I need sound advice

loopy

i recently inherited a substantial sum of money and need some impartial advice on the best place to invest it!

Banks are advising me one thing and my well intentioned family are telling me another.

Any advice anyone?

dunstonh

Never seek financial advice from a bank. They are tied to their own product range which is usually very expensive and limited. They only have to give you the best option they offer, even if a better option exists but they dont offer it. They also tend to have very hard sales targets and, nowadays, the "advisors" are low experience and have limited qualifications.

Never take advice from the family either. Your circumstances are likely to be different to theirs and your views on investments are likely to be different as well.

No one person is the same. Things like your tax situation now and in the future, what you want to do with the money, your overall attitude to investment risk are just a few of the things which will impact on what you should do with the funds.

It would be in breach of the FSA rules to give you any advice here and also there is no guarantee that the information would be correct either. Non-financial professionals tend to put their personal attitude to risk into what YOU should do and your risk profile may be higher or lower.

We can give you suggestions at things you can investigate. If you really don't know about investments and are concerned with getting mixed responses, then you should seek advice from an IFA. It will be cheaper than buying a product from a bank. Sometimes buying direct may be cheaper (or more expensive) but you do need to know what you are doing if you go direct.

whiteflag_3

Why dont you find an IFA(Independent Financial Adviser) that will charge you a fee.? The bank wont be giving you advice they will be selling you whats best for them and their daily sales targets! If you were ill would you go to your family or go to a medical professional?

cheerfulcat

loopy wrote:

Banks are advising me one thing and my well intentioned family are telling me another.

Any advice anyone?

What I would do in your position -

First off - don't listen to the banks! They will try to sell you expensive products which make money for the providers, not for you.

Secondly, pay off any outstanding debt.

Then put aside 6 months' worth of outgoings, if you don't already have an emergency fund.

Do you have any big expenses ( Uni, weddings, world cruises, new kitchen ) coming up within five years? If so, you should put money aside in a savings account for that as well ( too short a time to invest ).

*Now* I would start to think about investing the rest.

You need to decide what you want the money to do for you, as that will determine how best to invest; do you want/need an income from it ( bear in mind that the very best income you can expect is ~5% right now )? Do you wish simply to preserve capital against inflation? Or do you want to increase the capital? Will you be wanting to take bits out at regular or irregular intervals? Are you willing to take a chance that you will lose some of the money, in return for the possibility of a greater return? Are you prepared to watch the value of the capital fluctuate?

These are things which you will need to know before you make any decisions. In the meantime it won't hurt to keep the money on deposit.

HTH

Cheerfulcat

loopy

Thanks very much for all of the advice and guidance!!

I will certainly think carefully about where to put my money!

:T