Hargreaves Lansdown, the Bristol-based provider of a SIPP and Collective Investment Platform including ISAs, has started to promote Insight; an information and guidance service enabling consumers to effectively act as their own advisers and prepare themselves for the use of the HL Vantage platform.
At Informed Choice we agree that many consumers, particularly those who want to save on a regular basis, don’t actually need advice and with some information and guidance can DIY-it perfectly well for themselves.
In fact, that is exactly why we created BrilliantWithMoney so that we could provide information and guidance, and challenge thinking.
Those who need advice ( and who should be prepared to pay for it) are indeed those with more complex financial planning needs or with significant portfolio values.
And of course you should avoid the commission-based advisers when seeking this advice. Instead agree a fee that you pay directly to your independent financial adviser or get them to explain how Adviser Charging works.
Remember always though the degree of protection you get if things go wrong is much more substantial if you have taken advice than if you have executed a financial product solution for yourself without advice .
And at all times remember that cheaper is not automatically better.
