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'