Financial advisor experience

[Dorset Boy]

Avoid like the plague, unless you know you can trust them 100% Got ripped o when i was young, would never trust another one, My son in law is an accountent, if i need anything to with money i would talk to him.

Your son in law can give you tax advice but he can't give you financial advice unless authorised to do do. They are far from the same thing.

 

[Pblakeney]

Avoid like the plague, unless you know you can trust them 100% Got ripped o when i was young, would never trust another one, My son in law is an accountent, if i need anything to with money i would talk to him.

There are good 'uns, and there are wrong 'uns.
The hard part is finding out who is who in advance.

 

[mikeIow]

Your son in law can give you tax advice but he can't give you financial advice unless authorised to do do. They are far from the same thing.

Very true….but for MANY people, all they need is sensible guidance 🤷‍♂️
The term “advice” is a very regulated one, but quite often there is some simple guidance people need to make their own decisions 👍

For decades, the workings of investment and money had been hidden as a dark art behind mystical financial advisors. Nowadays there is so much more information readily available, a relatively savvy person* can make good decisions without recourse to arcane practioners.

*for a given definition of savvy…..I appreciate common sense should often be relabelled “rare sense” in this day & age 🤣

 

[Drago]

Your son in law can give you tax advice but he can't give you financial advice unless authorised to do do. They are far from the same thing.

Broadly speaking that is correct.

However, There are some exemptions, such as advice given to employees under an agreement with their employer, or advice on certain specific products.

Also anyone can give advice on financial activity not regulated by the FCA. Crypto, on which I have made a few modest shekels myself, is one such area. Certain stock market activity is also outside of their remit, and I've flirted with that as well,

Do your homework carefully before consulting anyone.

 

[Psamathe]

My way of thinking is that there are a lot of questions only the (to be) pensioner can answer eg what level of income do you require, what about income for dependents should anything happen to you, what's your attitude to risk (eg guaranteed income vs lump sums), etc.

IFA can't answer these questions only you can. And answering on the spot in your meeting might not be wise but maybe better to reflect, discuss, etc.

My personal attitude is once you have a good idea of the answers to questions only you can answer then you'll have an appreciation re how complex a solution you'll need which might be easy to DIY or might need IFA to explore possibilities.

My own situation is straightforward so I can DIY but others might feel they want to sanity check their answers or need more complex solutions.

I believe too much depends on individual circumstances and financial knowledge to say you can DIY or need IFA.

Ian

 

[Jameshow]

Your son in law can give you tax advice but he can't give you financial advice unless authorised to do do. They are far from the same thing.

Of course he can, you go down the pub and talk about your pension he gives you advice.

He cannot give you professional "advice" any more than he can give you medical advice. But his advice will still be relevant!

 

[fossyant]

Get your figures from the pension company then work it out on a simple spreadsheet, or a piece of A4 if you don't do basic spreadsheets. I have four schemes, two that are more traditional defined contribution for most employers (if lucky) then two average salary defined benefit. My first pensions went into a defined benefit for about 10 years (two merged) - USS (University Superan). The next two were a typical me/employer putting into Aviva etc. My current has been running 18 years into a LGPS scheme, so good (like the first).

The two 'spare' schemes (2 and 3) have done well, so I converted to drawdown, took 25% tax free this year and bought a van for a massive lifestyle change for us. These still have a good chunk put away and won't be touched. My old USS scheme, ran the numbers, and as I've not contributed to it for 25 years, and my salary was much lower back then, it made very little difference to draw down the 25% now and the monthly pension from 55. Had I waited till 67, I'd have an additional £100 a month - I'd not have got the tax free and 12 years pension (taxed) and would never made that difference back - even if the pension post 67 was tax free - I'd had to be 90 to have evened out.

I still plan to work until the adult kids leave home, and thats not likely for at least 5 years as a minimum. I don't plan to stay till 67, absolutely not. I've seen too many retirement plans go poop up. You don't need a lot to get by. My wife's pensions are shoot, she's not worked for companies that put much in. She's currently semi-retired, only doing a day a week at minimum wage. We manage fine on this.



Just run the numbers

 

[CXRAndy]

We have an IFA to help manage our portfolio. He watches the markets, speaks with the big investment brokers and other institutions to gauge what they are doing and what movements are over the horizon.

We've used him for nearly 20 years. He has his eldest son in the business, who has trained, studied for all the exams, which there seems to be endless updates

We have half yearly meetings to discuss options and what to do and best way to maximise our 'money'

 

[briantrumpet]

I've ended up with an IFA as when my mum died my head was spinning with all the possibilities and tax implications. Fortunately good friends I've know for 40 years had been in a similar situation, and were extolling one. When I emailed him, turns out I'd had lots of dealings with him in the past on a completely different front, so knew he wasn't some spiv.

So far he's been brilliant, sorting things out & simplifying to a degree, not treating me like an idiot, making sensible suggestions to take advantage of tax allowances, and dealing directly with various people to make the necessary changes (all very clearly explained). Part of the service is also doing the tax return, so that's one less thing to worry about.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Lots of sensible stuff being said on thread. Couple of things - check your state pension entitlement (online, easy) if you haven't, and if short of max., do consider topping years up to get more entitlement. Secondly, it's almost invariably the case that passive trackers perform better than actively managed funds across the medium - long term. They're also cheaper, far cheaper in most cases. Oh, and a third, if you're going to move your pensions and self-invest, then the charges across the SIPP platforms vary hugely too, so do your research there too.

 

[ren531]

Lots of sensible stuff being said on thread. Couple of things - check your state pension entitlement (online, easy) if you haven't, and if short of max., do consider topping years up to get more entitlement. Secondly, it's almost invariably the case that passive trackers perform better than actively managed funds across the medium - long term. They're also cheaper, far cheaper in most cases. Oh, and a third, if you're going to move your pensions and self-invest, then the charges across the SIPP platforms vary hugely too, so do your research there too.

Certainly been an interesting thread for me.
We've both checked our state pension and we're up to full entitlement.
SIPP is another one I know little about, self invested pension pot ? my research into draw down I kept reading about SIPP being an option with some providers .

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Certainly been an interesting thread for me.
We've both checked our state pension and we're up to full entitlement.
SIPP is another one I know little about, self invested pension pot ? my research into draw down I kept reading about SIPP being an option with some providers .

Basically you take your pots from existing providers and invest in a fund or funds of your choice on a third party platform (or some tie you to their own)

I've taken a different route, but take a look at Vanguard's site, whose explanation of the process is notably clear, I recall - it's very useful in taking one through the basics (and of course they want your £ - as they would!)

 

[Profpointy]

I have in the past used a financial adviser, who, to be fair, gave good enough advising us on certain funds and so on, which all did OK to good.

However I believe he was getting an ongoing commission, which over the years amounted to rather a lot. This wasn't a con as such, but did make me wonder if there was really ongoing value. As years went on the units all got sold (to pay for a house), so am no longer dealing with him.

When I cashed in a fair whack of my pension recently, I did my own research and was happy with what I did. Tax free lump sum cleared a sizeable mortgage and the surplus went into tracker ISAs so like (most of) a pension is a shares based investment but I can spend it tax free when I need it, and being a tracker, fees are very low.

That said, given it was a fairly significant pension pot and potentially costly thing to muck up it wouldn't have been silly to pay some a grand or whatever to explain it all or even just check my own understanding.

Less keen on paying someone 1% annually till the end of time. Another reason for tracker funds - low cost - after all are managed funds going to get 2% better than "the market". Naturally they all claim to aim to do that, but on average they can't by definition

 

[mikeIow]

Get your figures from the pension company then work it out on a simple spreadsheet, or a piece of A4 if you don't do basic spreadsheets. I have four schemes, two that are more traditional defined contribution for most employers (if lucky) then two average salary defined benefit. My first pensions went into a defined benefit for about 10 years (two merged) - USS (University Superan). The next two were a typical me/employer putting into Aviva etc. My current has been running 18 years into a LGPS scheme, so good (like the first).

The two 'spare' schemes (2 and 3) have done well, so I converted to drawdown, took 25% tax free this year and bought a van for a massive lifestyle change for us. These still have a good chunk put away and won't be touched. My old USS scheme, ran the numbers, and as I've not contributed to it for 25 years, and my salary was much lower back then, it made very little difference to draw down the 25% now and the monthly pension from 55. Had I waited till 67, I'd have an additional £100 a month - I'd not have got the tax free and 12 years pension (taxed) and would never made that difference back - even if the pension post 67 was tax free - I'd had to be 90 to have evened out.

I still plan to work until the adult kids leave home, and thats not likely for at least 5 years as a minimum. I don't plan to stay till 67, absolutely not. I've seen too many retirement plans go poop up. You don't need a lot to get by. My wife's pensions are shoot, she's not worked for companies that put much in. She's currently semi-retired, only doing a day a week at minimum wage. We manage fine on this.

Just run the numbers

Curious what you meant by plans going wrong?

For the most part, I’ve seen older friends & indeed relatives either pass away too soon or spending very little.
I feel that most people work far longer than they need to. Partly because they pay FAs whose businesses do better out of people when they are still working, perhaps 🫣

Some folk just love their work…but I feel they are the minority, maybe business owners - although I also know at least one of those who is now realising he wants out 👀
For some, it is perhaps a lack of imagination of how they will spend their time 😳
I’ve not come across any (in my sphere - I’m sure it happens) who run out of money 🤷‍♂️

I think the key thing people need to do is figure out a vision for their future. Kind of “where do you see yourselves in 5/10/20 years”, although some will struggle with that!

 

[fossyant]

Curious what you meant by plans going wrong?

Direct experience of colleagues/friends. They/partners then get a life limiting/mobility issue within that magic date of retirement (early or not). Just shortly after retirement, both folks partners fell ill, cancer and another a small fall in the garden, hip fracture.

I'm in the early retirement planning stages TBH at 55. I'm currently whizzing around on a broken pelvis that might have ruined less active people, but I put this down to being active that I can recover. I've a colleague that's not much older than me that lives in sheltered accommodation (60). Of the friends, one's partner slipped in the garden, and had a pelvis fracture at 65, it's not been a good outcome - that's not much older than me.