Is it possible to get independent financial advice?

[ILoveMondeo]

From a professional?

Lots of options out there and I'm unsure about any of them.

The days of an IFA are long gone are they not? My parents used a few over the year and the general opinion was they were ultimately just there to sell something.

Really, I'm all a bit stumped as to what to do... I really need to do some planning and I have some ideas, and would act on them myself, but I'm no financial whizz.

Really after help with Retirement planning, which is a can of worms in itself, where to invest, etc..

But there's a bunch of other topics involved in that too, and some other bits and bobs like sorting my estate in a will, income protection, life assurance.

Also, would you trust a "professional" anyway?

Or should I bare my soul (and finances) to a forum of experts like this?

Cheers

[Ginge R]

Well, you don't always need a professional to help you. It's anonymous here so why not share some basic details? If you get an initial steer and feel for what (if any) follow up help you need, you've lost nothing. You might need some basic info, that's all.

I'm an IFA, as are others. The only thing I would say is that you'll get so much contradictory advice and info here, ultimately, you'll have to trust your own instincts. There is no substitute for personal one to one advice that you trust - if that's from a well informed mate, an adviser, a family member.. only you will know.

Have you looked at the Money Advice Service website?

[HumbleJim]

ILoveMondeo said:

.

Also, would you trust a "professional" anyway?

Or should I bare my soul (and finances) to a forum of experts like this?

Cheers

Would you trust an amateur?

Ask friends for recommendations.

[IanMorewood]

Yes you can but dependent on location and qualifications you are probably going to be looking at £150+ per hour for a chat with a good one.

[zcacogp]

Good thread. Thanks ILoveMondeo, I have been wondering the same of late.

These people have started advertising on the tube recently. I only mention them because I have noticed them. Has anyone used them? Are they any good?

http://www.nutmeg.com/


Oli.

[megaphone]

I've really got disillusioned with the whole IFA concept. I'm struggling to find someone I can trust who is not "on the make".

The IFA we were using has retired, not long after the changes in regulations. His replacement is keen to carry on the relationship however fees and commissions appear exorbitant. £200/h for advice or we can go 4.5% of the value we have to invest.

All we need to do is re-invest some maturing funds into a new fund, we never paid any direct fee last time and there is no obvious difference in the product we are investing in, just a simple FTSE tracker. I don't understand where the value of the commission the IFA used to get from the fund provider has gone, it has not been reflected in a better product for us. So we are getting the same advice and the same fund but having to pay for it this time, it does not add up.

[ILoveMondeo]

IanMorewood said:

Yes you can but dependent on location and qualifications you are probably going to be looking at £150+ per hour for a chat with a good one.

Where would I go about finding one if I were that way inclined? Is there a register or something?

[DSLiverpool]

Basically split your pot

Buy a house to let or do up and sell with some

ISA maxed out (maybe stocks?)

Buy into a business?

Have some in the bank earning sod all but for emergencies

That's the basic advice they tell you

[RESSE]

ILoveMondeo said:

IanMorewood said:

Yes you can but dependent on location and qualifications you are probably going to be looking at £150+ per hour for a chat with a good one.

Where would I go about finding one if I were that way inclined? Is there a register or something?

http://www.financialplanning.org.uk/wayfinder/find-planner

Look for one with CFP and Accredited Financial Planning firm status.

[ILoveMondeo]

DSLiverpool said:

Basically split your pot

Buy a house to let or do up and sell with some

ISA maxed out (maybe stocks?)

Buy into a business?

Have some in the bank earning sod all but for emergencies

That's the basic advice they tell you

That's kind of where I was heading I think... but I made that up on my own... if there's really nothing more out there and it's just a case of choosing the right ISA, or right BTL... then I can cope with that easy enough.

[NewNameNeeded]

ILoveMondeo said:

That's kind of where I was heading I think... but I made that up on my own... if there's really nothing more out there and it's just a case of choosing the right ISA, or right BTL... then I can cope with that easy enough.

There are other options out there, but at a cost. For instance check out Close Brothers (I've no affiliation) who gave a seminar at my work. They had some pretty good and thought provoking ideas about making the most of every pound you earn/invest in the most tax efficient way (legally, and with a degree of risk you're comfortable with).

[pacoryan]

The "traditional" IFA, by which I mean a former Life Assurance salesperson who spent the last thirty years selling financial products which bore commissions, has effectively been regulated out of existence (or to a Tied/SJP environment). It used to be that you couldn't really get advice unless you "bought" a product because otherwise your "adviser" did not get paid.

Nowadays most advisers will charge you a fee for the advice, which is, after all, where the value lies. Products might be recommended, the difference is they don't need to be. A significant amount of my work is creating a bespoke financial plan which the client pays for. The strategy might involve a load of National Savings accounts and giving the money away, none of which pays me anything, but if it's right for the individual they now have the advice in black and white and can be happy that my advice wasn't influenced by the need to pay my bills.

Financial Advice goes beyond investment decisions, don't forget.

[ILoveMondeo]

pacoryan said:

The "traditional" IFA, by which I mean a former Life Assurance salesperson who spent the last thirty years selling financial products which bore commissions, has effectively been regulated out of existence (or to a Tied/SJP environment). It used to be that you couldn't really get advice unless you "bought" a product because otherwise your "adviser" did not get paid.

Pretty much what I had assumed.

pacoryan said:

Nowadays most advisers will charge you a fee for the advice, which is, after all, where the value lies. Products might be recommended, the difference is they don't need to be. A significant amount of my work is creating a bespoke financial plan which the client pays for. The strategy might involve a load of National Savings accounts and giving the money away, none of which pays me anything, but if it's right for the individual they now have the advice in black and white and can be happy that my advice wasn't influenced by the need to pay my bills.

I think this is perhaps what I'm looking for, happy a shed a few hundred quid if that's what it takes.

However, I guess this advice comes with a "dont blame me if it goes st shaped" clause

pacoryan said:

Financial Advice goes beyond investment decisions, don't forget.

I'm thinking insurance/assurance, wills, inheritance tax planning (hopefully a little too soon for that, need to work on the estate before working out how to give it all away)...

Am I missing anything?

Thanks for the pointers.

Edited by ILoveMondeo on Tuesday 4th March 16:54

[DSLiverpool]

OP do it yourself and save £££ if your confident, any managed fund worth having will cost you thousands a year regardless of you making or losing money.
When you invest the only person guaranteed to make money is the investment manager who may take 3% so to beat a building society you need to get to 5.5% or more.
I now self invest within my ISA each year.

[Condi]

DSLiverpool said:

OP do it yourself and save £££ if your confident, any managed fund worth having will cost you thousands a year regardless of you making or losing money.
When you invest the only person guaranteed to make money is the investment manager who may take 3% so to beat a building society you need to get to 5.5% or more.
I now self invest within my ISA each year.

I have multiple managed funds and they charge about 0.7% a year. The fund managers micro-manage on a day to day basis, and I periodically asses the funds progress and move money accordingly. As a result with very little effort you can get the most of both worlds.

Investing in individual shares is fine if you have enough money to spread risk; managed funds are a very good way of spreading risk across different equities while still maximizing your exposure to sectors, countries or markets which you think will do well.

[markcoznottz]

Don't trust anyone. .

[fandango_c]

ILoveMondeo said:

DSLiverpool said:

Basically split your pot

Buy a house to let or do up and sell with some

ISA maxed out (maybe stocks?)

Buy into a business?

Have some in the bank earning sod all but for emergencies

That's the basic advice they tell you

That's kind of where I was heading I think... but I made that up on my own... if there's really nothing more out there and it's just a case of choosing the right ISA, or right BTL... then I can cope with that easy enough.

There's more to it than choosing where to invest as suggested above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Financial...

[DSLiverpool]

Of course there is, I was being simplistic and the size of pot makes a difference to ones thinking but you can easily "invest" £250k in a BTL, a few years ISA funds doing the dog shares, some boring savings etc OR spend all your time fretting about getting the last £1 out of it.

[ringram]

Even your basic low cost tracker is an allocation to a specific asset class.
So nothing is purely "passive"

Read up on asset allocation and risk profiling. Much fun is to be had on those topics alone.

Then check out rebalancing, which serves to ensure you buy low and sell high when combined with target allocations.

Some reading on behavioural biases wouldn't go amiss.

Tax wrappers are most definitely your friend. Max out your ISA at a min and dump some into a SIPP too.
VCT's are a bit more open to debate.

The answers are all out there and the advice you seek is free. You just have to know where to look and understand what you see. (behaviour bias!)
Any advise you get will be sullied with bias one way or the other.

[New POD]

markcoznottz said:

Don't trust anyone. .

And Especially Not y'self.