Pensions - IFA or Private

[lukemg]

It is SIMPLE, but not easy...

HL.co.uk.
SIPP.
Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% shares fund.
Direct payment from Ltd Co to SIPP.
Invest equal amounts monthly regardless of noise or market level.
Never sell regardless of noise or market level.
Check the value as rarely as you possibly can (once a year is fine).
Wait 15 years and if you have invested enough (depends on lifestyle obvs), there is a good chance full-time work will be optional...

IFA's ????
- If they are so smart, how come they aren't rich ?
- Where is their money invested ? How is that doing compared with a global index fund ?
- ONLY purpose I can see is to protect people from themselves (IF you find a good one - you wont know till its too late...)

[northernladuk]

IFA's ????
- If they are so smart, how come they aren't rich ?
- Where is their money invested ? How is that doing compared with a global index fund ?
- ONLY purpose I can see is to protect people from themselves (IF you find a good one - you wont know till its too late...)

I know two IFAs personally and one set my pension up. Neither of them talk about money like we do, or anyone else for that matter but I do know both of them are very comfortable now and most certainly will be when they retire. I've got money in the same funds as one of them. Thing is you need money to make money and they don't exactly make a fortune from their wages. A lot of their wealth is tied up and yet to be realised.

Just because an IFA hasn't got a Jag outside the office I wouldn't assume they are not well off.

[SimonMac]

Thanks for the info, really useful! Out of interest, what are people's opinions of IFAs?

For a bit of balance when I transferred my pension into a HL SIPP they insisted that I had an IFA look at my decision, which I ignored as he suggested not transferring it, but I had already worked out what I wanted to do so was just a box checking activity.

If you are confident in what you are doing, then you don't need to follow advice, but as with everything you get what you pay for, I had to get the advice so found the cheapest one around.

As for SIPP with HL and fee, it depends what you want to do, I have only shares in my SIPP and pay a flat fee of £200 a year which makes it one of the cheapest around, if you just want an easy life and are thinking funds only then it is more expensive the more you have in there.

[filthy1980]

I know two IFAs personally and one set my pension up. Neither of them talk about money like we do, or anyone else for that matter but I do know both of them are very comfortable now and most certainly will be when they retire. I've got money in the same funds as one of them. Thing is you need money to make money and they don't exactly make a fortune from their wages. A lot of their wealth is tied up and yet to be realised.

Just because an IFA hasn't got a Jag outside the office I wouldn't assume they are not well off.

My IFA did have a beautiful old Jag with a private number plate . . . seems fairly comfortable

[Fred Bloggs]

IFAs are like personal trainers. You don't need them for anything but if you are happy to pay someone to make decisions for you, why not?

You pay fund managers for that. You want an IFA to pick your fund managers? Go right ahead, it will cost you an arm and a leg. All the information is on the web, it's never been easier to run your own SIPP investments.

[lukemg]

You pay fund managers for that. You want an IFA to pick your fund managers? Go right ahead, it will cost you an arm and a leg. All the information is on the web, it's never been easier to run your own SIPP investments.

whs x10

IFA + fund management charges could easily be eating 25-50% of your total returns, compound that by 20 years and its a huge amount of money to bet that they can get you a better return than the index (especially when 80-90% do worse after costs are taken into account over 15-20 year periods)

[Fred Bloggs]

whs x10

IFA + fund management charges could easily be eating 25-50% of your total returns, compound that by 20 years and its a huge amount of money to bet that they can get you a better return than the index (especially when 80-90% do worse after costs are taken into account over 15-20 year periods)

Plus platform costs. HL = 0.45%, doesn't sound a lot? I was paying ~£120 a month before I moved my SIPP to II.

[kaiser78]

IFAs have a wider choice of funds to choose from though and also 'expert' knowledge to move funds around etc, so would rather use them then a standard platform. From what I have seen in the past, sometimes the more obscure funds can provide the greatest returns...

[IPSE]

Plus platform costs. HL = 0.45%, doesn't sound a lot? I was paying ~£120 a month before I moved my SIPP to II.

Remember that quite often platform charges are on top of fund management charges which can vary from fund to fund, so it's quite easy to choose a fund via HL and end up paying total charges >1.25%

There is a specialist deal done by a certain membership organisation on behalf of contractors where total charges (platform and fund) are 0.43% but we've been forbidden from telling you where that deal might be found.

[Fred Bloggs]

Remember that quite often platform charges are on top of fund management charges which can vary from fund to fund, so it's quite easy to choose a fund via HL and end up paying total charges >1.25%

There is a specialist deal done by a certain membership organisation on behalf of contractors where total charges (platform and fund) are 0.43% but we've been forbidden from telling you where that deal might be found.

Yes, you're right. But you Cherry picked the parts of my post that suit you. And if you choose to hold company or investment trust shares in a SIPP, the charges are different again at each provider. My recommendation to the OP is to look at all the options, including the one you can't mention by name. And then decide.