[Closed] How to pick / find a financial advisor

I'm also keen to find out as also needing a chat with someone who understands this stuff...

I use these.... http://www.rmbfm.co.uk/

Mainly because the 'B' is my nephew, Charlie Burnside. Lots of knowledge & has served us VERY well. Based in Knaresborough but does all the Zoom/Skype stuff.
Ask for Charlie & tell him Uncle Jimmy sent you.

He's got an Orange Crush but don't let that put you off.

Edit, he collects/plays guitars too! Dead cool.

If you're over 50 there is a free Government advice site:

https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk

Personal recommendation followed by chat with the prospective advisor.

What specifically are you after, if you don't mind saying?

Unbiased.com

Or Martin Lewis's money saving expert forum. Wealth of knowledge.

This lass is truly independant, knows her onions, and has sorted out finances for lots of my friends and family.

https://mary-hemingway.trulyifa.co.uk/

There is also a really useful podcast - Meaningful money. Presenter is Pete a plain talking yorkshire chap. He had done quite a few Seasons worth of podcasts, with each season focusing on a particular life stage / topic.

I've found it quite useful in getting to know what sort of questions I should be asking myself / doing money wise to set up a decent foundation for success.

My advice would be don't use an IFA

Financial advisors are not able to have an informal chat. It is highly regulated and therefore any advice needs full disclosure and full evaluation of risk etc. In practice this advice costs £££. This is often recouped from an initial charge (1-2%) and ongoing charges as a percentage of the pot. Typically ongoing fees are upwards of 0.5% of the pot (i.e. £2500 per year on a £500,000 pot). For small pots, the % charge is likely to be higher and it may be difficult to find an IFA to take it on. They may also recommend actively managed funds that typically have relatively high product fess (upwards of 1%).

In practice once you include the IFA costs and (possibly) higher produce fees it makes it harder to "beat" or even match the market. Think about the total cost of compounding the fees over a long period of time where the pot is increasing in size. On average, you are likely to be better of investing in passive tracker e.g. from Vanguard where total fees are typically around 0.25%.

I would highly recommend following the MoneySavingExpert pensions board on their forum. I feel a hell of a lot more clued up since taking a keen interest over the last few months. Even if you still decide to go with an IFA it will make sure you decision is better informed.

Apologies to IFAs

There are certainly cases where paying 'financial planning' charges save significantly more than they incur though. It's very much case by case, especially if planning for future generations and allowing for inheritance. Not everyone has sufficient knowledge to minimise IHT exposure, and people could easily make things far worse than otherwise needed to have through withdrawing from wrappers through later life and not planning ahead.

There is also a comfort element, I know of a few people who don't actually care about the net growth of a pot but want to ensure at any cost their loved ones will be looked after. My mother is one of these, she is petrified of anything to do with finances and will only use someone she trusts. That probably costs 1%+ p.a. over me helping her out but it makes her happy, the IFA will make sure she has an income that keeps her comfortable regardless of markets, and makes passing things down to future generations easy.

There are certainly cases where paying ‘financial planning’ charges save significantly more than they incur though. It’s very much case by case, especially if planning for future generations and allowing for inheritance.

Yes, you are right. I was probably being a bit belligerent.

Yes, you are right. I was probably being a bit belligerent.

You were mainly focussing on the investment side, which is only one small part of an IFA's skill set and possibly their weakest as they're not full time investment managers.

Personal recommendation followed by chat with the prospective advisor.

This ideally.
If not possible, look for chartered, independent (not all are, there's a difference between an IFA and an FA) and generally at a smaller, local firm.

Thanks for above pod tip I just subscribed.

Some financial products are not sold direct to consumers so you may not have a choice by avoiding ifa s. One e.g. is the iht area of investing in aim stocks, the ifa fee is c 2 to 3%, that's on top of the fund fee.

Bumping this thread rather than starting my own; did those asking about IFA's end up plumping for anyone?

I'm having to plan for inheritance tax (as an inheritor) and could do with getting some sound advice in Scotland.

I’m having to plan for [b]avoiding[/b] inheritance tax

Corrected that for you 😉

(not trying to be snarky, but it is a funny euphemism - there's nothing to plan for if you just pay it)

Well as OP I did the grand total of making a big spreadsheet, any trying to work out what _exactly_ I was after, and then it stopped there so this resurrection is a good nudge to find a knowledgeable 'adult' to talk to.

edit - didn't realise it was an old thread!

Very good timing. I’m interested in finding someone to help with how to invest and also spend it. As we have no kids we have no interest in leaving a penny behind so need someone to advise us how we best do that. My concern is finding someone who understands that as it’s not the typical position

(not trying to be snarky, but it is a funny euphemism – there’s nothing to plan for if you just pay it)

Um, yes you do need to plan to pay it as well. It can't be avoided entirely and many aren't in a position to 'just pay it', as you put it, especially if the inheritance is substantial.

Um, yes you do need to plan to pay it as well. It can’t be avoided entirely and many aren’t in a position to ‘just pay it’, as you put it, especially if the inheritance is substantial.

+2

My parents giften their holiday home to my brother and I, if they live for 7 years after that (almost there), it will fall outside of their inheritance estate. So, careful planning has removed a £250k asset from the final inheritence tax bill.

Um, yes you do need to plan to pay it as well. It can’t be avoided entirely and many aren’t in a position to ‘just pay it’, as you put it, especially if the inheritance is substantial.

If you inherit a substantial amount of assets, you have a substantial amount of assets with which to pay the tax. Six months is sufficient to sell a house.

If you inherit a substantial amount of assets, you have a substantial amount of assets with which to pay the tax. Six months is sufficient to sell a house.

Thanks. PM me your invoice for your financial advice and I'll get my PA to arrange payment.

I found mine through my accountant

Inheritance tax advice. Worth asking your lawyer. We were getting new wills and the potential Inheritance tax was one of the questions covered.

We had similar questions a few years ago and went with a simple approach:
0) Regularly review and reduce voluntary spend on crap we don't need
1) Pay off debts other than mortgage
2) Save emergency fund and store somewhere it's easy to access and no risk to capital (mostly Premium Bonds)
3) Consolidate and increase payments into pensions
4) Start to build investment pots - 1) Low risk (ISAs etc) 2) Med risk (Vanguard) 3) high risk (crypto)

The aims are to build enough in the investment pots to fund earlyish retirement and keep us ticking over til pensions kick in and to make sure the kids have a growing pot to give them a good start when they need it.

All advice welcome, but it seems to be working for us so far

Edit: haven't really thought about inheritance tax and not sure if we'll get much inheritance but will need advice on that!