IFA in Birmingham

neil324

Im thinking about going to see an IFA. How do you know they are any good?Is it best to pay them by a fixed fee, if so whats a good fee?I take it commission based advice is not as good as they may advise to the product with the most commission.
Are they free untill you take up their advise or will they charge you regardless?

Sorry for so many questions.

dunstonh

How do you know they are any good

Most are so the stats are on your side. Ways to help increase the odds are avoid salesforces and perhaps get in with the owner, partner, directors as they tend to have financial responsibility for the firm (owner/partners are financially liable for their advice but employees do not. Plus they have an interest in the business reputation).

With investments you can often tell by the quality of research and analysis. Some of it may bore you or confuse you but you should be able to see that time has been spent on it and options eliminated (i.e. tax wrappers) and a structure or reason behind the portfolio.

Is it best to pay them by a fixed fee, if so whats a good fee?I take it commission based advice is not as good as they may advise to the product with the most commission.

Commission can be cheaper for smaller transactions so dont rule it out. Also, fixed commission levels (i.e. the same regardless of type of investment so no bias can exist) is also an increasingly popular option. That effectively is a fee but based on size of investment (larger investments tend to need more work than smaller ones).

If you work on fee basis you may be looking at fees around £750-2500. If you work on commission basis the typical maximum is 3% (note typical as greedy ones do exist) and typical average is 1.8%. The larger the investment the bigger the discount you should be able to get.

Are they free untill you take up their advise or will they charge you regardless?

The sensible ones will not give too much away until they have some form of commitment from you.

esbo

neil324 wrote: »

Im thinking about going to see an IFA. How do you know they are any good?Is it best to pay them by a fixed fee, if so whats a good fee?I take it commission based advice is not as good as they may advise to the product with the most commission.
Are they free untill you take up their advise or will they charge you regardless?

Sorry for so many questions.

Trust no one
Do you need a shopping advisor when you buy your groceries?

nicko33

esbo wrote: »

Do you need a shopping advisor when you buy your groceries?

If you understand groceries, and know what you need, probably not. But reports indicate a lot of people waste a lot of money grocery shopping by buying things they don't need, keeping them beyond the use-by date, then throwing them away.