Can an IFA withdraw their service to me

dunstonh

I find it hard to regard the advice on the new offer as independent when their own wrapper product, on Transact, is the only thing they offer.

Transact is a whole of market platform. So, it has every investment available.

There has been some debate on whether an IFA restricted to one whole-of-market platform should continue to refer to themselves as an IFA. I don't believe the FCA has made any ruling on that front other than to say they don't like everyone being put in the same solution and that the company would have to prove that it is the best option each time.

Many compliance firms take the view that if a firm restricts itself to a single platform or a very narrow solution set, it may be difficult to support the use of the term ‘independent’ in practice, even if the FCA has not issued a specific blanket ban on that model

As much as I like Transact as a platform, I cannot justify using it for everyone. There are lower-cost alternatives that are whole-of-market and equally suitable. Transact is best priced for large values, not small. So, it cannot be a one size fits all solution.

 My IFA advised me to transfer my fund to SW when I started my own company. 

SW's product range used to be good. In the early 2000s it was a good option. They introduced a "retirement account" which for a period was very good value. A bit clunky in software but well priced. However, Lloyds stopped spending money on SW and its products soon went out of date and looked it. More recently, Lloyds has been spending money on SW again and they finally have a proper platform. However, you are eitehr going to be on the older Life and pensions product or the retirement account. We moved all our clients off SW many years ago as it was an easy justification. So, in that respect, there is a good chance that alternatives will be better for you. Its just a case of whether its Transact or another that will be.

What exactly is the difference between an IFA and an IFP. I tried googling "Independent Financial Planner -Advisor" and it only returned results for IFAs.

The term ‘independent’ is regulated by the FCA, so firms describing themselves as ‘independent financial advisers’ must meet specific criteria.

‘Independent financial planner’ is more of a marketing/role description than a separate regulated category, so it can be used by both independent and restricted firms provided they don’t mislead clients about their regulatory status.

mgfvvc

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81927328#Comment_81927328

Exactly this.

I had a SIPP in an IFA controlled platform (AJ Bell's InvestCentre). The IFA who set it up stopped communicating with me years ago, but it was easy enough to set up an AJ Bell SIPP directly and transfer from the old SIPP.

simprove

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81929587#Comment_81929587

Sorry, I've only just noticed your reply. I thought I had the thread bookmarked but didn't get a notification.

The SW fund I'm in has been performing well enough. My new IFP's analysis over the last five years shows an annualised performance gain of 3% compared to SW. However that is before charges. After charges the difference is 1.79%. If I remove the adviser charge from SW and control things myself that reduces the performance difference to 1.49%.

Transact may well be a good investment platform but my fund performance would appear to depend wholly on my advisers' expertise. Obviously their wrappers would give more flexibility than the old SW funds offer, but I don't think I'll have much use for that, except perhaps with ISAs. They are charging for a lot of visibility and control which I have little use for.

If I transfer my pension there will be no charges, but I assume the value transferred will be my funds sold at the offer price, so there is a loss involved there with all investments sold at once. My funds will not be invested for a while either.

simprove

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81929540#Comment_81929540

The quality of the replies I've had is great. I just don't see what the posting restrictions achieve other than putting off new members. At least I'm now regarded as safe to edit my own posts.