Labour Pension tax benefit reduction/limit - what would this mean to those paying in £60k?

dunstonh

I think you are right. Whatever types of organisations I ended up speaking to, I was under the impression they were IFAs. I just had a look at two of the companies website and there is not a mention of IFA anywhere.

IFAs will make a point of highlighting that fact.   FAs will try and hide the fact they are not IFAs.   

Both were obtained from Unbiased, which tells me "Simply Enter Your Postcode Now — Local and Trusted IFAs.".

Unbiased still lives off its origins.  Even providers still refer people to it as they haven't cottoned on yet.  To give you an idea, it would cost an IFA £302pm plus VAT for standard entry for 5 locations. Plus £66 for each additional location they want to be listed under.    They have a premium option at £1292 per month plus VAT and enhanced at £3272pm plus VAT.  Both of which are mainly number of locations.

That is just for the listing.  You have to pay from £52 plus VAT for each enquiry (lead).  But it's tiered.  £52 is the under £50k  wealth band.  Over £1.5m will cost £276 plus VAT for a lead.   There are a bunch in between.

For locations, its not the first part of the postcode as you would think.  There are 124 postcode areas in the UK. Unbiased has 500 locations (possibly more as its enterprise tier allows "Presence in up to 500 locations".

Their published "success story" says they have a 33% conversion rate.  

I think that unbiased saw how much vouchedfor was charging and decided that they wanted some of that market.

I know three adviser firms that use them.  One trains and prepares new advisers, and the new advisers are desperate to see people.   He told me that they have a different charging structure for those who come to them directly and those who use a directory.       The other adviser firm will only pay the adviser 20% of the fee income where it comes via a directory or via the IFA firm.   

Taking that 20% example, lets say the adviser charge was 2% and the fee for a husband and wife ISA was £800.    The adviser would get paid £160.      Not worth the work involved.   So, double the fee and still not worth it for many but for new advisers, those with insufficient clients, it would start making it worthwhile just to get by and build up clients.

From a money-saving website point of view, it's best to avoid sourcing advisers via the directories that need large fees to be listed on as you could be paying far more than if you went direct.

No wonder all of my friends earning the same thought I was mad going to any sort of financial service. I think I must have had a handful of conversations and they all had the same reaction.

My generation definately have a bad impression of financial services. I think part of the reason I didn't have a pension for so long is because I can remember during the 80s/90s hearing of pension disasters.

That is ironic that your own financial security was harmed through inaction by thinking your financial security would be harmed through action.

The 1988 to 1994 pension review period was all about defined benefit schemes.  It wasn't about DC schemes.  And a lot of it was retrospective realisations and Government created.  If you can remember that period, you will recall the adverts from the Government encouraging nurses and teachers to opt out into their own pensions.    We can see how bad that is now, but actuaries used lower life expectancies and higher growth rates back then based on semi recent data. I missed that period as I started just after, but I recall seeing the advice files of the time, and independent actuarial calculations showed it was right to opt-out until not many years later when the assumptions used were reduced significantly.  

Albermarle

No wonder all of my friends earning the same thought I was mad going to any sort of financial service. I think I must have had a handful of conversations and they all had the same reaction.

On the other hand we regularly see on the forum, people who have made major mistakes in the past that have cost them a lot of money. Also when posters say ' a friend advised me ' the advice is often wrong/poor.

In the wider world, away from forums like this, the level of public knowledge about personal finance issues is generally abysmal.

So if you do not want to pay for advice and DIY ( like many on this forum) then as you already know it is necessary to keep up to speed with tax and legislation changes as well as general investing, and probably best not to take much notice of workmates, friends down the pub etc.