Financial advisor experience

[SpokeyDokey]

One thing I have come across is that some people simply divide any savings that they have by the number of years they want their 'pot' to last and forget about applying an amount for interest earned pa. The latter making a lot of difference.

Simple calculator:

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/savings-income-calculator/

 

[Pblakeney]

One thing I have come across is that some people simply divide any savings that they have by the number of years they want their 'pot' to last and forget about applying an amount for interest earned pa. The latter making a lot of difference.

Simple calculator:

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/savings-income-calculator/

They might also forget to account for inflation.

 

[mikeIow]

The proper IFA are only fee based. Commission from the investment brokers or policies is no longer allowed, because of hidden costs the investor didn't always get to see.

Everyone in the chain was getting a piece of investment in commission

True, although this is usually a management fee based on a percentage of the assets under management (AUM)….so that might be anything from 0.3% to perhaps 1% (or even higher, especially if they use a DFM (discretionary fund manager) which might add 0.5% 🫣).
Generally, the more they manage, the lower the fee might be.

This is in addition to any investment charges that might be incurred if you were to DIY.

 

[derrick]

What a ridiculous attitude.

There are bad people in every job, every walk of life. Being ripped off by one bad person is no reason to avoid all people in that role.

That attitude has served me well. have never been ripped of since, where ever money is concerned there will be wrong doings, that's life, Get over it.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

They might also forget to account for inflation.

And fees

 

[Alex321]

That attitude has served me well. have never been ripped of since, where ever money is concerned there will be wrong doings, that's life, Get over it.

You are the one who needs to "get over it", not me. I have never condemned a whole industry because of one bad experience, which is what you are doing.

Of course you haven't been ripped off since, if you are avoding the whole industry "like the plague". That doesn't necessarily mean it has served you well. You might have doe better by finding a trustworthy advisor.

Not knowing your circumstances, it may be that you are perfectly fine just completely avoiding them of course. But it is still ridiculous to tell everybody else to "Avoid like the plague" just because you had one bad experience.

And yes, there are always wrong dealings in any industry where it is possible to do so. That doesn't mean all are bad though, or even that many are.

 

[PK99]

The proper IFA are only fee based. Commission from the investment brokers or policies is no longer allowed, because of hidden costs the investor didn't always get to see.

Everyone in the chain was getting a piece of investment in commission

I'd forgotten that commission based was banned

 

[Profpointy]

I'd forgotten that commission based was banned

Something that very much should be banned is allowing estate agents to sell mortgages. There's a huge conflict of interest if they make more money selling a mortgage to the buyer than their fee from the seller for selling the actual house.

And i should stress I have (mostly) had good service from estate agents both as a buyer and seller, though back in the 80s I very much got the drift that my offer wasn't going anywhere unless I was also buying a mortgage (specifically an endowment mortgage) at the same time. There were a couple of short-lived very low cost estate agents who were presumably in the mortgage business rather than estate agent business; the latter simply being a loss-leader

 

[Fastpedaller]

I was working as a contractor way back 30 years ago. We used an IFA who gave us all the patter and suggested which company to go with for the 'best outcome'. Within 2 months that company was bought out by another . He was trying hard to sell us health insurance, showing us how many 30 year-old's had serious illnesses in the previous year! I commented that out of millions of population there will always be some . His next ploy was "one of my customers had testicular cancer, and he has framed on the wall of his office"........ (our minds were speculating... no surely not!) ........ "a copy of the cheque he received for 30k to pay for his medical treatment". We still didn't buy his health insurance. His advice on the pension (after all those years) didn't turn out to be great. I have the capital (only 20k) invested in a SIPP with Aviva and make my own fund choices, and have increased it by 39% in 5 years, so I haven't done too badly, although this year has been a poor yield so far.
A few years after seeing the first advisor, a relative (an IFA) of a cycling club member was introduced to me - Fair play, he had recognised he may have a 'captive' audience. I followed his advice about opting out of SERPS (it was even Govt advice at the time) and invested my NI contributions. At a later date (for whatever reason) the advice was to return to the gov't 'scheme', which I did. Fast - forward 30 years and the gov't SERPS had stopped, and Wife and I were told by Gov't that we had enough 'payment years' to get full state pension. After a few more years Gov't moved the goalposts and we didn't have enough! (work that one out). Anyway, to buy more years in my case would have been several hundred, and I am only 80p short of the full amount , so not with buying more unless I live to be about 115. Other people can boost their state pension significantly by paying not a lot, so don't let my experience influence anyone (Martin Lewis gave great guidance on this subject recently)
Now the good bit........ My 'opt out of SERPS' pension sold by the cycling club relative was a policy with a guaranteed minimum attached to it, and amounts to £800 a month, so the advice was excellent.
As someone said earlier 'there are good and bad in all professions'

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Apropos Aviva. Awful administration, truly awful. Avoid if possible, there's lots who value your custom. (Yes, born of personal experience, but also borne out by our IFA)

 

[mikeIow]

Interesting.
My main DC pot is with Aviva, & they have been absolutely fine. Aside from th value tumbling since the business brain of America decided to play silly buggers 🫣

Maybe your IFA also pointed out that Aviva have MANY pension schemes (mostly due to the many acquisitions and mergers over the years!).
Mine is a “next generation personal pension plan”….not sure what yours is?

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Interesting.
My main DC pot is with Aviva, & they have been absolutely fine. Aside from the value tumbling since the business brain of America decided to play silly buggers 🫣

Maybe your IFA also pointed out that Aviva have MANY pension schemes (mostly due to the many acquisitions and mergers over the years!).
Mine is a “next generation personal pension plan”….not sure what yours is?

It matters not a jot what pension scheme it is, or where it originated. It's an Aviva scheme. Their inability to accurately transcribe a drawdown sum correctly, creating a negative balance, which is impossible, and then resolve the issue which we had to explain to them despite nearly 5 hours of telephone conversations over several days is inexcusable. The cost will be several thousand pounds. There's still no committed date for receipt of the cash. All communication was within their dates to be paid before tax year end, their ineptitude means it's going to miss it. We will be escalating this and seeking compensation.

Separately, Aviva has been unable to action discovery by my IFA, despite having had 6 weeks to deliver the information (so far) from receipt of my LOA. Compare with Standard Life, whose drawdown is online and as a result took only 3 days end to end to have the cash in my account. Outstanding.

 

[mikeIow]

That sounds like a terrible experience….but unfortunately you’ve missed the point.
Aviva is not one company with one scheme.

Yours does indeed sound a nightmare - which scheme is it, & did it originate with Aviva?

They manage *dozens* of different schemes, and will have different groups with them.
Mine was originally Scandia Life, then Scandia, then Friends Life, then it finally became Aviva.
They don’t “merge” schemes they acquire….but maybe they sometimes lose expertise in them 🤷‍♂️

I started drawdown in 2022, paused it after a short time, restarted it and have changed the drawdown amount since then. Not had any problems.

I’m not trying to suggest anything other than the fact you cannot imply everyone with Aviva will experience your issues. Their multiple schemes will be very different.

That said, in your shoes I’ve probably be looking to move it to Standard Life ASAP 🫣

 

[Pblakeney]

That said, in your shoes I’ve probably be looking to move it to Standard Life ASAP

This is the important part. You can always transfer your pension fund. If your IFA tells you you can’t, switch IFA.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

That sounds like a terrible experience….but unfortunately you’ve missed the point.
Aviva is not one company with one scheme.

Yours does indeed sound a nightmare - which scheme is it, & did it originate with Aviva?

They manage *dozens* of different schemes, and will have different groups with them.
Mine was originally Scandia Life, then Scandia, then Friends Life, then it finally became Aviva.
They don’t “merge” schemes they acquire….but maybe they sometimes lose expertise in them 🤷‍♂️

I started drawdown in 2022, paused it after a short time, restarted it and have changed the drawdown amount since then. Not had any problems.

I’m not trying to suggest anything other than the fact you cannot imply everyone with Aviva will experience your issues. Their multiple schemes will be very different.

That said, in your shoes I’ve probably be looking to move it to Standard Life ASAP 🫣

I didn't miss the point, I understood it very well - but as I said the point you make matters not a jot.

Brand on the annual statement says Aviva.

Website login says Aviva.

Service centre says Aviva.

Profits will be taken by Aviva.

The Ombudsman will, I expect, speak to Aviva.

There is no get out of jail card because 'it used to be company x, so it's not really us, we just bought it to make money, not to be accountable for running it' - it's a moment of truth and they royally screwed it up.

I'm sure there are many, many satisfied Aviva customers - I used to be one of them, as did my wife. That is, until I actually wanted to retire and, well, you know, access my money, which is rather the point. Readers will draw whatever conclusions they want, but I'm sure that they are unlikely to be stupid enough to think that I am seeking to imply that everyone who uses Aviva will experience this level of incompetence - that would be rather foolish of them and me, and anyone who sought to infer than from what I wrote.