Using an IFA who deals with St James' Place...??

JustAnotherSaver

Ok years ago we went with an IFA for our house purchase & can't fault him. He was top drawer.

In the time that has passed, it seems like he's bought the guys out who set up the business & they now work with St James' Place. I know probably about 5-8 years ago when I was looking at him handling my pension before I opted to go DIY on the back of advice here, it was the first time I'd ever heard of St James' Place as he said I didn't have enough to go with them at that moment in time.

I hopped on here to ask about it & was met with a ton of negativity, mostly due to high charges & then the knock on advice to go DIY which I did.

Now my sister is looking to buy her first home. My first thought was to give her the contact for this chap but when I searched them up - that's when I saw that the original owner of the company (who's name it's after) is completely removed from the team - so seems they have totally bought him out perhaps.

But not only that it says "A senior partner practice of St James Place" on their page 1.

So as the advice was steer clear of them when it comes to investing due to the high charges, does the same apply with mortgages on this one? Looking at their mortgages section, they say they look at "mortgages across the market". Not sure whether this is a closed section or not.

Anyway basically I'm just looking to see if it sounds like my sister should be looking at a different IFA (& us too for that matter when it comes to renewing our deal) or whether they'd be ok for mortgages (but not pensions/investing)?

K_S

@justanothersaver I don't have an opinion about St James Place. But if it's purely mortgage advice your sister is looking for, and her circumstances+requirements are fairly straightforward, she should be fine using one of the free (and a couple of fee-charging ones) brokers listed on the MSE guidance here 
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/best-mortgages-cashback/#step3

Edit: If you don't want to scroll down to when the mortgage brokers are listed...

JustAnotherSaver

I don't know if it's because it's a little late or because of the jargon or what but I clicked that link and my eyes glazed over so I know how she'd be with it that's for sure.

Nothing negative towards you there. I appreciate you taking the time to reply.

I suspect her situation is straight forward.

I don't know whether you'd call it 'advice' that she's looking for. The guy that I saw basically did the whole thing for me. Explained a bit of this and that, enough for me to say ok we'll do XYZ instead of ABC & he did the dirty work. Told me what I needed to do along the way and that was it. That's basically what she's looking for. Someone to hold her hand along the journey & say now you do this, now you do that. Ok here's your keys, done.

MovingForwards

That's what a broker does, handhold, explain in plain English and find the right lender for the circumstances. They're on hand throughout the whole process, but asking ins and outs of conveyancing isn't much use as they're not legally qualified; the lawyer does that side.

If she's got no bad credit history then look online and find a local broker with good reviews.

An IF / IFA may have a team of brokers as part of their company.

I recall @dunstonh explained how IF / IFAs are set up with mortgage broking, how it fits with their wider remit of managing money / wealth.

simon_or

A good broker will hand hold an FTB through the process, including following up with the conveyancer where needed, though this will depend on the conveyancer as well.

If you want your broker to be able to jump in during conveyancing, you can ask for them to recommend one they have a relationship with and confirm that they will step in if you need help. This can be very useful if you are time poor or simply want to avoid the stress of dealing with conveyancers.

90% of the broker's work is complete when you receive a mortgage offer, though a good broker will be on hand to answer with any queries you have until (and after) completion.

Going by my past experience, unless you want face to face advice, there is no advantage to using a local broker, as you will simply be limiting your choice with no discernible corresponding benefit.

If you want hand holding I wouldn't use the L&C Habito types as they are unlikely to have the time for that.

This being a moneysaving site, I will point out that IFAs usually charge a (relatively) high fee early on in the process. From your point of view, you want the fee (if there is one) to be due no earlier than when you receive a mortgage offer

ACG

L&C and the like on that list definitely have their place.
But they are call centres and they are generally fee free. You are very unlikely to get the same level of service from a smaller broker firm. If you want hand holding, someone to ask your million and one questions to, I do not think the brokers on that list are the way forward. 

If you know what you are doing are straightforward and just want someone to do the donkey work, I think that is where they come in. 

St James Place (SJP) is predominantly an IFA business rather than mortgages. I dont know if they are whole or market or not, but chances are they have a good choice of lenders as a bare minimum and if they have provided good service in the past, I would go down that route personally. 

dunstonh

St James Place are not IFAs.   They are tied sales reps.

If an IFA firm has sold out to SJP, it means they didn't care about their client bank.  SJP is one of the most expensive distribution channels going.  You cannot usually fault their service levels and presentation but their charges are eye watering.   I was on an investment case a while back and my charge was £2,500 and the SJP charge was £25,000.    The annual charges of SJP were double what I was proposing.

In another case, I did a pension transfer away from SJP, and the effect of charges over the time to retirement was £204,000 lower than the existing SJP plan.  It is one of the biggest margins I have ever seen.

That said, SJP are highly successful and its business is growing every year.   In my experience, they get business from family members and friends and consumers that really don't know what to look out for.   IFAs and most small mortgage brokers print their documentation on their local office printer.  SJP use glossy brochures.  Some people prefer the expensive approach.  

<Generalisation alert on>   Most IFAs (individuals) do not do mortgages.   The IFA (firm) may but they would typically use a dedicated mortgage adviser for mortgages within the firm.      This is because having investment class permissions is more expensive than mortgage class. Plus, it's difficult to be a jack-of-all-trades nowadays and better to have advisers focused on mortgages, insurance or investment class.

FAs/sales reps are more likely to do them than IFAs but the jack-of-all-trades rules still apply
<generalisation alert off>

As an IFA, I used one of the mortgage brokers to do my own mortgage. 

JustAnotherSaver

@dunstonh - I get from what you say basically what I already knew of SJP when it comes to investing - pensions and the like - it's like buying your Heinz beans from M&S instead of the same tin of Heinz beans from Aldi. Actually it's a wider gap than that but still. 

What I'm not sure about what you're saying is whether you expect there to also be an impact on this IFA's (perhaps just a FA now?) customers (so people like my sister & myself) when it comes to mortgages?

I know when it came time to renew we went to him again & he pulled a deal from Nationwide, showing us a ton of deals on offer. So I'm not sure there was any SJP impact there.

My sister will most definitely want someone she can see in person. I was looking at these online brokers and wasn't sure whether you could see them in person, whether it was an email thing, one of these Zoom things or what. She will absolutely want to see them face-to-face though and I can't blame her. So would I.

K_S

@JustAnotherSaver If she definitely needs to meet her broker in-person, then you could check out websites such  as Unbiased, VouchedFor, or just trusty old google (mortgage brokers near me) to find brokers in your vicinity who have an office (and offer f2f appointments) and have good reviews.