Independent financial advisors?

[Gonzo]

Kate, as you may have gleaned so far, there really is no such thing as an "independent" financial adviser or, if there is, they are incredibly hard to find and vet. The very best you can hope for is, "I advise you to take out this pension [because that is the one where they are giving me the largest kickback and coincidentally it isn't that bad for you]".

You would be well advised to research SIPPs, where you choose the investment yourself and it's all under your control.

Best bet is to pick an Independent Financial Adviser that will charge you for their time and rebate all the commission. The advisers that you get when you go into a financial institution such as a bank or building society are unable to offer this service.

You can get details of local ones to you from this website

http://www.unbiased.co.uk/

It won't tell you if any of them are "good" or not, but from memory it will state the areas that each one specialises in, and whether or not they will work fee-based or commission-based basis.

While I agree with the other posters that this is something that you can manage yourself with a bit of knowledge, I am guessing from the OP's nickname that they are not going to be very familiar with the UK market.

[mailric]

independent financial adviser - shouldn;t this bein the Oxymoron thread???