Financial Planning

[SueEllen]

Far from it, we use a "serviced office" so we can do a runner with your money and you won't be able to trace us.

FSA register http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmSearchForm.do reveals:
address: 1 Liverpool Street, London ,EC2M 7QD
notices: Unable to hold client money.

[dude69]

FSA register http://www.fsa.gov.uk/register/firmSearchForm.do reveals:
address: 1 Liverpool Street, London ,EC2M 7QD
notices: Unable to hold client money.

Exactly, they are the advisers, not the actual investment platform.

[rootsnall]

That is quite expensive. However they will claw back some of that because they are getting funds at lower costs than the private investor. There's nothing to stop an individual investing in a basket of trackers that mimic their strategy, the thing I guess is that your time has value, and most private investors will buy at the top and sell at the bottom and invest in expensive underperforming funds, in which context 1% might not be so bad.

I certainly think you could do much worse.

If they are buying into funds then the fund supermarkets refund all or virtually all of the initial charge so nowt to be gained there. If they are setting you up a conservative portfolio then you can easily do that yourself with minimal research. If they are going for a more risky strategy then they are gambling just like you would be and 50/50 if they'd beat your own selections. Set up an account with Hargreaves Lansdown or Fidelity or similar and DIY.

[DimPrawn]

Spend £100 subscribing to http://www.moneyweek.com/ to understand what's hot and what's not and use a fund supermarket (e.g. fidelity, selftrade).

Sorted.

[rootsnall]

Spend £100 subscribing to http://www.moneyweek.com/ to understand what's hot and what's not and use a fund supermarket (e.g. fidelity, selftrade).

Sorted.

Moneyweek are a bit one eyed with a bit of 'sponsorship' going on me thinks. I think your sources need to be a bit more varied !

[Cheshire Cat]

anyone got any good, balanced suggestions on how to administer your own portfolio?
By that I mean
a) sources of info and
b) vfm access to market/brokers

I'm only just getting to a stage where I have some moey to invest, and I'd like to plug some into balanced funds/trackers and "gamble" some on specific stocks/indexes/commodoties. The first part of that is fairly straight forward I guess, but as for the second part, I wouldn't know whether to buy £1000 worth of Rich Tea or Hobnobs, or how I could do this.