Best type of financial planner?

[Mommah]

We are possibly facing a significant change in our personal circumstances...probably for the worse.

We have decent savings mostly in cash at the mo etc and will probably experience a significant drop in income.

So I want to talk to someone about the best way to deal with this vis a vis pensions/investments etc etc

I have made an appt with the advisor at the bank....but who is THE BEST type of person to talk to...an accountant...an authourised investment adviser, a section 10 investment company etc etc???

I have checked out the IFRSA website but nobody leaps out at me....with housewives in distress in their tag-line

Looking at the major accountant companies...they all seem to be business rather than individual orientated.

I asked a family member for a recommendation for a chartered accountant and they were hopeless.

Any advice greatly appreciated

 

[Satanta]

I have made an appt with the advisor at the bank....

While I fully agree with getting as much information as possible, please do remember during the entire conversation that this person is not really an "advisor" but more a sales person for the bank.

By all means go in, chat with them, get as much information as you can from them.... but don't believe they have your best interests at heart. They are trying to sell you financial products available from their bank, not the financial product best suited to your needs.

but who is THE BEST type of person to talk to...an accountant...an authourised investment adviser, a section 10 investment company etc etc???

For a long time people have requested feedback on financial advisors on AAM... and the feedback is usually pretty slow or non existant. (I assume many of the posters have simply not used a FA so can't speak from experience)

If you search for "independant financial advisor" you'll see numerous previous threads on the topic. Many of the threads will discuss the pro's and con's between using accountants vs. FAs etc., although I've read plenty of them and still couldn't suggest the best route for you.

 

[PMU]

I have made an appt with the advisor at the bank.

You do realise that a bank’s adviser is not independent, is working in the bank’s and not in your best interests and will only recommend tied products?

I have checked out the IFRSA website but nobody leaps out at me

I agree. I told the IFSRA two years ago that their list of advisers was worse than useless, in the sense that you cannot judge from it what skills and abilities the advisers have, only the types of products they can sell. They never got back to me.

My suggestions: You should write down now on paper exactly what your financial situation is. You should write down exactly what are the major financial problems you see threatening you. You should write down where you want to be financially in say 5 years time. Unless you have some objective statement of your financial reality, when you go to an adviser, you are open all sorts of proposals that may not be in your best interests. Then, you need to find an adviser who can: (a) develop a strategy to protect you against the immediate financial threats [this is most important], (b) (hopefully) move you to where you wish to be financially in the future, and (c) can recommend products that have a high probability of achieving this.

I think you have a struggle ahead of you. Most advisers appear to be into pension planning or they just recommend ‘good’ products. Your best bet would be a fee-paid authorised adviser. Actually, the advice given by IFSRA on meeting an adviser isn’t all that bad, so it would be prudent to read it again before meeting an adviser.

 

[Marc]

For those looking for Financial Advice, here is my number one pointer to consider which should offer you the best chance of at least getting Independent Advice.

Impartial fee-based advice not transactional sales

Most Advisory Firms have an infrastructure to handle transactional solutions for clients. Typically, the packaged, off-the-shelf solutions from a product provider are sold, following research and chased through the process to completion, with delivery of the policy documents and receipt of the commission as the end objective. Often, renewal commission is then earned and an annual review of the fund performance is offered and changes made as required.

This is the dominant business model in both Ireland and the UK so let’s consider regulatory comment from the UK on the subject:

“Consumers rely heavily on advice from intermediaries, although they have almost no
understanding of the costs of obtaining this, and are unable to gauge its quality. Moreover the advice itself is often compromised by the incentive effects of commission paid by product providers.”
Sandler review ‘medium and long-term savings review in the UK July 2002

Sir Callum McCarthy, Chairman of the UK Financial Services Authority, stated at the Gleneagles Savings & Pensions Industry Leaders’ summit in September 2006:

“The present distribution system is distinguished by a focus on business volume rather than quality.”

“Consumers are not always advised on transactions which fail to remunerate the adviser, or which offer little by way of commission to the adviser.”

The bottom line is that commission-based advisers get paid a different amount depending on the course of action they recommend to their client. They then get paid a different amount depending on the type of product they suggest and even the actual product provider they select as being the most appropriate.

With this system, where the client wants the best advice yet the adviser could be paid significantly more for providing inappropriate recommendations, there is inevitably a conflict of interest between the client and the adviser.

Commissions are an inducement to sell products and the bigger the commission the bigger the inducement.

The conflict of interest this creates would be obvious to most consumers, which is perhaps why too many financial advisers disguise their charging structures.

To have confidence in any advice or recommendations being given by a financial adviser, the client must know that the adviser is acting solely in their best interests and does not have a financial incentive to recommend a course of action that is not the most appropriate. This can only be done on a transparent fee basis, where the client understands and agrees at outset on the level of charges and these charges are not dependent on the sale of a product.

 

[Jack The Lad]

I have made an appt with the advisor at the bank....

Based on my own experiences and narrow escapes with a few of these particular advisors over the years, I would go so far as to suggest you cancel the appointment and have nothing further to do with him/her.

They are there to sell you product, and they are good at it. That's all you need to know.

 

[Mommah]

Based on my own experiences and narrow escapes with a few of these advisors over the years, I would go so far as to suggest you cancel the appointment and have nothing further to do with him/her.

They are there to sell you product, and they are good at it. That's all you need to know.

Thanks all of you for your thoughtful responses.

Yes I agree totally....But even if you pay a so called independant advisor (few hundred euro per hr)...how is one to know that they are not ALSO getting commision on what they are flogging.

My plan is to pick brains and then have a something to benchmark against
At least the banks have a huge range of products compared to small investment intermediaries.

I am reasonably copped on about financial matters (1st class honours in finance about 100yrs ago)....but I have no clue as to what is available in the market right now...what's tax efficent etc etc.

So I'll just have to triangulate advise between a few banks and benchmarking here hopefully.

Little Red Riding Hood heads into the woods...........