How do you find a trustworthy IFA?

dunstonh

1. Hold the CFP?
https://www.cisi.org/cisiweb2/cisi-website/study-with-us/financial-planning/why-study-financial-planning

There are multiple exam boards.  This is not the largest one.  I am not sure asking advisers about qualifications from a specific exam board that most don't use, is going to give you much of a response.

2. Belong to NextGen?

https://www.nextgenplanners.co.uk/

What would that achieve?

3. Belong to IFW?
https://initiativeforfinancialwellbeing.org.uk/who-are-we/

Same as above?

Being members of minor clubs that no-one has heard of doesn't make that adviser better than another.

BritishInvestor

dunstonh said:

1. Hold the CFP?
https://www.cisi.org/cisiweb2/cisi-website/study-with-us/financial-planning/why-study-financial-planning

There are multiple exam boards.  This is not the largest one.  I am not sure asking advisers about qualifications from a specific exam board that most don't use, is going to give you much of a response.

2. Belong to NextGen?

https://www.nextgenplanners.co.uk/

What would that achieve?

3. Belong to IFW?
https://initiativeforfinancialwellbeing.org.uk/who-are-we/

Same as above?

Being members of minor clubs that no-one has heard of doesn't make that adviser better than another.

As the O/P pointed out, the advisers he has encountered appear to be old-school investment-focused advisers. The CFP is the best financial planning-focused exam out there (IMO), and given the process the CFP qualification teaches, it's far more likely that the holder is going to offer the type of service the O/P was looking for.

https://www.financialplanningtoday.co.uk/news/item/7601-julie-lord-certified-financial-planner-is-chartered-plus
https://financialplanning.cisi.org/cisiweb2/wayfinder/home

NextGen members tend to have a far more financial planning-focused mindset (maybe because they are younger and more willing to learn ).

Ditto the IFW.

No guarantees of success, but it will help your odds.

boomboomboom

cfw1994 said:

Great to read that update - thanks for returning!

I do think if you have an interest in almost any topic (finance, caligraphy, bike maintenance, furniture restoration - whatever!), the tools are all available these days to become very competent at that topic. 
Nothing is ever a 100% perfect solution, particular with investing, but having a plan, actively following it, and even tweaking it from time to time as needed should be decent - never let perfect get in the way of good enough 👍

Being in a position to help educate offspring (or indeed friends - I ran an hour-long zoom on work pension stuff to a bunch of colleagues before I stepped away!) is also a GoodThing™ - education helps in so many areas of life!   My parents rarely, if ever, talked about finances - we have always been very open with our offspring, and one consequence is that they understand LISA/ISA/pension/GIA, and will now ask for our views & help on things.

Well done!

Thank you and you are absolutely right, education is key. Like you I had no help as a kid or when I started earning. I don’t know why my parents didn’t help/educate me. I wish I had done this decades ago but I take a huge amount of satisfaction from the fact I started before it was too late and that my kids will not be in the same situation as me - by extension, what they save I have a real sense is ‘mine’ (from purely a pat on the back). One of the few times you can feel satisfied as a parent in amongst the disasters you go through trying to figure out how to be one 😂

Well done on the fact that your children will ask for your help, that’s ‘job done’ right there. Most importantly they know to ask, whereas as a young man I didn’t even know what pension were (I just knew people kept losing their money back in the 80s so knew I didn’t want one!!).

boomboomboom

Albermarle said:

To anyone reading this that is considering reviewing their finances, my advice would be to educate yourself first. Create a plan. And then go to an IFA with this plan. So at least any advice you get has your plan as a blueprint. And where you have gone wrong you will learn. And where you got it right, you can feel pretty great about it. What this means in real terms, for me was...

Well done for sorting it out yourself. Maybe you can become a regular contributor to the forum and help others take their first steps to financial knowledge?

Of course not everybody has the intelligence/numeracy/ interest in the subject. Just the same as I have pretty much zero interest in learning how to service my own car, so I pay someone to do it.

Martin Lewis is a great example of this.

He is not so good in this field. The main part of this site generally shies away from any investment advice, due to presumably fear of being accused of making recommendations that go wrong.

He has done some pension TV programmes recently. It definitely raised awareness. but a lot of the more detailed stuff was quite badly flawed/inaccurate.

Thank you. It’s a good point re Martin. We do need an equivalent for investing but yes it’s a tough gig helping people invest with the potential to loose money. Ugh.

I was thinking that I’d love to help people do what I did and was even wondering how I could make it a small career in retirement, but helping people on the forum is the next best thing.

Thats why I was so disappointed with the IFAs. In my line of work (consulting) sure I get paid well for what I do but my motivation has always been helping and educating. So I was so disappointed when I saw the type of people these IFAs were. Literally they’d happily take money off someone conscious that it wasn’t fair. And what’s worse I can’t warn others.

Anyway, I’ll turn into motivation to help here thanks @Albermarle