Towry Law

feesarefare

Silversavers wrote: »

Take a look at Raymond James Investment Services. We understand that a good number of exEdward Jones advisors are linking up with them. and they have a very similar feel to that of EJ.
Regards.

Be aware though that RJIS are made up of numerous firms that operate different business models/services. They will also have differing fee/commission structures and Im pretty sure those operating in London will have higher fees than those operating in other parts of the country.

terrytravel

feesarefare wrote: »

Can you clarify exactly who you are dealing with - Rathbone Brothers are investment fund managers, whereas the financial advisers work for Rathbones Pension & Advisory Services ? Do you get free advice from the P & A arm if you invest with Rathbone Brothers?

Not sure. I didn't get into that particular area as it is not something I am concerned about. My Pensions are already in place.
When I next speak to Rathbone Bros. I will ask and report back.
Although I very much doubt that the advice will be f.o.c.

Sloff

All ex EJ clients will and have been offered 3 options quite clearly by the TL advisors
1) Transfer away, though some investments may only transfer as cash and incur a futher costs elsewhere, upto 5%
2) Leave the investments as they are, but be aware of fee based advice and you will be charges in line with the amount of time taken to advise on the investments only
3) Use the IIM system at low cost entry (£50) and have no fees other than annual fee ranging from 0.5% - 2%
You are getting quality advice from EJ advisors with a better opportunity than EJ ever offered.
Be aware a majority of advisors who left have left for more money and who pays the wages - YOU the client, they are not going to leave your investments alone, re-balance, incurring a commission, new funds another commission, funds maturing - another commission, plus dont forget the annual management charge of around 1.5 - 1.8%, not that the real figure is told, often around 1% is quoted but there are hidden charges which make up the difference.
Add all this together and it is higher than the 2% TL charge.
A lot of ex EJ advisors are now self employed so be careful as moving your money around will be paying the mortgage, also come 2012 they are not allowed to accept commission and be fee based so you will all go through this again and have charges anyway
TL offer the private banking model to you, without having £5m to invest
What is more important to you YOUR money or your realtionship with an adviser who needs you to pay the bills
Think carefully before discounting TL or other fee based options.

cloud_dog

Sloff wrote: »

TL offer the private banking model to you, without having £5m to invest. What is more important to you YOUR money or your realtionship with an adviser who needs you to pay the bills
Think carefully before discounting TL or other fee based options.

Sloff, would you like to disclose any particular allegiances you may have (as per board rules)

dunstonh

Think carefully before discounting TL or other fee based options.

You can discount TL on the basis of not been fee based. Indeed, their remuneration is higher than most commission based advisers.

A lot of ex EJ advisors are now self employed so be careful as moving your money around will be paying the mortgage, also come 2012 they are not allowed to accept commission and be fee based so you will all go through this again and have charges anyway

No you wont. Anything set up now will continue beyond 2012.

Be aware a majority of advisors who left have left for more money and who pays the wages - YOU the client, they are not going to leave your investments alone, re-balance, incurring a commission, new funds another commission, funds maturing - another commission, plus dont forget the annual management charge of around 1.5 - 1.8%, not that the real figure is told, often around 1% is quoted but there are hidden charges which make up the difference.

What about the all the servicing advisers out there that do all of that and have done for years and are paid less in remuneration that TL?

TL are a bit of joke in financial services. They advertise they are fee based but the "fee" is so high that it exceeds the amounts paid to commission advisers. You are saying that one option that pays 0.5% commission (typically) is worse than the TL "fee" option that pays 2%. I'm sorry but I will take the 0.5% over the 2% and dont care if you call fee, commission or Shirley.

malxeboy

Silversavers wrote: »

Has any existing EJ clients actually initiated a move of their assets from EJ/TL. I'm trying to get them to tell me what their charge would be for that option and am currently hitting a brick wall.

Has anyone had any charges passed to them for leaving EJ?
Regards

I saw my old ex-EJ advisor yesterday and he says the only charges that I would be exposed to would be a £58 charge to move the ISA's to the new financial advisor. This is a one off charge no matter how many ISA's you may hold.

gntea

terrytravel wrote: »

We are also ex Ed. J clients.
We are about to have our first meeting with the TL advisor. TL keen to stress that there will be "no charge".
I am concerned regarding this potential change to a new advisor.
At the moment I am uncomfortable to be paying for each "service" plus in excess of £3000 per annum for what ?

Any comments please ?

We have similar feedback to Silversavers regarding EJ / TL move.

It’s easy to get caught up in a frenzy of salesmen wanting business & lose track of what is really important.
Think of what has happened here – (1)We no longer have our original EJ trusted advisor, (2)we no longer have EJ as a company & (3) if TL have their own way, we would no longer have our current investment portfolio as tailored to our needs these past few years.
So basically we are starting from scratch!! It makes very much sense to shop around once again rather than jumping into bed with TL just because they hold the paperwork.

johnsheridan

Hi all,

I live in Norfolk and managed to contact my old EJ adviser, who now works for Loveday & Partners in Norwich (I googled it). They have a whole group of ex-Jones people there and are offering stockbroking & financial planning as before. It wasn't a big drama to transfer my portfolio exactly as it was and there was no charge for doing so, though TL have asked me for £58 to close my ISA.

I believe they have other linked offices across the UK too, so it's probably the best bet for ex-EJ clients who were happy with their previous service/adviser and want to hook up with them again.

ratbert

I really wish a forum had existed like this three years ago when my original firm JS&P went through the same. At the time I googled and found nothing about Towry Law other than it's existence. If I'd been able to see this I would have been able to save myself a huge amount of turmoil.

Towry Law are an unmitigated mess! In so many ways:

When it comes to investments they are a one trick pony, they dump money into the markets with little regard to losses. They tell you it's cautious and they have money instruments bottom line is they don't use them. I feel sure from what I've read that if they'd backed out into saving accounts then a lot of the losses could have been stemmed.

If you are like me and prefer to do your self assessment in good time and have a nice summer break, then forget it with these jokers. Every single year they just scrape into the HMRC deadline for delivering the required materials and when you get it then it's hardly what you would call consumable.

I've worked in the IT industry for 35 years and they should be able to deliver this data on the 7th April, my only conclusion is their internal infrastructure is in a deep mess. I was explaining my woes to a friend and he said oh dear, I use TD Waterhouse and it's all self-service there you just call up a web page and you have it.

The progress (or lack of it) reports you get are difficult to read, for me, or perhaps they are trying to obscure the lack of it.

When things hit their worst the other year, I got a letter from them saying "we've just moved into shiny new offices in London" my first thought was I know which mug paid for that!
This was closely followed by an increase in fees.

I understand fees are on the up yet again...

Like a mug I thought I'd stick it out as their must be an upturn, well it did as we know but Towry Law made a minuscule gain in comparison to the markets. I think the gain was eclipsed by their fees.

Basically in all of my three years with them the only people who have made money from my money is ... Towry Law

I've taken my medicine now and withdrawn. My conclusion is a blind man with a white stick and a copy of the FT and a pin could make better investment decisions. Caveat Emptor!

Financial_Engineer

Dear All,

I am not an employee of Hargreaves Lansdown. I am an ex - employee of EJ. All I can say is that the advisors at EJ & TL are just but glorified sales people, they are not worth the fees they charge. You would be better off opening an account with Hargreaves Lansdown and manage your own money. Overall, their charges are much lower, their service is far superior, they are well funded and you can access all your account information online, by telephone, through the post & you can have an advisor working for you. You can choose from pretty much every investment out there and they even give you discounts and bonuses on fund charges as they manage to save costs by owning their own investment platform & distributing the investments direct to customers. For your own information, fees and charges can wipe out any gains you make on your investments. Seriously consider Hargreaves Lansdown, go to their website and have a look, you will be happy you did for you are going to save yourself a lot of money which will boost your returns.