Informed Choice managing director and chartered financial planner Martin Bamford has commented in an article on confused.com, explaining the dangers of becoming a client of a loss-making IFA firm.
How choosing the wrong IFA could damage your savings
Martin Bamford, chartered financial planner and managing director of Surrey-based IFA Informed Choice, says that “investors should be incredibly cautious about doing business with loss-making IFA firms”.
“Although these companies tend to have a good story about their plans to turn a profit in the future, history tells us that business losses cannot be sustained for a prolonged period of time. There is a real danger that continuity of service falls apart when the loss making business goes bust.”
As a result, he recommends carrying out your own due diligence before becoming a client or customer of any business. For just £1, you’ll be able to get a set of published accounts from Companies House – if it stops you from doing business with a habitually loss-making IFA, that could well be the best £1 you’ve ever spent.
Whilst the profitability, or otherwise, of an IFA firm is not the only factor you should consider when deciding to become a client, it is important if you want to ensure continuity of service.
Here at Informed Choice Ltd, we are very proud of the fact that we have been profitable in every year since our inception in 1994. We do not consider this to be rocket science; simply the same sound business principles that we recommend to our clients for their own personal financial planning.
