Fee-only chartered financial planner

andyeyeam

I want to engage a fee-only planner for some advice. I have a plan already but I want someone to look at it. Any advice on how to go about getting good advice?

eskbanker

The MSE article about financial advisers offers some tips about how to find them:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-financial-advisers/

or Googling 'find chartered financial planner' gives AI suggestions - if you append your location to such a search it ought to tailor it to those near you. As ever, the best option will be word of mouth recommendation if available.

It would surprise me if a chartered planner would offer a validation service like that, but you'd only find out by asking them…

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6688852/fee-only-chartered-financial-planner

This appears to be the link you need to find a CFP.

https://www.thepfs.org/yourmoney/find-an-adviser/?_gl=1*yg0smv*_gcl_au*NjEwNzA5NTExLjE3OTM1Mzg3NTE.

gm0

Validation of DIY plans is not the FCA regulated form of pensions recommendation and advice service.
The process fights you. Providers are not in general to setup to transact with you bespoke as you might wish. As it makes no sense in the FCA regulated world they live in

So what you will need to put up with is doing it "the official way" as well. As the adviser cannot skip that and not then have insurance issues and the lifetime liability for advice with a clear cut breach for not having done it by the book - regulated deliverables - cashflow, critical yield blah blah.

You may be able to find someone to do a planning exercise with a fact find with you. And based on your situation, objectives and assets. And you can then compare the recommendation outcome of that with what you came up with. All before making a decision on what route to go. Compare cost, selected portfolio, drawdown approach etc.

All good confidence building stuff but you have to invest the time in the pension planning advice and accept that it is what it is.

You won't be able to discard regulated deliverables that you don't think you want or need. There is no waivier option to customise. Your time. Their work. The agreed cost.

About 5 years ago - I found such a firm doing pension tidy up consolidation and transfer on an admin staff leveraged model. Aimed at people with several modest pots scattered. pensionworks was their name.

From the website they seem to be still around. It is £399 upfront. Then 1% pot - if you accept the recommendation and proceed with the consolidation onto their proposed platform and setup. Do your own research, read t&c carefully before signing up to anything with anyone.

When I went through it with them. Most of the data gathering and file build was done by other staff and then the regulated bit and adviser consultation at the end (and then their "recommendation for a consolidation and transfer to adviser introduced" was presented. Which I then declined to implement. The recommendation was perfectly fine. But not to a level where it made sense to give them % of pot.

I was upfront that the offer would need to be pretty good to tempt me and my objectives. They chose to do the work anyway. Back then it was cost of sales. Now they charge the upfront fee regardless of what happens. Still working the high % approval to proceed angle.

My goals back then:

I wanted to check - is there a clear and obvious adviser introduced offer I have not seen. (The have I missed something question).

And did they come up with a similar approach for given inputs and assumptions as in "is my planning not stupid" - portfolio risk level, form of access, income level etc. Is my DIY thinking in the ballpark or way off.

I had a good experience. The adviser was - an adviser - contracted to them to do these sessions based on prepared working files - contractor I think (flexible with case volume). It was fine. All very much to the regulated playbook. The discussion around that core met my objectives.

But it is hard not to lead the witness if you have been DIY planning. If you make moderately aggressive attitude to risk noises - that's the portfolio you'll get back all else allowing (or any other attitude and it's matching setup) - they capture the input, rely on it, validate suitability alongside other facts, categories you and then playback. With audit trail you told them things that led to that.

It is clearly possible to generate a range of "suitable" plan recommendations based on the bias you introduce during the fact find - constrained only by your financial assets and goals which may narrow the art of the possible arithmetically. And all those plans are FCA "suitable" - to what you fed in. Garbage in. Garbage out.

The other key message is that while the regulated process is confining. Not all firms and their advisers habitually deal with all wealth tiers and their specific issues. A bad mismatch between "you" and the typical client portfolio sizes of the firm you use does not generally help anyone get a satisfactory outcome.

Good luck

DRS1

Some brave people post their plans on here and invite comments. Of course it is not the same as getting professional advice.