A friend who is self employed put some money with an advisor over the last couple of years in the form of a lump sum and also monthly contributions.
He gets updates from time to time by email (from the broker, not from the company eg. Zurich).
I had a conversation with him some months ago and I was asking what charges were involved and when he went to check he felt the advisor was pretty coy about providing this info. I asked if he had paid a fixed sum for independent advice eg. a few hundred € but he said this was not the case as he was introduced by a few to the broker.
Recently the broker has indicated that there is a 1% charge on the fund management but my buddy has no idea what if any charges come out of his monthly payments.
In summary I was hoping to get some guidance on the following:
Roy
He gets updates from time to time by email (from the broker, not from the company eg. Zurich).
I had a conversation with him some months ago and I was asking what charges were involved and when he went to check he felt the advisor was pretty coy about providing this info. I asked if he had paid a fixed sum for independent advice eg. a few hundred € but he said this was not the case as he was introduced by a few to the broker.
Recently the broker has indicated that there is a 1% charge on the fund management but my buddy has no idea what if any charges come out of his monthly payments.
In summary I was hoping to get some guidance on the following:
- Does the investment company eg. Hibernian / Zurich or whoever not have an obligation to provide formal statements once a year (or more frequently)?
- Apart from mentioning a 1% fund mgt charge, is there a mechanism for finding out what commissions (if any) are being paid to the broker?
- If my friend decides to moves there investment - would there be exit charges (from the fund manager and the broker)?
- Are there are specific questions he should be asking of the broker or fund manager to help get more transparency on the range of investments?
Roy