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[Entwood]

If there is a Financial Whiz Kid on the forum ... I wonder if they could attempt to explain a little something for me ....

A tad of background .. I have used an IFA for a good many years, and have been very happy with him... he's recently retired and sold his business to a much larger setup, and I've had the obligatory "visit" ... and she wants to change virtually everything !!! Now I accept that she might be "better" than my previous .. but I just don't see it at the moment ... which is where I need some help...

Most of my "investments" are in Unit Trusts, and have been there for a long time. She wants to sell these all up and move some of the equity from them to a GARS fund .. as "I'll get a better return" ...  ?? .. but the trusts I'm in show a growth for the past year of 18.3% and 16.5% respectively... and where she wants me to go shows a growth of 8.1% for the same period ... which seems a worse return to me.

Now she is on about that fund being a stocks and shares ISA .. but I can't see the ISA benefits being 10% and 8% respectively .....

and I feel that she is looking more at the 3% commission than anything else ........

or have I got it all wrong    

I know that giving financial advice in a forum is "not on", which is why I have deliberately not named the funds ... it is the principle/mathematics of the "idea" that I'm concerned about.

There is also the matter of the residue from the selling of the units that I can't put into the ISA ... but I haven't quite got my head around her ideas yet enough to explain them !! Still working on that ..

Any thoughts/ideas gratefully accepted ..

(and NO .. no donations to worthy OOFers to look after the money ...    )

[Andy B]

......
and I feel that she is looking more at the 3% commission than anything else ........

or have I got it all wrong     .....

Probably not.
We feel that we were on the receiving end of duff advise years ago re PEPs/ISAs in that at one stage they were worth less than what we'd put in.

Ironically the advisor was called Mr Fiddler! 

[Vamps]

I feel that we need the advice of a good IFA, but having explored some they are only interested in getting some life insurance, because of my health I can not get any additional life insurance at any payable price so they just duck out...

[Plomien]

I would advise speaking to your bank, HSBC will arrange a meeting with an IFA for free but depending on what you take up commission may be charged.
Most of the main banks should offer a similar service but some will be Financial planning managers who don't have the IFA qualifications.
But I know for a fact that HSBC IFA's are as they say.

[Marks DTM Calib]

I have found that the free IFA's are rubbish.

I can see some logic behind an ISA related to stocks and shares if its seen as a mid to long term home (tax free, stocks and shares in some sectors are undervalued at the moment) but, given your current return, its unclear if you will gain anything in reality as the unit trust is little more than a pot of cash for a fund manager to gamble on stocks and shares with anyway!

[Kevin Wood]

The best financial advice will come from someone you're paying directly, not through commission. 


Kevin

[markfree]

Your new FA could be giving you sound advice as he/she seems to want to spread the risk of your investments into a global absolute return strategy fund (GARS - never heard of this before - had to google it).

The secret of investing in stocks & shares is to buy low and sell high - most investors do it the tother way round - buy into a stock that is doing well (and at it's highest price) then bail out when the inevitable happens and it's price drops like a stone.

Your FA seems to be saying that your present investments have reached a peak (plateaued) and you may be wise to bail out while the going is good and put the proceeds into something that maybe has more potential over the longer term as well as spreading the risk more.

Those are my thoughts, bearing in mind that I have won & lost small fortunes on stocks & shares and my next investment will be on the 2.40 at Kelso 

[bigegg]

I've had all my "investment" in a virgin stocks and shares index-linked fund.
The management fee is 1%, and it basically follows the ftse-1000, rather than a "managed" fund, where then manager picks the investments.

I made a 25% return over the last 12 months, less the 1% fee = 24%

most funds don't do much better than the average market anyway, then when you take off the fees, they actually perform worse.

At the moment tho, I'm sinking all my spare cash "savings" into gold and silver "bullion coins", cos that's where I think there will be a BIG jump in the next twelve months.
I'm only putting in what I can afford to lose tho.

USUAL DISCLAIMER APPLIES. I'M NOT A REGISTERED FINANCIAL ADVISOR. MY LIABILITY FOR THE ABOVE ADVICE ONLY EXTENDS TO THE PRICE YOU PAID FOR IT.
 

[Andy B]

.... and my next investment will be on the 2.40 at Kelso 

 

Probably not too different from the FTSE anyway