Financial Advisor

hotrockhopper

Hi,

I have some money currently in an isa and a savings account. I went to my bank to ask if there was a charge for transfering money out of my isa, and ended up with an appointment for a financial advisor meeting, having been assured that he would be able to offer me products that are not on the website. Since making the appointment, I have looked at this site, and moneysupermarket, and found what looks to me to be a good combination of ISA, regular saver, and standard saver to dripfeed from, all with one bank for simplicity's sake. I do not want to take the risk of an investment that might go down in value, and my future is not terribly stable so I can't tie the money up for more than a year at most. I am eligible for gross interest for the next year.

My questions are: Is there any point in going to the financial advisor? Will he have magical products that meet my needs that I won't have thought of, or will I just end up with a poorer interest rate ISA? Also, are there any types of investment/account that I have overlooked that I should think about?

Thanks in advance!

owitemisermusa

Just be careful, DON'T commit to ANYTHING immediately. Tell him/her you will need time to think things over.

Do your research or post on here the outcome of your meeting.

Remember that the advisor is likely to offer you products predominantly from your bank's stable.

Just be careful and cautious. You may get better products but please make no spur-of-the-moment decisions.

HTH.

debbie42

hotrockhopper wrote: »

Hi,
My questions are: Is there any point in going to the financial advisor? Will he have magical products that meet my needs that I won't have thought of, or will I just end up with a poorer interest rate ISA?

Almost certainly not, in my experience. It sounds to me like you just need to be considering savings, as opposed to investments. You can shop around yourself, as you have done. I very much doubt that your bank will come up with some whizz bang savings option that isn't available on the website as they normally do that to attract new customers, not existing ones.

Cynical, me? :rolleyes:

dunstonh

Is there any point in going to the financial advisor?

The person you are seeing at the bank is not really a proper financial adviser. They are an insurance salesperson. They will only be interested in selling you an investment and your timescale isnt long enough for that. You need to stick to cash savings accounts.

hotrockhopper

Thanks very much for the replies! That's kind of what I thought. I found that Abbey have an ISA at 6.25%, a regular saver at 7.25% and a flexible saver at 5.65% to dripfeed the regular saver. I'm pretty happy with this combination, but just wanted to make sure that I wasn't overlooking something silly.

owitemisermusa

dunstonh wrote: »

The person you are seeing at the bank is not really a proper financial adviser. They are an insurance salesperson. They will only be interested in selling you an investment and your timescale isnt long enough for that. You need to stick to cash savings accounts.

Hi there Dustonh,

Out of interest, was my advice overboard/overkill? There was a thread not too long ago about a guy who went to his bank for an unrelated matter and ended up much much worse off after dealing with an "adviser".

I have a cautious approach and will always think things through and not commit to the salesperson immediately.

Of course, I may have missed time-limited offers but who knows....

Interested to know what you think.

debbie42

owitemisermusa wrote: »

Of course, I may have missed time-limited offers but who knows....

That approach with salespeople is far more likely to save you money than cost you lost opportunities.