The wisdom of getting investment advice and ideas from askaboutmoney contributors

I am interested in people advice here please. I know I could get professional advice you would like to follow this channel also. I don't trust a lot of "professional" advice.

Mods note

As this became a debate about the wisdom of getting advice from askaboutmoney contributors, I have moved the substance of the question to a new thread.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=165713

I'm curious

If I post on here incognito with no fact find and make "recommendations" based on a hunch is that in some way more trustworthy than if I complete a fact find, hold professional indemnity insurance and make recommendations based on a fiduciary relationship with my clients and supported by 20+ years of financial planning experience and a rake of relevant qualifications?

Never trust the professionals!! It's always wiser to take the advice from the recognised experts on AAM
OP you really need to seek a good advisor, if you are serious about looking for proper advice

ptsc said:

I don't trust a lot of "professional" advice.

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Maybe you are confusing sales pitches from vested interests (e.g. tied agents or financial institution sales staff) with professional advice from an independent (and most likely fee charging) professional financial intermediary/advisor? Regardless of the quality of the comments and advice that you receive here I would imagine that many posters would suggest that you still get independent, professional advice.

(I am not a finance professional myself by the way - just an interested amateur!).

It's difficult to answer your question without more info about what your short, medium and long term plans are and how the finances might fit into them.

Then I will take it as a response to a post on a forum and not as sincerely as if it came from a financial advisor as a maybe paid for service. You could be both. No problem. What I am after are new ideas, things that I may need to research etc. Your reply is obviously flippant, but no worries, thanks for replying.

44brendan said:

Never trust the professionals!! It's always wiser to take the advice from the recognised experts on AAM
OP you really need to seek a good advisor, if you are serious about looking for proper advice

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Yes I will, thanks. But I half know what they will say....life assurance, pension top ups, 6 months cash on deposit as a rainy day fund, a balanced and diversified investment portfolio. Taking commission every step of the way, broad, general, expensive and dumb. Just after some ideas....

Marc said:

I'm curious

If I post on here incognito with no fact find and make "recommendations" based on a hunch is that in some way more trustworthy than if I complete a fact find, hold professional indemnity insurance and make recommendations based on a fiduciary relationship with my clients and supported by 20+ years of financial planning experience and a rake of relevant qualifications?

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The problem is that there is no history of out performance... people have difficulty in seeing an advantage of paying an advisor as opposed to taking Joe's advice down in the pub, after all Joe seems to be doing alright...

If a car manufacturer sold cars the way we peddle funds he would have gone out of business long ago - "We take no responsibly for the performance of this car, it may or may not be capable of traveling at 80km/hr, but it is up to figure that out and decide if it is appropriate for you or not".... seriously!

I think that you're mixing up somebody tipping stocks/funds/indices that they believe will outperform the market with somebody looking at your overall personal/financial circumstances and suggesting a range of financial products (savings, investments, pensions, life assurance, etc.) that match your needs?

Wrong wrong wrong

Jim the job of a financial planner is not to deliver investment outperformance.

There are 4 variables that matter
Return
Risk
Cost
Tax

Returns are delivered by the markets so only the other 3 can be influenced by an adviser.

In the latest Dalbar study in the USA the average US Equity investor earned just 3.83%pa over the 20 years ending 2010 whereas the S&p 500 returned 9.14%.

The job of an adviser is to assist investors to earn the market return that is theirs as compensation for risk.

The evidence is overwhelming that the average investor fails to achieve these returns.

Marc said:

Wrong wrong wrong

Jim the job of a financial planner is not to deliver investment outperformance.

There are 4 variables that matter
Return
Risk
Cost
Tax

Returns are delivered by the markets so only the other 3 can be influenced by an adviser.

In the latest Dalbar study in the USA the average US Equity investor earned just 3.83%pa over the 20 years ending 2010 whereas the S&p 500 returned 9.14%.

The job of an adviser is to assist investors to earn the market return that is theirs as compensation for risk.

The evidence is overwhelming that the average investor fails to achieve these returns.

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Marc,

You're answering your own original question - people do not see an advantage in paying someone to get them what they should be able to get - the market rate. It does not matter that most don't achieve it, it's about their perception of it!

Jim2007 said:

It does not matter that most don't achieve it, it's about their perception of it!

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Wrong. Persons in the main on these shores don't want to use paid for advice, simply because of the level of mistrust. Each and every time one tries to use a paid for service, they get bogged down in commissions, side issues, fees and general mistrust ? The market is a free for all, especially for leeches of the Financial World.

Investments in general are hard enough to perceive. Even harder to find some level of honesty.