What’s an IFA?
2) Multi-tied advisers
These advisers offer you financial products from a small band of clearly defined companies and are generally paid by commission.
3) Tied Advisers
As the name suggests these advisers can only recommend products from one financial solutions company - they are ‘Tied’ and paid by commission.
For those happy with buying products via a Tied Agent (perhaps because of trust in one’s favourite bank for example) then being charged nothing initially for any advice given may suit. However it is important to know in reality you will still be paying , albeit via a different collection method - in this case the commission fee is built into the cost of the product itself.
For those of you willing to ‘pay as you go’ for good advice as you receive it - you may prefer the immediate peace of mind you’ll get by paying an Independent Financial Adviser by set fees to be sure that the advice you got was truly impartial and not impacted by an overly large commission linked to any one product which could occur with a Multi-tied of Tied arrangement.
Before contacting an adviser it’s helpful for you to get all your ducks in a row - you may not have a full financial plan in place yet but you should know the following…
- Financial assets.
- Current debts owed.
- How much you can save or invest.
- What returns you’re hoping to achieve balanced against what kind of risk you’re comfortable with.
The above should be set against an understanding of the overall financial objective you’d like to achieve. If you’ve done this kind of homework in advance prior to bringing an adviser on board they will then find it much easier and quicker to help you set in place a viable plan to achieve your financial goals.
To finish up, like everything in life - you pay your money and you take your choice. In the case of financial advice it’s either fee based or by commission, but one thing is certain just like a good dentist, when you’ve received treatment from a good Financial Adviser, you’ll return to them again and again in the future.
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