Career choice - Mortgage Advisor v IFA?

Joe_Bloggs

@Financial Engineer
Welcome to the forum.
What are you going to do instead.
J_B.

dunstonh

I'd consider joining the higher end Wealth Management Firms such as Fisher Wealth

They dont seem to have a very good reputation though. Although much of that is due to the offshore dealings of non regulated individuals who are no better than unregulated sales reps out there to make a quick earning.

or join IFA departments of the larger Accountancy & Legal firms.

I know two IFAs that work for a large accountancy firm. One likes it as he is in his comfort zone. The other hates it as its too sales based (even though its fee only). Their pay is based on the fees agreed and they only get around 30% of the fees.

The theory about working at those places sounds good but the reality is that they are little more than salesforces a lot of the time. Not the sort of place any real adviser wants to be.

From my last discussions with them, they still don't have adequate cover & their retirement plans are flawed (remember these guys designed endowment plans)

Crikey, how old are they? The first endowments were created over a hundred years ago but the mortgage endowment as it used to be was closer to 40-50 years ago.

Bright_New_Dawn

Hi

I started off as a paraplanner and worked with one of the partners of an IFA firm until he retired and I took over his clients. It gave me the chance to ease into the role and develop my technical knowledge. I have got a paraplanner working for me and we have registered him for advice - I hand over clients to him so that he can build up a client bank and (hopefully) continue the process and grow our firm.

Chartered Status is important and it will become the minimum standard someday- The industary is changing and I would suggest you look to position yourself towards working with High Net Worth Clients.

People mention the banks being a good training ground, I would disagree there are too many bad habits in those institutions. They tend (as already mentioned) to focus on sales and transactional based advice.

In reality I believe that there will be very little demand for financial advice at the low income area moving forward - or indeed very little appitite to supply it.

BND

Conrad

You will struggle as an independant MA too. Getting cases through is VERY difficult now, and without years of experience you will really struggle. Best bet would be an in house MA / FA for a Bank.