BigonaBianchi
Yes I can, Yes I am, Yes I did...Repeat.
- Location
- Iskele TRNC & Mordor UK
...ah..but is what you want the same as what you need? 
Financial Services
- Thread starter User269
- Start date
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Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
True, but IFA's account for around 85% of all pension business, and also the majority of investment business, so as a percentage of sales, the actual complaints against IFA's are far lower than banks. For example on pensions, the Datamonitor figures show that for every £100 million annual premium income sold, the bancassurers managed to garner 60.94 complaints whereas IFAs only managed 21.46 complaints. So if the volumes of business are added to the equation, IFAs have a much lower complaint percentage than banks.
BigonaBianchi
Yes I can, Yes I am, Yes I did...Repeat.
- Location
- Iskele TRNC & Mordor UK
TBH i thought a client has the right to assume that they will get 'best advice' and not have to worry about falling into the 21.46 or the 60.94. I havent looked at those stats at all....waht are the nature of the complaints? Product suitability? Investment performance? misleading information (read the bloody key features docs!
)?
Just to stand up for the advisors for a minute, It never ceased to amaze me how many people never bothered to read the key features booklets even when given time and encouragement to do so prior to sale.
This is where trust becomes crucial. The customer elects to trust the advisor here, which is good so long as that advisor isnt under so much pressure for commission or fee income from his superiors that he takes advantage of that trust.
I wonder what similar stats make of complaints within different industries, like the motor trade, estate agencies, soliciters etc??
)?Just to stand up for the advisors for a minute, It never ceased to amaze me how many people never bothered to read the key features booklets even when given time and encouragement to do so prior to sale.
This is where trust becomes crucial. The customer elects to trust the advisor here, which is good so long as that advisor isnt under so much pressure for commission or fee income from his superiors that he takes advantage of that trust.
I wonder what similar stats make of complaints within different industries, like the motor trade, estate agencies, soliciters etc??
swee'pea99
Squire
I've had two dealings with two separate IFAs, and in both cases they were unmitigated charlatans. The worst case was the guy who recommended a 'tailored solution' to my old man that met exactly none of his declared requirements, contained three different commission-heavy products, and featured someone else's name half way down page nine. I can only assume he was too busy typing up his £1100 invoice to do a 'search & replace'.
We're about to find out, aren't we, with the FSA's Retail Distribution Review banning commission? I don't recall when it comes into force, but isn't it some time soon?
Flying Dodo
It'll soon be summer
From 1st January 2013. After that time, apart from new entrants to existing group pension schemes and life assurance only products, all investment based products will now have an explicit adviser charge, which is agreed beforehand between the adviser and the client. So for example if you wanted to start a £100 pm pension, the agreed charge for the initial and ongoing advice could be a set percentage or a fixed amount to be deducted from the premium, such as £2 pm, which is then taken off the premium by the insurer and passed onto the adviser's firm, so you'd have £98 pm invested.
BigonaBianchi
Yes I can, Yes I am, Yes I did...Repeat.
- Location
- Iskele TRNC & Mordor UK
If that IFA was taking front end loaded commissions on those 3 products why was he also giving an invoice? Did you agree a commision or a fee for his services?
swee'pea99
Squire
He was supposedly hired on a fee basis, but it didn't take much googling to establish that all the - I stress again, totally inappropriate - products also carried fat commissions. When challenged, he offered to cut the fee by half. I ignored the invoice and never heard another peep. (I suspect he was just massively relieved not to be reported to the FSA. I was sore tempted, but otherwise overstretched at the time.)
is it possible that the very people running the 'get your PPI back' scam are those that sold the PPI in the first place?
I think that is a conspiracy too far. Almost all the inappropriate PPI was sold by banks, building societies and credit card companies. These PPI-reclaim merchants are recycled claims handlers and the crappy end of the legal profession, not ex-bank employees.
I don't see how you can call their activity a scam, tbh. There is nothing dishonest about charging for a service which is genuinely provided but which you could carry out for yourself. After all, I could submit my own planning application - but that doesn't make an architect a scammer for charging me to do it.
I wasn't at all serious - but providing a service which the Financial Ombudsman has made so very easy for people to provide for themselves is pretty darn close to a scam. (And yes, there are occasions when one should say - 'go down to the planning department, and ask them yourself, and, if they give you a straight answer, you've no need of my services'.
srw
It's a bit more complicated than that...
It's a scam because they do not admit that any individual could do exactly what they do, and because they claim all sorts of success stories as "proof" of the quality of their services. I've just found one firm boasting they were set up in 2008, unlike other Johnny-come-latelies who were set up in 2010.
In exactly the same way it would be a scam for me to advertise a puncture repair service with an advert like this:
