Independant Financial Advisors... Misleading?

Hi,

I have just visited an UK Independent Financial Advisor (one who was a member of the IFA) We were looking through fixed rates for a while until I spotted one which was a much lower rate that the ones we were looking at, with relatively low fees. I asked about it, but he said that they don't 'deal' with them (It was a pretty big Building Society) However I noticed that he wasn't showing me any of the rates that didn't include a "commission" fee, including the one mentioned above.

Therefore I am thinking that visiting an IFA, you are still not guaranteed the best rate. And surely you are lucky to avoid unscrupulous advisors who recommend the deals they know have the highest commission fees?

Visiting an IFA, I was pretty confident I could get the best mortgage available for me at that time, but the above example shows otherwise. On returning home I found a couple of better deals than I was shown, through internet sites such as

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What does everything else think... if you know what you are doing, is it better to look for the best deal yourself?

Neil

Reply to
googlesher
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Sounds like you've been mislead. Another triumph for the finance industry. They deliberately make choosing an advisor confusing.

Yes

See

Daytona

Reply to
Daytona

"Daytona" wrote

When you go into Curry's to by a new TV, do you expect the salesman to point out to you that Comet next door have the same one for 100 less?

Why do people expect the "finance industry" to be so much different from all other industries?

Reply to
Tim

In message , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk writes

There is no way that a system, which allows brokers to recommend products from suppliers who offer varying rates of commission, will ever work to the benefit of the consumer.

Human nature guarantees that some of these people will screw their customers in order to feather their own nest.

Yes.

I have a broker who is not an IFA, but tied to an insurance/assurance company. He has just recommended a buy to let mortgage with free legal fees and no arrangement/booking fee. I've been using him for about 7 years and have never bought one of the products related to his assurance company, and he has never tried to sell me one.

He will continue to earn a few quid every time I need his help with finance until we both stop doing it - the guy you saw will earn no money out of you ever - he may, or may not, care.

Reply to
Richard Faulkner

Because those in the "finance industry" who actually deal with customers do not really sell them any financial products at all, other than incidentally. What they "really" [notionally purport to] sell is financial advice, and so long as this official myth prevails within the regulatory framework of the day, the customers therefore have a right to expect the advice to be appropriate to their circumstances, and to be in some sense "best".

If a TV salesman were to sell advice on TV buying, then he too would be obliged, once a specific product had been identified, to point the customer to the cheapest source.

Finance industry regulation is in a shambles, and the sooner the official position is abandoned that advice is being sold, the better, since in the real world everyone knows that *products* are being sold, and the "advice", for what little it's worth, is thrown in for nothing and is aimed at steering the customer in the direction which produces the result which is best for the salesman.

Reply to
Ronald Raygun

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

When I popped into my local lawnmower centre, the salesman offered me advice on which was the best lawnmower to buy. He had some nice Honda ones, and some others (a brand I'd never heard of before).

Whilst he was clearly offering me advice on which would be most suitable for me, I in no ways expected him to advise on models which that centre didn't stock/know about.

Do you think I should have?

Reply to
Tim

If you went to a particular financial institution, you would expect them to only offer their own products. However there should be an expectation that an *Independent* Financial Adviser to be independent and offer impartial advise about the best products for the client irrespective of which institution is offering them.

Reply to
Graham Murray

Ransomes, perhaps? The Rolls Royce of lawnmowers! I fondly remember operating, for a period of some 15 years from 1973, a 36" Mastiff with a single-cyclinder 4-stroke engine which started with a hand crank [they don't make 'em like that any more, the modern Mastiff has a recoil start] and with forward and reverse gears.

No. Why do you think I should think that? I take it he didn't describe himself as an ILA, nor did he sell his advice, but rather he offered, totally gratis, a sales pitch thinly disguised as advice.

Reply to
Ronald Raygun

However there should be an

Not every lender on the market deals through intermediaries. Yorkshire B.S. and Britannia B.S. for example. They do own other lenders, Accord and Platform which have mortgages available through brokers.

If you call into a local insurance broker they won't ever say "try Direct Line" because they don't sell their insurance through brokers.

Reply to
big8red

True, but surely an adviser should *advise* and, especially if truly independent, not just suggest products which they themselves can sell you. You go to a salesman to buy something and an adviser for advise.

Reply to
Graham Murray

Yes, from a few weeks ago, to be a true 'independent' mortgage broker not only must they have the mortgage from the whole market they must also allow the option for the client to pay by fee only, i.e. no commission from the lender. This means Yorkshire & Britannia CAN be recommended by Independent Mortgage Brokers which is why they both appear on their sourcing databases.

Reply to
john boyle

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