Financial Advice

[JackSomething]

I'm looking to speak to an IFA about investing, pension advice, etc. Could anyone offer any recommendations based on personal experience please? I'm in Penllergaer, so Swansea based would be preferred. TIA.

(I know we had a thread about this at one point, but can't remember if it was this incarnation of JA or not. Even if it is, it may be out of date by this point.)

 

[Cooperman]

Pick a few names off of www, go and take your free 30 mins advice and follow someone you feel comfortable with.

Go in with an idea of what you’d like to discuss, as pensions is very different to a stocks and shares ISA. If you’re interested in S&S then have a think about whether you want income through dividends or have your income reinvested. Have a watch of a few YouTube vids before you go and meet them.

 

[Dan_Swan]

I'm looking to speak to an IFA about investing, pension advice, etc. Could anyone offer any recommendations based on personal experience please? I'm in Penllergaer, so Swansea based would be preferred. TIA.

(I know we had a thread about this at one point, but can't remember if it was this incarnation of JA or not. Even if it is, it may be out of date by this point.)

Here's a link to a previous thread on Pensions...

Thread 'Pensions Planning'

Jan 29, 2025

I remember several PS chums commenting that they didn’t pay enough attention to the topic of pensions.

Martin Lewis did a good piece on it (ITV at 8pm), go back and watch it if you missed it and are interested to learn more. The link below is also worth a read, but the programme covers this in much more detail. It’s never too late to plan for retirement and the right decisions now can make your money work harder for you. I like the way Martin presents the topic, his jargon busting approach strips away the cloudiness that sometimes comes with other pensions related material...

• Cooperman
• Replies: 36
• Forum: The Blaze Non-Football Board

• 

 

[Cooperman]

Martin Lewis is an excellent source of learning material, all broken down in easy to understand explanations.

 

[Niigata Jack]

Pick a few names off of www, go and take your free 30 mins advice and follow someone you feel comfortable with.

Go in with an idea of what you’d like to discuss, as pensions is very different to a stocks and shares ISA. If you’re interested in S&S then have a think about whether you want income through dividends or have your income reinvested. Have a watch of a few YouTube vids before you go and meet them.

There's lots of stuff on FB, about S&S's, Bond and investing in property and building a portfolio, with adverts saying about earnings over 10k 28k a month as your portfolio grows and even 100k if it sounds to good to be true it usually is especially when it comes to FB
I stuck to the usually tried and tested companies myself, around 4% interest is common place, always on lookout for better though, S&S's seems like a minefield to me so I've just played safe.

 

[Niigata Jack]

Martin Lewis is an excellent source of learning material, all broken down in easy to understand explanations.

He talks to fast for me and I find him hard work to keep a track of.

 

[MajorR]

Cooperman’s advice in the second post of this thread is the way to go unless someone you know really well can recommend a 100% legit advisor.

Many years ago I worked in the banking industry and I worked with a guy who went on to become an Independent Financial Advisor, he was rock solid, totally trustworthy and not at all pushy with potential customers. I put quite a few people his way and I used him myself.
He retired about 15 years ago, but only after selling his business to a guy in the Neath/Swansea area who he completely trusted - he wanted to make sure all his current an ex clients were in safe hands - and they were.

Unfortunately that guy has now retired and sold the business on - my mate believes the new owners are very tidy he can’t recommend them as he’s not had any personal dealings with them. When I was recently looking for someone he couldn’t recommend anyone.

There are plenty of dodgy people out there as some of the steel workers in Port Talbot found out. I once worked with a guy ( in a completely different industry not financial services) who became a financial advisor and he was implicated in all sorts of skullduggery and dodgy dealings.

Take your time, speak to a few, compare the services and products you’re being offered and the commission rates and any charges. Paying more isn’t always bad, if you want quality advice it may cost more but it will pay for itself, same goes for commissions paid to the agent, but some advisors could push a poorer product just because it pays them a higher commission so be careful. Defo look for an Independent Advisor - don’t use one tied up to one company.

 

[Cooperman]

There's lots of stuff on FB, about S&S's, Bond and investing in property and building a portfolio, with adverts saying about earnings over 10k 28k a month as your portfolio grows and even 100k if it sounds to good to be true it usually is especially when it comes to FB
I stuck to the usually tried and tested companies myself, around 4% interest is common place, always on lookout for better though, S&S's seems like a minefield to me so I've just played safe.

Your workplace pension is invested into funds you can buy yourself.

For someone with twenty years ahead of them:
£500/month into a S&S ISA at 8% = £360k
£500/month into savings at 3% = £160k
Two hundred grand difference!

 

[Robbie]

My British Steel Pension Plan went belly up in 2017 , the onging vultures circulating after my Pension Pot were hard to filter out , most of all rouges and quick buck grabbers .

Took me 18 months to find a reliable FA , and he is on a comission based fee for services .

Do background checks and talk to other firms and their carrots to draw you in and sign .
I did dodge a bullet speaking to one Company thankfully .

It is a minefield out their and all these places want your monies with call centre waffle .

Some really sound advice in earlier posting on this topic .

 

[Cooperman]

My British Steel Pension Plan went belly up in 2017 , the onging vultures circulating after my Pension Pot were hard to filter out , most of all rouges and quick buck grabbers .

Took me 18 months to find a reliable FA , and he is on a comission based fee for services .

Do background checks and talk to other firms and their carrots to draw you in and sign .
I did dodge a bullet speaking to one Company thankfully .

It is a minefield out their and all these places want your monies with call centre waffle .

Some really sound advice in earlier posting on this topic .

Did anyone ever receive a prison sentence for the British Steel fiasco?

 

[Jackareme]

I am invested in the Canadian markets - but I guess trhe principles are the same.
If you hire a financial manager - they will drive up in a huge Mercedes- think about that - and how they make their money. Spoiler alert - it is off your back!!

The best advice I ever had is NEVER keep money in a bank- own the bank.

Particularly if the stocks pay a dividend- banking stocks are awesome - banks prosper whether they are saving or lending (boom or recession) - and when the shit hits the fan they get bailed out

If you look at a lot of the managed funds they typically feature banking stocks - and they charge you a management fee for doing the freaking obvious

 

[PSumbler]

The experience of a good financial advice is an interesting subject and one that will create emotional views as it’s driven by the use of what’ important to you - your money.

And the whole purpose of taking advice is to get a personal recommendation based on personal circumstances. For example where my pension is invested and the monies paid into it each month is driven by my goals, my life aims and - very importantly - my capacity for loss. So it works for me. The next person will have different goals, aims and capacity for loss so it may not work as well for them or it may even work better

The word independent is always a good one. Many hold the title independent but some of these will also have favoured providers based on experience (of investment returns, service, ease of paperwork etc) that lean them towards them. So they decide what kind of product you need and then use their favourite provider.

There are lots of good advisers out there but as with any industry there are some less so. And also be wary them at in some cases the “bad” experience may be driven by a market factor that the adviser didn’t control so not necessarily mean bad advice (for example in the immediate onslaught of covid and the markets fell heavily most people would have experienced market loss that year but none of that would have been predicted so not a result of bad advice)

It’s also one of those things that people seek advice the nearer they get to retirement (some to make sure they are on track and some to start the process itself) but finding a good adviser and speaking to them regularly is key for me - financial advice on things like pensions and investments should not be a one off but something reviewed at least annually as those goals, aims and appetites for risk change as life events happen.

I’ll drop you a pm later with a couple of names I have heard good things about but I don’t have personal experience of using them myself

Finally Martin Lewis is great for things like utility bills, mobile phones, claiming PPI etc but I wouldn’t take any financial advice off him for pensions or sizeable investments because of the reasons above

Now if I go back twenty years had I finished my last exam I could have given you the advice but I decided it was a minefield so I stayed on the providers side of the fence instead but this is a highly regulated industry and things like the British steel pensions things helped that

 

[legoman]

If you think you need some guidance about investing be it pensions or ISAs, you might want to search this guy out on YouTube - Damian Talks Money. He is not an IFA but watching a few of his videos may help you to understand what the investing world is all about so you are a bit more informed when approaching firms for advice

 

[Cooperman]

The experience of a good financial advice is an interesting subject and one that will create emotional views as it’s driven by the use of what’ important to you - your money.

And the whole purpose of taking advice is to get a personal recommendation based on personal circumstances. For example where my pension is invested and the monies paid into it each month is driven by my goals, my life aims and - very importantly - my capacity for loss. So it works for me. The next person will have different goals, aims and capacity for loss so it may not work as well for them or it may even work better

The word independent is always a good one. Many hold the title independent but some of these will also have favoured providers based on experience (of investment returns, service, ease of paperwork etc) that lean them towards them. So they decide what kind of product you need and then use their favourite provider.

There are lots of good advisers out there but as with any industry there are some less so. And also be wary them at in some cases the “bad” experience may be driven by a market factor that the adviser didn’t control so not necessarily mean bad advice (for example in the immediate onslaught of covid and the markets fell heavily most people would have experienced market loss that year but none of that would have been predicted so not a result of bad advice)

It’s also one of those things that people seek advice the nearer they get to retirement (some to make sure they are on track and some to start the process itself) but finding a good adviser and speaking to them regularly is key for me - financial advice on things like pensions and investments should not be a one off but something reviewed at least annually as those goals, aims and appetites for risk change as life events happen.

I’ll drop you a pm later with a couple of names I have heard good things about but I don’t have personal experience of using them myself

Finally Martin Lewis is great for things like utility bills, mobile phones, claiming PPI etc but I wouldn’t take any financial advice off him for pensions or sizeable investments because of the reasons above

Now if I go back twenty years had I finished my last exam I could have given you the advice but I decided it was a minefield so I stayed on the providers side of the fence instead but this is a highly regulated industry and things like the British steel pensions things helped that

Can I get the same PM please, Phil?

For all: re my name drop of Martin Lewis, Phil is correct. I name dropped him as a source of learning material for the basics of different options. He will not provide you with advice on the merits of investing into a Nigerian diamond mine versus a US tech company.

 

[PSumbler]

Can I get the same PM please, Phil?

For all: re my name drop of Martin Lewis, Phil is correct. I name dropped him as a source of learning material for the basics of different options. He will not provide you with advice on the merits of investing into a Nigerian diamond mine versus a US tech company.

Yes, will do - the various names are on my work laptop so will send later on.

Martin Lewis is a great source of learning material you are spot on but heard too many stories of people following that believing he can do no wrong. He says as he heads off to take his money out of the Nigerian diamond mine!