Fiancial Advisor

[andy-hughes]

What's the easiest way of finding a reliable Independent Financial Advisor?

[retrocop]

Walk into a bank.

[fiction-factory]

Are they independent though retro?

This is a fairly recent article
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-financial-advisers

[SirOracle]

From a personal recommendation AH.

There are " good "ones out there,but sadly there are many not so good ones.

[retrocop]

I don't know if Scottish Widows were/are part of Lloyds but I have last week,cashed in several thousand pounds worth of Bonds issued by Scottish Widows. They were advised by our Lloyds Bank Financial advisor when I retired nearly 20years ago.
My son is a Business management advisor for Barclays and they may not be independent with their advice. I will ask him tonight.

[SirOracle]

Retrocop....A financial adviser in a bank can only recommend his/her bank's products so is not independent,as noted by Fiction Factory.

[SirOracle]

Scottish Widows are part of Lloyds Group.Retrocop

[retrocop]

OK , Fair enough. That is why I was querying the link I had between Scottish Widows and Lloyds.

[SirOracle]

Returning to the original post by AH€,I would suggest that if he is not in a position to obtain a personal recommendation,then he should obtain the advice of two or three Advisers,and compare the different solutions which they come up with.

[scorpiojo]

https://register.fca.org.uk

[johnny37]

sorry to be negative but i dont trust any of them. They are all in it for themselves. A short example: My wife retired. Had a small fund (£6000) and went to her FI for advice. She had been with him for years. She wasnt happy with the advice and decided to search the net. Found and annuity much bigger than the FI recommended. Obviously he has a pool of providers, not scouring the market which you would expect. FI was not happy that he was going to lose his commission and persuaded my wife to route it through him. The alternative broker was in the same office and her FI said there was a conflict of interest. I would have screwed him to the wall and requested a percentage of his commission. What a load of t***ers.

[ubasses]

Banks have 'Tied advisors' and IFAs. It is worth speaking to your Bank, the only strumbling block is that most Bank's IFAs only deal with customers who are looking for advice over a certain threshold.

[Peter Pedant]

you cant
they are all thieves knaves and spivz

I had some terrible advice from RBS and wouldnt go near them again - nly interested in flogging you their own tied products which were commission driven.
also flogged me an offset mortgage which was a dog. If you overpaid it didnt reduce the capital sum ( hold it that means it wasnt off-set in any real sense ? exactly )

Basically maintain a basket of investments
Sell your losses and run your gains
review frequently
erm - that's it

[ubasses]

Peter, Offset Mortgages are not intended to reduce the capital sum borrowed. Any credit monies in your account are offset against the mortgage balance and interest is only accrued on the lesser amount. It is designed so you pay less interest in the Mortgage over it's lifetime.

[Peter Pedant]

ubass - thx - that is the product I thought I was buying and when it came to overpaying - you know like £100k I was told it did not affect anything ....

I was ill at the time and they were very very keen that the 100k should go into the doggiest product they had on 'offer' - which was according to them a much better idea ....