Finding an honest, reputable IFA

Albermarle

MM2002 said:

dunstonh said:

Looks like Unbiased is the way to go, at least will point me in the right direction.

only if you want FAs or salesforces rather than IFAs.

Hope I don't sound too daft, but whats the difference? How would one be better than the other?Is it worth speaking to both(if I can find an IFA-seem hard to find one and how does one know if they are offering the best advice?Is it not all personal view on risk?

The difference is that an FA can only offer the products from the company they work for, whilst an IFA has access to the whole of market. 

In both cases they are highly regulated and before offering advice, they will ask you a lot of questions and fill in a lot of forms. Part of this will be accessing your attitude to risk.
If you are a simple case of saving for retirement, then pretty much any advisor will probably come up with similar advice/solutions, as they are all following the same regulated procedures and this type of advice is their bread and butter business.
Obviously for people with higher amounts/more complicated scenarios, then the advisors experience will more come into play.

dunstonh

MM2002 said:

dunstonh said:

Looks like Unbiased is the way to go, at least will point me in the right direction.

only if you want FAs or salesforces rather than IFAs.

Hope I don't sound too daft, but whats the difference? How would one be better than the other?Is it worth speaking to both(if I can find an IFA-seem hard to find one and how does one know if they are offering the best advice?Is it not all personal view on risk?

IFAs are independent.  It's what the I stands for.  They can provider products and investments from the whole of the market.
FAs are restricted.   Typically, the restriction means they can only sell the products and services offered by their employer or a linked company.    They are also known as sales reps or agents.

You should never use an FA.  The choice it to either DIY or use an IFA. Not use an FA.

if I can find an IFA-seem hard to find one and how does one know if they are offering the best advice?

IFAs have to offer best advice. FAs only have to offer best advice from within their product range (they

My old pension adviser from St James Place used to travel a long way to visit me also, this raised suspicions as I thought he wouldnt be doing this unless he get paid well for his time- turns out I lost 1000's but he had the gift of the gab as they say and only when i read the small print did i realise his recommendation had to make 4% more pa to beat my workplace pension. When I asked about this suddenly I got- 'Let me check my figures and get back to you'
Needless to say I didnt hear from him again and moved my pension back.

SJP are FAs.  They are sales reps and only retail their own product.  Quilter are the same.

JJforever

Can I ask, when you look on the Financial Conduct Authority website to check on a company, does it actually indicate whether they are Independent Financial Advisers?  

I looked up a company called Origen, because they were recommended, but I couldn't see if they were independent or not?  How can you find out without contacting them?

Thank you.

gm0

Because the general received wisdom is IFA is more attractive (for people who even know about Financial Advice)  FAs tend not to be upfront about the drawbacks of limited product range. And laggardly in updating marketing when they sell their book to a network like SJP or Quiliter.   This is a common exit strategy for formerly independent small businesses.  

With FAs - their magic beans are the best.  They literally *have to* pretend to believe this - to be able to sell their wares with conviction

Spoiler they usually are not better. But they nearly always are more expensive than IFA recommended options or DIY options - without the advice fee at all

You can invest at 0.3% pa and under with nothing upfront. 
You can get advice for 0.5% and similar costs for what you are put in
You can pay more via an IFA (or DIY) for mor active fund manager options / stock pickers or DFMs

Or you can pay an FA a bigger % to get in.  And a lot more each year for as long as you stay.

The last thing you should do to escape SJP is to flee to a smaller wannabe versoin of the same damn thing

Nearly all the time you will not gain anything at all net fees. Over a simpler approach.  With an FA product.   They are very careful about the timeframes, comaparators and benchmarks they choose to shine a positive light on what they sell

Given that most active fund management doesn't work over the longer timescales. FAs and other active portfolio managers have to dial up the risk so that after their fat fees you come in somewhere around or slightly behind whole of market passive.  As this is explainable at the end of the year. And you are unlikely to flee if the difference is small.  And yet your risk will be dialed up relative to what it could have been.  And eventually you could fall harder into a hole as a result

In the end the FCA process constrains how pensions financial advice is delivered.  What fact find, deliverables.  Lifetime liability.  Insurance all that stuff.  So the FA and IFA will do pretty much the same tasks.  And the "product range restriction is the material difference in what happens

dunstonh

Can I ask, when you look on the Financial Conduct Authority website to check on a company, does it actually indicate whether they are Independent Financial Advisers?  

No.

I looked up a company called Origen, because they were recommended, but I couldn't see if they were independent or not?  How can you find out without contacting them?

Look at their website or directories.  IFAs will go out of their way to state their independent status.   FAs are not allowed to use "independent" as its a protected word.

Look at the following:
https://www.origenfs.co.uk/about-us/

It states they are part of Aegon and there isn't a reference to independent that I can see.

Most IFAs are small localised firms of 1-5 advisers.   The larger the firm, the less likely they will be IFAs.

xylophone

Independent Financial Advisers?  

Have you tried

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

Tick "confirmed independent" when the menu comes up.

HedgehogRulez

dunstonh said:

Looks like Unbiased is the way to go, at least will point me in the right direction.

only if you want FAs or salesforces rather than IFAs.

From my perspective I’ve used Unbiased for a free consultation to one of their subscribed advisors (just to get the free £10 Amazon gift card referral through employer platform) and was pleasantly surprised.
got referred to some random outfit (TPO) who were nice enough and went at lengths to state they were IFAs and didn’t get any hard sell at all from the rep.

Nice enough chap, had a good couple of free sessions with him and concluded that my retirement plans were sensible and if wanted to revisit in 5 years time when I hit 50 that would make sense. No plans to do so, but nice to get my ego massaged.

No loss, no foul.

dunstonh

From my perspective I’ve used Unbiased for a free consultation to one of their subscribed advisors (just to get the free £10 Amazon gift card referral through employer platform) and was pleasantly surprised.
got referred to some random outfit (TPO) who were nice enough and went at lengths to state they were IFAs and didn’t get any hard sell at all from the rep.

There are still some IFAs on there.  However, the vast majority of the listings now are national or regional salesforces along with FAs.  You can still find local IFAs but they don't appear on the default setting.

For example, I just did a search on the default setting and none of the nearest independent IFAs were listed at all and the pages were dominated by national or regional salesforces and FAs.  When I unticked the "show only advisers available for contact" button, then 7 local independent IFAs appeared on the first page and the pages after all had independent IFAs on there.

Basically, Unbiased has turned from a directory of IFAs into a lead generation site for any type of adviser and prices to attract the salesforces and deter the small local firms.    Small local firms cannot afford  the £302-£3272pm that it can cost.      Salesforces and nationals can because they are typically more expensive than small independent IFAs and can recover the cost from the consumer.   Plus, unbiased gives enterprise pricing for the nationals.  So, per adviser, it is cheaper for them than the firms with 1-5 advisers.

LHW99

Because the general received wisdom is IFA is more attractive (for people who even know about Financial Advice)  FAs tend not to be upfront about the drawbacks of limited product range. And laggardly in updating marketing when they sell their book to a network like SJP or Quiliter.   This is a common exit strategy for formerly independent small businesses.  

With FAs - their magic beans are the best.  They literally *have to* pretend to believe this - to be able to sell their wares with conviction

Spoiler they usually are not better. But they nearly always are more expensive than IFA recommended options or DIY options - without the advice fee at all

Nevertheless, allowing for those drawbacks, if they are registered (IFA or FA) they should still be honest. I believe you can look up whether there are any judgements against particular firms, and what for - I don't know quite where that can be found, but someone here will.

IanManc

LHW99 said:

Because the general received wisdom is IFA is more attractive (for people who even know about Financial Advice)  FAs tend not to be upfront about the drawbacks of limited product range. And laggardly in updating marketing when they sell their book to a network like SJP or Quiliter.   This is a common exit strategy for formerly independent small businesses.  

With FAs - their magic beans are the best.  They literally *have to* pretend to believe this - to be able to sell their wares with conviction

Spoiler they usually are not better. But they nearly always are more expensive than IFA recommended options or DIY options - without the advice fee at all

Nevertheless, allowing for those drawbacks, if they are registered (IFA or FA) they should still be honest. I believe you can look up whether there are any judgements against particular firms, and what for - I don't know quite where that can be found, but someone here will.

Whether or not they are honest or not isn't in issue.

The difference is that an IFA is an independent financial adviser whereas an FA is a salesman for the business whose products he is selling. (Or she).