Weststander
Well-known member
This is a great thread that I'm working my way through slowly. It's possible this question has been covered, and if so, I apologise. Unfortunately I can't search for "IFA" as 3-letter searches don't work.
We retired last year. After 25 years of careful financial management, we're very lucky to be comfortably off -- nice house, mortgage paid off + a decent amount in SIPP and savings and investments.
I've always made my own investment decisions (based on little apart from reading a couple of books plus the investment news in the papers) but thinking about the current volatility in the markets, I'm wondering if I should get some proper advice. I basically took fright and sold most of my investments over the weekend. I'm now wondering if I overreacted. Whether I did or not, I'm wondering if these decisions should be handed over to an IFA or wealth management professional.
What are people's experiences of IFAs? My main fear is that they'd just be doing roughly what I'd be doing, but creaming off a big chunk of cash in fees every year. OTOH, I'd have no objection to paying X amount per year if they were earning me twice what I would have done had I carried on making my own decisions.
My concern is that I don't have much of a strategy. TBH, no strategy at all. Has an IFA helped you a lot, taking into account how much they charge?
Thanks for any insight.
Edited to add -- I see that IFA advice has just been asked by @Mellor 3 Ward 4. The overlap is purely coincidental. It wasn't there when I started writing this!
After discovering that a popular firm of Sussex based wealth managers were costing me 1.95% per annum (not the headline 1%), I moved funds to manage my own. It’s gone well.
I’d say take your time to make the right decision, in the mean time earning a safe 5% with for example Royal London Short Term Money Market Fund Y Acc
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It wasn’t straight forward to cotton on to the additional 0.95% cost. With that experience, perhaps look into the IFA recommendations made in this thread, then examine the small print such as platform charges.