Thoughts on advice from IFA....

[Herbie912]

Follow on from Advisor or DIY thread, related but different topic (thanks to everyone who contributed to Advisor or DIY thread, super helpful).

So per that thread, I agreed to pay an IFA to "conduct a holistic analysis of all areas of the client’s financial plans that fall within the regulated permission of the firm, and make personal recommendations in these areas"

Overall, it has been useful - particularly for cashflow forecasting and ensuring I think about platform and funds... Essentially it reaffirmed things I was thinking about anyway.

Something I can't quite shake - ultimately, the advice side boils down to move everything to Nucleus and EBI funds. When I question why Nucleus vs II etc it boils down to it being easier for an advisor to give ongoing advice when using Nucleus. Kind of find, but assumes I want ongoing advice (at a cost for both the platform and the advisor) - when likely I will go DIY.

Intrigued by folks' thoughts on whether they would:
- Push back stating that I want advice that is agnostic on whether I continue to take further advice.
- Push on but suggest a compromise on the fee (I haven't paid yet),
- Just suck it up as the way things work with the advisor?

Ultimately, not a major thing, but intrigued on peoples thoughts here.

[okgo]

They re trying to make money :-)

Sounds like potentially you want a planner here?

Edited by okgo on Saturday 10th January 11:57

[darreni]

The ease of use by the adviser is not and should never be a factor when making a recommendation to a client.

Move on to another.

[ukwill]

I'd run a mile. That's not advice, that's them seeing how to make money from your pot.

[Simpo Two]

He's setting up the machinery for an advised service.

I googled Nucleus EBI and got:
'Nucleus EBI Funds. Nucleus Financial offers access to over 100 discretionary fund managers (DFMs) through their platform. These DFMs run their portfolios directly on the platform and receive an investment management fee directly from the client’s cash account.'

I bet you didn't ask for a DFM... and every layer will come out of your investments.

[butchstewie]

A lot of advisors will want/assume/try to get you to use them for everything (they're advisors what did you expect ) and part of that will often involved wanting you to use their chosen platform and fund managers so they have access and visibility to everything.

It's not necessarily "bad" or "expensive" but it does arguably tie you to them and probably makes it more difficult to DIY or switch funds in the way you could if you used say HL or AJ Bell or a more mainstream platform.

Comes down IMO to the level of "advice" and management you actually want.

But in principle there's no technical reason you should need to change platform to take financial advice.

[rhlshrm2430]

Totally normal feeling tbh. Advisors often default to what’s easiest for them, so I’d just say upfront you’re likely going DIY and want recommendations that stand on their own - their reaction tells you a lot.