Finding an IFA

[gifdy]

Any tips on finding an IFA you can work with ? I need pretty general financial advice of which a large part will be pensions and retirement planning….but not all. I also need advice on tax issues and investments.

I’ve had a few online consultations but never really took to any of them. They were pretty much sales pitches for a particular product or business, no surprise I guess. To date, Ive done my own research and planning but need to accept I’m just no good at it, hence the plan to find an IFA.

I also tried ‘Unbiased’ but they take your basic requirements and ‘match’ to an advisor who will then call you. I’d rather have a list to choose from and understand their background. I also would want someone I can meet locally rather than do it online. I’m not saying online can’t be effective, it’s just a preference.

So, from a pretty much standing start, how do I proceed ?

[Car bon]

It's hard - almost all IFA's seem to want you to move all your funds to them & charge you an annual %. Quite how fast they move to that point varies.....

This forum is good for advice if you can break down the individual questions.

Also there are IM stickies at the top - Nik is good for an initial conversation & steer.

[gifdy]

Yes, that’s what I’ve experienced so far. Always seems to be moving pensions into their fund.

[mikeiow]

Nik was helpful with me before I stepped away from the grindstone: kind of confirming things I suspected. No hard sell to move anything to them
….but you could also do worse than post some questions on the MSE Pension sub-forum - some helpful folk there (including a couple of IFAs).
A lot of this stuff isn’t rocket science…

[simon800]

Almost all IFAs want to manage your investments, and charge you an ongoing fee to do so. Very rare to find someone who will give good advice on an ad hoc/one off basis....

For tax matters it's a bit simpler, you just find a tax advisor. They'll charge hourly but don't expect it to be cheap (into the 100's per hour).

[bitchstewie]

They exist but you're typically looking at a few grand so it depends on the size of the pot.

[gifdy]

Thanks - it sounds like maybe I just need to keep at it myself. I was hoping for someone who could cover all the bases.

Main points :

- 4 work pensions ( 3 defined contributions, 1 small defined benefits ) but not all are performing that well. Should I consolidate or do they have benefits I could exploit in an early retirement ? Total pot is ~ £750K, is it enough for an early 'partial' retirement at 60 ?
- House is about to be paid off, how best to divert the monthly payment for investment ? I've got a Cash ISA but should I go for something with higher risk...or am I already overly exposed to markets with the Pensions ?
- Company share scheme. How & when to realise my shares/options ?
- Tax return. I end up paying additional tax every year even though I'm on PAYE.. I'm sure I'm missing some tricks.
- Company has an EV car scheme. Can I sell existing owned car & use this scheme to be more tax efficient ?

As you can see, a Pension advisor or tax consultant may not be able to address all these points.

[Caddyshack]

gifdy said:

Thanks - it sounds like maybe I just need to keep at it myself. I was hoping for someone who could cover all the bases.

Main points :

- 4 work pensions ( 3 defined contributions, 1 small defined benefits ) but not all are performing that well. Should I consolidate or do they have benefits I could exploit in an early retirement ? Total pot is ~ £750K, is it enough for an early 'partial' retirement at 60 ?
- House is about to be paid off, how best to divert the monthly payment for investment ? I've got a Cash ISA but should I go for something with higher risk...or am I already overly exposed to markets with the Pensions ?
- Company share scheme. How & when to realise my shares/options ?
- Tax return. I end up paying additional tax every year even though I'm on PAYE.. I'm sure I'm missing some tricks.
- Company has an EV car scheme. Can I sell existing owned car & use this scheme to be more tax efficient ?

As you can see, a Pension advisor or tax consultant may not be able to address all these points.

Sounds like you might benefit from an ongoing relationship with an IFA as opposed to a one off IMO.

[gifdy]

Caddyshack said:

gifdy said:

Thanks - it sounds like maybe I just need to keep at it myself. I was hoping for someone who could cover all the bases.

Main points :

- 4 work pensions ( 3 defined contributions, 1 small defined benefits ) but not all are performing that well. Should I consolidate or do they have benefits I could exploit in an early retirement ? Total pot is ~ £750K, is it enough for an early 'partial' retirement at 60 ?
- House is about to be paid off, how best to divert the monthly payment for investment ? I've got a Cash ISA but should I go for something with higher risk...or am I already overly exposed to markets with the Pensions ?
- Company share scheme. How & when to realise my shares/options ?
- Tax return. I end up paying additional tax every year even though I'm on PAYE.. I'm sure I'm missing some tricks.
- Company has an EV car scheme. Can I sell existing owned car & use this scheme to be more tax efficient ?

As you can see, a Pension advisor or tax consultant may not be able to address all these points.

Sounds like you might benefit from an ongoing relationship with an IFA as opposed to a one off IMO.

Yeah, that's what I was hoping for. My preference was someone local who I could meet regularly with.

[Caddyshack]

Where in the country are you - roughly?

[Simpo Two]

simon800 said:

Almost all IFAs want to manage your investments, and charge you an ongoing fee to do so.

Almost. They want to invest your money, for a fee, and charge you an ongoing fee for having done so.

[gifdy]

Caddyshack said:

Where in the country are you - roughly?

Hampshire

[Caddyshack]

gifdy said:

Caddyshack said:

Where in the country are you - roughly?

Hampshire

I am Surrey / Hants border, I have been a mortgage broker for nearly 30 yrs so know some good guys.

If you send me a PM I can send you a list (on Monday) of IFAs that I have known for 20yrs plus and would consider them as very honest and not just in it for the money.

I have no business arrangement with them, ie they would. Not be paying me an intro.

[Forester1965]

You could try looking on VouchedFor. Should give you a selection within a given geography. It's genuine and safe. They'll have reviews for advisers on there which are also genuine.

I used to be a lead generator for financial advisers and booked about 1000 appointments a month for them so have a reasonable grasp of it.

All advisers will want to manage as much of your investable assets as they can. They want to because the ongoing % advice fee is what they're looking for and for every £1 of ongoing income they make adds about £5 to the asset value of their own business.

If any adviser wants to move you from one investment/pension/platform to another, be very careful with their explanation as to why, because some vertically integrated advisers simply want to make it two bites of the cherry in advice and platform/investment fees and don't have a valid reason other than that.

[Simpo Two]

^^ All wise words. Remember you're hiring a salesman, not a professional.

[Caddyshack]

Simpo Two said:

^^ All wise words. Remember you're hiring a salesman, not a professional.

I’m not sure that is 100% true or fair of a chartered IFA nowadays.

[Simpo Two]

Caddyshack said:

Simpo Two said:

^^ All wise words. Remember you're hiring a salesman, not a professional.

I’m not sure that is 100% true or fair of a chartered IFA nowadays.

They vary I agree, but the bit about '1,000 sales leads a week' brought it home. Nobody objects to a fair fee for sorting out a pension etc and getting you on roughly the right track, it's the ongoing fee for doing incredibly little that riles everyone. Has anyone here ever had their IFA contact them and say (of something they sold you) 'I think you should sell £x of Y investment to use your CG allowance'?

[Sheepshanks]

Simpo Two said:

Has anyone here ever had their IFA contact them and say (of something they sold you) 'I think you should sell £x of Y investment to use your CG allowance'?

I haven’t fully signed up yet, but that’s certainly in the planning the IFA I’m working with has discussed, as part of getting currently unsheltered investments into a SIPP or ISA.

I must admit the ongoing fee is going to be hefty, but he’s been at pains to point out that I can cancel at any time.

[greengreenwood7]

gifdy said:

Thanks - it sounds like maybe I just need to keep at it myself. I was hoping for someone who could cover all the bases.


As you can see, a Pension advisor or tax consultant may not be able to address all these points.

FWIW - and obvs others will have had differing experiences, but mine:

1/ Took advice on what to put my money in when opened up a pension a few years ago.
Hindsight: i imagine that IFA's are hamstrung by rules/regs/fear of being sued at some later date. AS the advice turned out to be very vanilla.
If i'd applied myself could have chosen the same funds easily.
No single shares mentioned - ever, just 'stick it in x,y,z. Despite making it clear what time horizons/rik level i was happy with.

2/ accountant; run a small Ltd. Not once have they offered creative advice. In fact thru research i queried 3 areas which saved a fair bit of money, and they agreed i was within my rights to do those things.

3/ recently found a specialist pensions type advisor, seems spot on. Has answered all my Q's re/ allocating to the various pots - sipp/isa/gia and beyond that into investment bond/trust - all designed to minimize tax = positive experience so far and as a result i have a plan to work to.


4/ specialist crypto accountant - actually knows what's what vs our company accountant = positive experience so far.

5/ ditched advice as to what to allocate monies into and spent the past year figuring out what suits my goals.

long winded way of saying:
specialists/advisors come in all shapes/sizes, finding someone that can tick all boxes is tough, finding someone that can do that and have a cute insight into solid moves - rather than "put 20% into these 5 trackers" seems as rare as hens teeth.

You may be better off taking specific advice from a cple of different pro's to cover diff aspects....ie/ someone to run the numbers for when you'd get to drawing from pension/isas etc, and someone who (perhaps??) can give advice on composition of yr investments. (and if you can invest the time yourself to figure out whether blindly chucking money in 'x' fund is worth it, or whether it's likely better to create your own tracker based on the top companies
Finally on that point...for all the talk of bubbles/pullbacks etc - none of the adviors i talked with initially ( not the current crop) ever suggested using inverse etf's etc to hedge. So it was a bit of a pisser to see x% wiped off the sipp's in '22, when in reality, could have negated a fair portion of that by simply buying the inverse SPY (orwhatever).

B-Stewie often makes the point about ongoing fees, and he's right; But i think with a decent sized pot it's worth paying for and listening to top advice.

[Forester1965]

If you want an idea of how much advisers are willing to pay for ongoing advice fees...

During the week, the top advertising spaces on Google for searches like 'financial advisor' are dominated by lead generators. The cost per click on some terms will be in excess of £40. The conversion rate of the landing pages is approx. 20%.

Depending on the company running the site, their business model and the investible funds involved, financial advisers will pay >£1000 for a booked appt. with no guarantee it'll lead to business. They'll pay £200 just for a lead that comes out of the website without knowing what's inside it.