Finding an IFA

xylophone

You could try

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

Tick confirmed independent and other options when the menu comes up

dunstonh

I've brought enquirers' attention to this service before: https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/find-an-adviser/
I haven't seen any replies to indicate how useful it was but I did get some blow back from the usual suspects.

The blowback is that you are promoting a commercial service in the UK while you are not in the UK yourself.   The service doesn't have much of a footprint and uses US terminology that doesn't apply in the UK.    It reads as if it has been copied and pasted from a US site.  e.g. it refers to advisers who are a "fiduciary". 

It is a lead generation site.   They get paid for each referral to an advice firm.

It's at the top of the list of 'how to find an advisor' on the occaminvesting site

That is hardly a claim to fame.  An insignificant blog that no-one has heard of and last received a post in 2022 but has several links that pay for clicks.

kjs31

richard686 said:

How did you get on in the end?

I'm looking to get my retirement strategy fine tuned too but need to find an IFA that I can trust for one off advice and who's not pushing investment products or skimming off the top regardless of the quality of their work.

Shame about Unbiased being so biased!

I haven’t actually done anything about it yet. A few things have changed since then. In February I got offered VR with a payout of 2 years salary, jumped at it and leave work mid May never to work again hopefully, and it provides a fairly big boost to my pension via redundancy sacrifice. I am limited to what I can add to my pension from my redundancy payout due to the annnual allowance but my SIPP is at 920k now and my workplace pension will be around 370k once the redundancy cash is paid in. I am delaying my DB pension which will be 7k PA until the next tax year due to tax. I will reinvent myself as a basic rate tax payer next year so will keep more of it. 

I am also moving house next week so given that I will be quite busy with leaving work and moving house I will relook at this again in the second half of the year. I’ve had 2 recommendations of IFAs from people at work. One said “my IFA is great, he’s taking us go-carting next week”, and the other one said that their IFA had become almost like a personal friend. When I asked what funds she was invested in, all of her pension and that of her husband’s is in a single pension fund so not sure how much effort that takes for the 0.75% paid each year. Being a ‘top bloke’ is not really the main criteria I would use so I’m still a sceptic when it comes to choosing an IFA … I am also nervous about getting scammed which seems to be less of a risk if I DIY and move everything to a single platform to commence drawdown in tax year 25/26 on my own. 

dunstonh

One said “my IFA is great, he’s taking us go-carting next week”, and the other one said that their IFA had become almost like a personal friend. 

The first one is possible its an IFA but you typically find that those that take their clients to events are FAs rather than IFAs.       The IFA becoming almost like a personal friend is commonplace.   When you deal with the same adviser for 20-30 years, that is inevitable.

When I asked what funds she was invested in, all of her pension and that of her husband’s is in a single pension fund so not sure how much effort that takes for the 0.75% paid each year.

Being in a single pension fund it not the same as being in a single investment fund within the same pension fund.  
Also, for many people, using a single investment fund may be the best option.     Sometimes, using an MPS within the OEIC structure is better than using an MPS within a model.   

 I am also nervous about getting scammed which seems to be less of a risk if I DIY and move everything to a single platform to commence drawdown in tax year 25/26 on my own. 

The majority of scams regarding pensions involved people that were not using advisers.  

kjs31

dunstonh said:

Being in a single pension fund it not the same as being in a single investment fund within the same pension fund.  
Also, for many people, using a single investment fund may be the best option.     Sometimes, using an MPS within the OEIC structure is better than using an MPS within a model.   

 I am also nervous about getting scammed which seems to be less of a risk if I DIY and move everything to a single platform to commence drawdown in tax year 25/26 on my own. 

The majority of scams regarding pensions involved people that were not using advisers.  

Ok, I get the being in a single pension fund approach. She gets a 2 hour meeting per year for her 0.75% which in my case would be approaching 10k. Seems a lot for someone to tell me that my funds are invested in the appropriate fund and to stay put does it not? I DIY my workplace pension but have it split over 6 funds, although I’m only currently investing in 4. They are mostly location centric funds so I have spread the risk around a bit. I’ve also done way better than the lifestyling approach that the workplace pension defaults to. 

I thought the majority of scams involved people who claimed to be advisors but were scammers?  

dunstonh

. She gets a 2 hour meeting per year for her 0.75% which in my case would be approaching 10k. 

In which case, you would not expect to have 0.75%.   You tend to find tiering, or caps exits with many advice firms.   You also find some greedy ones.  As in any trade.

It's also unlikely that you would use a single fund.   A portfolio of funds would be cheaper (on a like-for-like basis).

I thought the majority of scams involved people who claimed to be advisors but were scammers?  

most were advert based.  Facebook or cold calling.      Mini bonds and unregulated investments being the main places.     I have no doubt that some scams would have pretended to be advisers when they were not.

At the end of the day, not everyone needs ongoing servicing.   Some like the comfort chats. Some need tax allowance use and multi-wrapper.     Some want the IFA to control the portfolio.   Others need none of those things and don't need an IFA.         

Albermarle

richard686 said:

kjs31 said:

I’m looking at retiring this year and need to decide what to do with my pensions. I have a smallish DB pension (circa 7-8k) that will start paying at the end of this year and I don’t really need advice on that but I have a SIPP plus a DC pension with my current employer that I will want to put into flexible drawdown at some stage. I used an IFA when I set up my SIPP but didn’t pay for ongoing advice for a couple of reasons and I haven’t contributed to that SIPP since it was set up, and whilst it hasn’t done brilliantly IMO it’s still around 890k. My DC workplace pension is 220k currently. I’m 8 years away from state pension age. 

My workplace pension website says to use Unbiased to find an IFA but there are loads of them in this area so how on earth do you choose one? I don’t really want to pay a % that will end up in 5 figures every year so maybe I’m looking for someone who offers set fees? Or should I be looking to DIY my pension? 

I know that I don’t want an annuity or a lump sum so I think I just need to move it into flexible drawdown selecting ‘suitable’ funds to invest into. I don’t want to draw anything from the pot until tax year 25/26 for tax reasons and drawing down 3% PA will probably work for me. 

How did you get on in the end?

I'm looking to get my retirement strategy fine tuned too but need to find an IFA that I can trust for one off advice and who's not pushing investment products or skimming off the top regardless of the quality of their work.

Shame about Unbiased being so biased!

There are many valid arguments for and against using an IFA, but you need to be a bit clearer how IFA's work nowadays.

They are very heavily regulated, so unless you come across a proper fraudster, then 'trust' is not such a big issue. The IFA has to document everything and recommended appropriate products, or they can be sued/struck off. They have to follow set procedures . You may prefer one over another, and you may feel more trusting of one over the other, but probably the end result will not be much different.
Inevitably if you are taking about pensions/retirement strategy, then the IFA is going to recommend investment products. They have to if these are seen as the most appropriate, or they would be breaking those regulations they have to work under. Commission for recommending products has been banned for many years.

There will be an initial charge you can not avoid.
There will be an ongoing servicing charge that you can refuse, if you only want one off advice. 

Remember that an IFA can help with other issues than just investing, which is probably the easiest bit ( maybe).
Tax, family issues, inheritance, withdrawal strategies, trusts, offshore bonds etc . The more you can 'use' them the more value you will get.

Bostonerimus1

kjs31 said:

I’m looking at retiring this year and need to decide what to do with my pensions. I have a smallish DB pension (circa 7-8k) that will start paying at the end of this year and I don’t really need advice on that but I have a SIPP plus a DC pension with my current employer that I will want to put into flexible drawdown at some stage. I used an IFA when I set up my SIPP but didn’t pay for ongoing advice for a couple of reasons and I haven’t contributed to that SIPP since it was set up, and whilst it hasn’t done brilliantly IMO it’s still around 890k. My DC workplace pension is 220k currently. I’m 8 years away from state pension age. 

My workplace pension website says to use Unbiased to find an IFA but there are loads of them in this area so how on earth do you choose one? I don’t really want to pay a % that will end up in 5 figures every year so maybe I’m looking for someone who offers set fees? Or should I be looking to DIY my pension? 

I know that I don’t want an annuity or a lump sum so I think I just need to move it into flexible drawdown selecting ‘suitable’ funds to invest into. I don’t want to draw anything from the pot until tax year 25/26 for tax reasons and drawing down 3% PA will probably work for me. 

Your first job should be to educate yourself about retirement planning, do a budget to define your spending and income needs and look at “safe withdrawal” amounts from things like SIPPs and DC pensions. You”ll see amounts like inflation linked 3% or 4% of your pension pot. That’s pretty risk averse and is set to make the chances of you running out of money very low and in most circumstances you’ll die with a healthy balance for your heirs to inherit. An IFA can provide an appropriate portfolio and withdrawal strategy, but they might charge 1% of your portfolio or more so in the early years you might be spending 25% of your annual budget on financial fees. The alternative is to DIY. This takes knowledge and some common sense to apply basic investment and budgeting rules. I save IFA fees by DIYing substantial DC pots and like you have a DB pension which reduces the pressure. You are thinking ahead and have some time so do some reading to understand the issues and maybe interview a few IFSs when you are ready.

dunstonh

An IFA can provide an appropriate portfolio and withdrawal strategy, but they might charge 1% of your portfolio or more

The typical range is nil to 1.0%.  Not more than 1.0%.   

kjs31

Bostonerimus1 said:

Your first job should be to educate yourself about retirement planning, do a budget to define your spending and income needs and look at “safe withdrawal” amounts from things like SIPPs and DC pensions. You”ll see amounts like inflation linked 3% or 4% of your pension pot. That’s pretty risk averse and is set to make the chances of you running out of money very low and in most circumstances you’ll die with a healthy balance for your heirs to inherit. An IFA can provide an appropriate portfolio and withdrawal strategy, but they might charge 1% of your portfolio or more so in the early years you might be spending 25% of your annual budget on financial fees. The alternative is to DIY. This takes knowledge and some common sense to apply basic investment and budgeting rules. I save IFA fees by DIYing substantial DC pots and like you have a DB pension which reduces the pressure. You are thinking ahead and have some time so do some reading to understand the issues and maybe interview a few IFSs when you are ready.

My aim is to withdraw the maximum to be a basic rate tax payer as I think that should cover what I need. I have no mortgage or loans plus I have a reasonable chunk of savings so I can just use those if I need more money one year. Hence I’m thinking of withdrawing the whole lot at the end of the tax year when I know what other interest I will have earned etc. Or possibly withdraw circa 1k a month and then a lump sum right at the end. Haven’t thought too much about a withdrawal strategy yet as I’ve got another year to decide. 

I know that if I withdraw 3% of my pot (circa 39k currently), then with with savings interest at the current levels and my DB pension I will probably be a little bit over paying basic rate tax so ordinarily I probably won’t need to withdraw as much as 3%. Once I get the state pension in just under 8 years I will need to withdraw even less, although I may have used some savings at that point so it might even itself out. 

I’m not that bothered about an IFA doing additional stuff as I have a reasonable handle on my tax position, shares, ISAs etc and as I’ll be retired I should have plenty of time to spend some time on it. I do know that I need to move my SIPP and workplace pension to a different platform as the current SIPP platform is hopeless and doesn’t allow me to do anything online, and my workplace pension (with WTW) doesn’t allow drawdown so I have to transfer it from where it is anyway. So I need to choose an appropriate platform, and more importantly decide where to invest. That’s my main consideration. Everyone I speak to (other than people who have used the same IFA) seems to invest in different completely funds so looks like there are a ton of options out there.