Is it normal?

Protectingearnings

Does anyone know if it is normal or common practice for an IFA to suggest meeting a new client (ie, me), for the first appointment, at the client's home (rather than at the IFA's office), especially as the home is several hours' drive from the office? It struck me as a little bit strange, is all, and so am not sure whether to go ahead with the meeting. IFA seemed happy enough to make the appointment in the office as well, however.

Thanks!

whu

i dont think it is necessarily odd - i think they do it sometimes just to make it easier for the client - no doubt the IFA's on the site will tell you more

Protectingearnings

Thanks Whu!

dunstonh

Most IFAs work from home. It is classed as a cottage industry still. So home visits to clients are very common.

lostinrates

Adding to Protectingearnigs post (my OH) the reason he thought it may be odd is that the IFA is in Londn with a City address and office. DH works in Londn, and having failed miserably to be able to commit to an appt with a local out of London IFA (some 2-3 hours by train for him) we have decided to pay more for a London Appt we can actually attend.

We thought it odd that a City based IFA should be, as a first line, wanting to come to our home rather than wanting us to go to them.

Dies the cottage industry still apply if they are maintaining presumably costly City offices?

Thank you for your responces.

dunstonh

Is the London address a virtual office or rented postal address?

lostinrates

On the website there is an office address. It is a City address in a Comercial building on London Wall. On googling it does come up at that address.

Its werd this IFA choosing business. I feel its quite important to feel comfortable and trusting in the person to whom we're going to give all our financial details and personal goals and dreams. Its not easy. It mut be very hard to be an IFA with clients vesting so much faith in one.

dunstonh

On the website there is an office address. It is a City address in a Comercial building on London Wall. On googling it does come up at that address.

Virtual offices are very common nowadays. Especially with those looking at a prestige address. For example, you could be based in Wales but have an office address in Canary Wharf but never visit there or have a real office there.

So whilst it may be a valid address and quite above board, they may not actually be physically located there.

ts werd this IFA choosing business. I feel its quite important to feel comfortable and trusting in the person to whom we're going to give all our financial details and personal goals and dreams.

It is a decision that you need to get right.

It mut be very hard to be an IFA with clients vesting so much faith in one.

Not really. If you are good and fair then that is how you act. If you are greedy lazy git then you dont care!

There are some rule changes coming which should improve things. They are finalised in October this year and currently set that IFAs will require higher qualifications than at present. It is expected that 1 in 5 IFAs will cease to trade after the transition period (expected to be around 3 years). The higher qualifications are expected to push out those that are unable to pass higher exams, those that are more interested in sales than advice (which often means they are unable to pass the exams) and those that are close to retirement (who dont want to sit 5 more exams when they may only have a year or two left).

You may want to enquire what the adviser in question plans to do when the "retail distribution review" comes in as you dont want to start with an adviser who wont be trading in a few years.

A way to tell a good adviser from bad is to look at research and explanations. You may not understand the research or the subject may bore you but you should be able to tell if the research is quality or not. If no research is available or explanations are weak (such as no comparisons between various options) then chances are the advice is weak.

Most of the time fee based advice is cheaper than commission. This doesnt mean you have to write a cheque out for the advice. You can agree a fee and have the commission set to that amount with any surplus being rebated or used to lower charges.

LongTermLurker

dunstonh wrote: »

You may want to enquire what the adviser in question plans to do when the "retail distribution review" comes in as you dont want to start with an adviser who wont be trading in a few years.

"Mr Cynic" says the response will be "We've taken the changes into account and will be investing in our staff to ensure they meet the new criteria" or something like that; they're certainly not going to say "we can't be a*sed with the cost of more training and are going to jack it all in in 2009" :rolleyes:. While on the face of it the question is a good suggestion, I would take the reply with a pretty big sack of salt.

Probably better to ask what their existing qualifications are and compare those to the new requirements.

dunstonh

"Mr Cynic" says the response will be "We've taken the changes into account and will be investing in our staff to ensure they meet the new criteria" or something like that; they're certainly not going to say "we can't be a*sed with the cost of more training and are going to jack it all in in 2009" :rolleyes:. While on the face of it the question is a good suggestion, I would take the reply with a pretty big sack of salt.

Hopefully you would have enough sense to judge the answer. Any sensible IFA is already on their way to getting the remaining exams. However, there are still some that dont know what RDR is or dont understand what it means. So, if you get one that already has some of the exam requirements then its a good sign. If you have one that goes "what's RDR?" then that tells you a lot as well.

LongTermLurker

dunstonh wrote: »

Hopefully you would have enough sense to judge the answer. Any sensible IFA is already on their way to getting the remaining exams. However, there are still some that dont know what RDR is or dont understand what it means. So, if you get one that already has some of the exam requirements then its a good sign.

Yeah I know, I was going to say it may be possible to guage whether the response was honest or if there was a smell of bull in the air... There's a certain amount of slime in every industry and spotting it before you slip on it is half the battle.

dunstonh wrote: »

If you have one that goes "what's RDR?" then that tells you a lot as well.

LOL that works for me