If it's a genuine and well thought out mandate to help you they will have something to show you other than their retail advice journey explaining what it is and what is included and to expect. 

If they don't have that then you have essentially been passed across as a sales lead ticking a compliance box for pension comms for the trustees en passant.  Act accordingly.  Ask, consider then shop around if you want actual advice. 

But consuming some free guidance sponsored by your scheme is fairly harmless and good preparation for DIY.  What matters is whether they are competent and view you as a target wealth management client/a clear but bounded sponsored mandate to discharge professionally/something unwanted on their shoes

^^^^

THIS!
You will likely just be a sales lead for them.  Perhaps have a chat (as my relative did), but be very aware they are there to make money from you.  Whether they can make money for you is another matter!

Albermarle

jamesd said:

theblond1 said:

westv said:

What personal questions though? Surely all they need to know is where your money is currently, how much you earn and how much is being added to the money you have?

In my case they want to know much more than this: all the usual address, phone, email details plus number of passport or driving licence, NI number, all your and your spouse's incomes, savings and investment values, health condition, the medication you and your spouse are taking, names of your spouse, children and any other dependants, with their dates of birth, value of your property, outstanding mortgage, all assets and liabilities, then there's all your needs, objectives and plans for retirement which cover many pages. 

That seems like an excellent and appropriate set of information to seek. It's pretty common for me to wish I had more of that sort of thing when offering plans to consider here, even as an unqualified person. Not names and passport type, but the financial information.

Driving license or passport will be for identity checking, a legal requirement.

Savings and investments are needed to establish current capital, as are property values.

Medication is part of health to help to identify conditions that might reduce life expectancy and increase annuity payment rates. that in turn affects potential income and how early retirement might be desired to maximise retired time.

Children is to help establish need fr possible insurance if parents were to die early and to consider how to provide for their possible other needs. Also part of considering inheritance desires.

The direct retirement questions are probably more obvious.

Ultimately, if they are going to do a properly comprehensive job an adviser needs to have a comprehensive understanding of your current financial situation and objectives. The more you tell them, the better they can do that. While here I can accept the limitations, a pro has to seek enough information to do a truly comprehensive job.

I do not think anyone would dispute what you are saying, but the question/worry from the OP  was how safe is all this personal info ?
Especially as it seems the info requested is very detailed , in advance of what could be one off, short meeting, that may or may not be useful.