How much would you be prepared to pay for impartial, independent and professional financial advice?
I suspect that there would be a quite significant range in the answers people might give to that question.
At one end of the scale the answer might be “zero”
“I am not prepared to pay for advice at all. Most financial advisers are simply looking for an excuse to sell a product from which they will earn a fat commission”
Well perhaps an answer like that might need to be reconsidered in light of the fact that commission has been abolished on pension and investment products (it can still be paid by providers on insurance products like life assurance as long is there is no investment content).
It doesn’t however get away from the fact that some people still distrust financial advisers and frankly are not prepared to pay anything for advice.
Others however might see more value in paying for advice and I suspect these will be people who can see some value in some or all of the following;
If you have a ‘financial challenge’ that needs sorting out you might be prepared to pay for advice.
Imagine you have multiple and disparate pension arrangements all invested differently without any cohesive plan, paying then for advice might result in a significant increase in the future value of your retirement income.
You might also consider that paying someone to sort this situation out will save you time (time is they say money) and the fact that you have got someone else dealing with this for you might also remove one of the stresses from your life.
You might value having an adviser who can challenge your thinking perhaps saving you from making a bad mistake.
We have over the years frequently prevented people from investing in ‘boiler room’ scams (buying worthless shares to get rid of a persistent cold-caller) or convinced clients not to invest in ‘land bank schemes’ (if there is planning permission on a bit of agricultural land, why do you think anyone would want to sell shares with huge capital gains potential to you).
More recently we have helped people avoid getting caught up in ‘pension unlocking schemes’. HM Revenue & Customs frown on such arrangement and the tax penalties are enormous.
We have also been very vociferous about avoiding unregulated investment schemes (property developments, golf courses, hotel complexes and teak forests, or even collective versions of these that are frankly only suitable for high risk experienced investors, if they are suitable at all).
You might think advice is valuable if it means you have someone to sit alongside you year after year helping you to make adjustments to your pension and investments to keep you on track to achieve your established financial goals and objectives.
You might also be prepared to pay for advice if it comes free of jargon and not wrapped up full of financial services acronyms or products that are opaque and risk filled.
You might also be more confident and pay for advice if it comes from an adviser who explains choices and options clearly and is not afraid to point out the disadvantages of a course of action with as much weight as the advantages.
The fact is that good quality independent financial advice can add real value to a persons life.
And if an adviser can add value then that might well be worth paying for.
Photo credit: Flickr/sparkieblues
