finding an IFA for Pensions health check - info already consolidated - cost ?

flapjack22

Hi

I have searched the internet, reviewed the guide on this website for finding an IFA, tried to use "free goverment services"  but.. it still seem arduous for what appears to be a health check/comparison of my existing pensions for a fixed one off fee.

In short, I am not looking to transfer out, look for new products, just someone to provide a healthcheck/overview/comparison in laymans terms, clear advice as to whether any of my pensions are:-

worth consolidating, or telling me they are doing ok/good and leave alone - that's all I want to know at this stage...

I have put all the pension info into 1 small excel spreadsheet, have detailed pension value over the last 5 years up, pension provider, and pension product name - but... I genuinely don't know whether these pensions are good etc.

I understand mortgages, ISAs but Pensions I am not comfortable with.

Happy to pay a one off fee for someone to look at the excel spreadsheet  and then provide comments/possible options - what should I be looking at to pay for this?

Forgive my ignorance is what I am simply looking for possible above? 

Thanks in advance.

dunstonh

 tried to use "free goverment services"  

There is no free government service that gives you what you are looking for.

Happy to pay a one off fee for someone to look at the excel spreadsheet  and then provide comments/possible options - what should I be looking at to pay for this?

Any hint of advice, and it gets classed as advice.   So, that has a lot of hoops to jump through.  Those hoops could include the need to write to your existing providers to ask them a range of details (safeguarded benefits, protected tax free cash, guaranteed growth rates, projections etc).     It would largely depend on your questions.

But circa £750 plus VAT (although small local firms are not usually Vat registered so you can avoid that).

If its just guidance and not advice, possibly a bit cheaper but guidance means generic information only.  Not specific.

gm0

Pension transfer DC review farms do this. 

And if you ultimately don't do the transfer which would be 1% pot (with a fairly high cap usually) so not dissimilar to advice - because - it is.  Then £500 for the initial assessment / review of existing pensions and make an advised transfer recommendation is out there.   If you look harder you may find a fact find is "cost of sales" outfit where the fees start only at the recommendation and agreement to transfer step i.e. free fact find + discussion.  Mine was like that - free in 2021.  But read the contract. Due diligence.  Real firm in real physical premises.. Financials. FCA registered.  All that. Some are real. And there are scammers out there as well.

But they are doing a standard thing in a standard way.  And won't want to "review" your spreadsheet.  Though they will want data from it.  And will almost definitely ask to fetch that data themselves from your provider(s) acting with a letter of authority.  As that suits the audit trail and their insurer best in terms of the advice not being built on typos and sand.

Provider risk teams hate it - but you may be able to get them to accept recent scanned docs/downloader PDFs or screen prints and avoid the letter of authority loop stuff.  Trusting soul that I am - that was the route I took

They will make a recommendation - it will have a portfolio, fees, fund charges.  You must draw a line between that and what you have already gathered about your existing arrangements.  They will be interested only at the extremes

Only if they find something in your existing setup which makes any recommendation to transfer "unsuitable" are they likely to flag it and comment upon that.  Small variations in portfolio and fund management charges will not be a topic of great interest.  They (like all advisers) are selling you a transfer or consolidation onto a new arrangement that is "suitable" to financial situation and risk appetite. it doesn't have to perform better (no promises there), or always be cheaper than the existing one or anything like that.  Potential for improved performance justifies increased fees.  Suitable.  Amazingly the offered products will have this "potential" characteristic which justfies all.

JohnWinder

I read that as two issues: you're looking for an advisor; and are your pensions doing OK and are good enough.

The first: write to these people, being explicit as possible just as you were here, and ask them if they can suggest someone for you. https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/find-an-adviser/  They find someone suitable for you, or they don't; you've wasted two minutes on a copy/paste exercise. How can it not be better than ringing around yourself as a first step?

The second: you can get a rough estimate of whether your pensions are good enough with the '4% rule'. At the start of retirement, not counting secure income like state pensions, investments need to be about 25 times (hence 4%) bigger than your anticipated annual expenses to be paid for from those investments (if you're not to run out of money before dying). It's very rough but it's a start.

As to pensions being OK, it's about: having a suitable mix of different asset classes for your circumstances; they being diversified; low cost. It's not hard to answer that one as well as an advisor would if you're up for some learning about personal investing, and you don't need to be too precise in your answer.

wjr4

JohnWinder said:

I read that as two issues: you're looking for an advisor; and are your pensions doing OK and are good enough.

The first: write to these people, being explicit as possible just as you were here, and ask them if they can suggest someone for you. https://www.evidenceinvestor.com/find-an-adviser/  They find someone suitable for you, or they don't; you've wasted two minutes on a copy/paste exercise. How can it not be better than ringing around yourself as a first step?

The second: you can get a rough estimate of whether your pensions are good enough with the '4% rule'. At the start of retirement, not counting secure income like state pensions, investments need to be about 25 times (hence 4%) bigger than your anticipated annual expenses to be paid for from those investments (if you're not to run out of money before dying). It's very rough but it's a start.

As to pensions being OK, it's about: having a suitable mix of different asset classes for your circumstances; they being diversified; low cost. It's not hard to answer that one as well as an advisor would if you're up for some learning about personal investing, and you don't need to be too precise in your answer.

Can you STOP giving out this website!! It is completely not legitimate and I’m going to start reporting all of your posts. 

JohnWinder

Could you explain what not legitimate means in this case, and why you view it that way?

cfw1994

Page takes forever to load to me, so wouldn’t spend time looking there: who runs ‘evidenceinvestor’?

OP, if you just want broad brush stroke advice, pop the details up here: quite a few wise folk who can give thoughts.
I had 4 ‘small’ (but over £30k - may be worth worth keeping those under £30k  tax-free access under the ‘small pots’ rule) DC pots.  The ones with no guarantees I moved to my main Aviva work one (which itself was low-cost and performing fine).  If the companies are part of Origo Options it was a simple task for me to initiate the move. 

JohnWinder

That site loads quick smart for me, using my shiny new computer.

I think the site is Robin Powell's baby. To quote the site for anyone it won't load:' Robin is an award-winning journalist and campaigner for positive change in global investing, advocating better investor education and greater transparency.

For most of his career in mainstream journalism, Robin worked in broadcast news and current affairs. For 14 years he was a news reporter and documentary maker for ITV Central and network ITV News and ITV Sport. He went freelance in 2005, and spent seven years working mainly for Sky News and for The Politics Show on BBC1.

Robin is a member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists and was a Visiting Media Fellow at Duke University in North Carolina.

Married with two children, Robin lives in rural North Warwickshire....'

He wrote a book last year which has been well received (on goodreads and with a local business book award), How to fund the Life You Want.

Seemed legitimate to me. Are we all talking about the same website?

LHW99

First stage - which any IFA will need / want, is to know what you have, and you can / should find out yourself.

This means:

Platform (company that looks after the pension), funds in it - names, composition (bonds / equities / property / geographical split etc).

Fees - which you can't assume will be what the fact sheets say, as some workplace pensions get discounts on fees. Ask the company.

Once you / they know that, some things may be clearer any way - which you could judge if you have that information.

Things such as:

Type: DC / DB

Too cautious / Too risky

One with much higher fees than another

Funds all in the UK (or US / EM / tech)

Any guarantees or other safeguarded benefits

Depending on how close you are to wanting to draw, there are also things like how flexible the provider is - are you restricted to an annuity or taking the lot in one go.

If you get the information, you may still want IFA advice, but you will be able to have a much more intelligent discussion about what is suggested.

dunstonh

JohnWinder said:

Could you explain what not legitimate means in this case, and why you view it that way?

It is a marketing website that sells leads to adviser firms.   Its a lead generation site offered by an unregulated individual who gets monetary benefit from that.        Firms that pay for leads generally charge more than firms that do not as the cost of that lead purchase has to be factored into the charges.

However, the Find an Adviser page on that website also offers a service "in conjunction with our strategic partner," which charges for guidance rather than advice. The guidance charge is not disclosed. And, as it happens, that strategic partner is the same person as the site you link to.

You are effectively promoting a commercial service that is a doorway to an unregulated process with a bolt-on of lead generation.    

Beddie

You don't really need an IFA, you have enough knowledge yourself and there are experts on here to help. You say you understand ISAs, well pensions are very similar, from an investment and charges viewpoint.

For example - consolidating pensions. You would do that if the charges are too high, bad service, or the fund choices are poor. But not just for the sake of it. Tell us what you have!