Not being prepared to pay for advice
There is no such thing as a free ride, so the saying goes. Why is it that when it comes to financial planning so many fondly imagine a professional with years of hard earned experience is going to spend his or her time either giving this advice away or speculating on a possible sale to earn a commission. Financial Journalists are partly to blame for raising the expectation that good advisers will give away free advice. Strangely few of them write columns for free…
The question to be asked is why would anyone with experience and qualifications, that cost them money to earn, give away the only thing they have to sell? You should be suspicious of those who offer something for free. Is their advice worthless? Do they have a hidden ‘sales’ agenda? Do they cross-subsidize those clients who take the free advice with those who pay through commission? If so, steer well clear. You don’t want to be paying for someone else’s advice!
There is nothing wrong with your Adviser earning a commission, provided you both agreed how the advice was to be paid for at outset. Furthermore, it is well worth paying for ongoing advice. This might be available from the investment/product supplier recommended. On our website, ‘Top Tip’ No 2, speaks about using tax allowances. If you do not use these properly, you could end up saving perhaps £500 - £1,000 a year in ongoing advice costs and squandering thousands every year in lost tax allowances.
Remember the old adage – ‘You get what you pay for’!