private pension safety

Marcon

gm0 said:

Some people take the view that the protection levels are fine and this is a non-issue.  Others prefer not to have all their pension eggs in a single basket even though this inevitably will cost more money to run multiple arrangements

Why? Modern pensions almost invariably have charges based on the fund value, and although a few have a sliding scale for larger values, that's far from universal. Two pensions each with £50K in similar funds are likely to have similar charges to one pension with £100K in the same fund(s).

zoggie47

I am new to all this and now I am getting older worry more about these things.
I did not know that some advisers are not independent.
Where should I start in getting it all sorted?
I think I need to find an IFA?
If I ask them do they have to answer truthfully or are they like car, furniture, estate agents sales people? Promise the world just to get sale/ fee etc? this has happened quite a lot of times to me.
Is there a list of properly registered IFA somewhere?
I was trying to find reviews of the Embark platform but only found a very limited number and all where poor.
Nobody ever leaves a good review but everybody complains.
 

Marcon

zoggie47 said:

I am new to all this and now I am getting older worry more about these things.
I did not know that some advisers are not independent.
Where should I start in getting it all sorted?
I think I need to find an IFA?
If I ask them do they have to answer truthfully or are they like car, furniture, estate agents sales people? Promise the world just to get sale/ fee etc? this has happened quite a lot of times to me.
Is there a list of properly registered IFA somewhere?
I was trying to find reviews of the Embark platform but only found a very limited number and all where poor.
Nobody ever leaves a good review but everybody complains.
 

Yes: https://register.fca.org.uk/s/

This might also be useful for general information on pensions: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement (free, impartial and they don't sell anything) including finding an IFA: https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/getting-help-and-advice/financial-advisers/choosing-a-financial-adviser

This might also help: https://www.which.co.uk/money/investing/financial-advice/how-to-find-a-financial-adviser-affjl6z26bl4

dunstonh

If I ask them do they have to answer truthfully or are they like car, furniture, estate agents sales people?

IFAs are employed by you.  You pay the bill. They are not employed by an insurer or provider.     FAs are the type to avoid. They are usually sales reps. Although in some cases, the restrictions they operate under may not be that big.  But any restriction in what they can advise on prevents them from being called an IFA.

Promise the world just to get sale/ fee etc? this has happened quite a lot of times to me.

If you use a sales rep, then you will get sales techniques.     Today, there are only 20,000 advisers.   At the peak there was between 200,000 and 300,000.  The majority of those back then were sales reps.  Today is very different. Although some firms do operate in a sales way (typically the wealth managers and FAs).

I was trying to find reviews of the Embark platform but only found a very limited number and all where poor.

Embark run multiple platforms IIRC.   So, you need to make sure you are looking at the right one.  However, the Zurich version is whole of market (as I have already mentioned).  It uses FNZ, which is one of the biggest software suppliers and used by many others.   Although, personally, I find the front end coded by Zurich (it hasn't changed much under embark) to be clunky and not very intuitive and I really don't like it.        We have hardly anyone on that platform but compared to other FNZ platforms, I find the functionality limited.

However, for the end investor, the vast majority would not see the same issues I see.  And platforms are like supermarkets.  They sell the goods (funds in those case) but they look a bit different with each one or do things slightly differently and some people may love one platform whilst others hate it.

Nobody ever leaves a good review but everybody complains.

That is generally how reviews work.    The only ones getting good reviews tend to be the ones that badger people into leaving positive reviews directly after purchase. i.e. when the person is likely to be at their happiest about the purchase and hasn't had any time to actually find out any issues, quirks or problems.