If you want specialist advice on sophisticated financial items including investments, mortgages, and pensions, you should consult with a financial planning service. While it may seem pricey to pay for financial planning services, doing so may help you reach your financial objectives and prevent you from making costly mistakes. If you are new to the game, the dos and don’ts might be lacking in clarity. Here is what to look for in financial planning services.
What Type Of Financial Planning Service Do You Require?
Different financial advisors will cater to different requirements. We suggest asking this question to assist in narrowing the options available to you down to the most appropriate. Let’s take a look at the different types of financial planning services:
Whole Market Financial Planners
Rather than being limited to certain products and/or providers, These financial planners offer advice on all financial products and providers accessible. They refer to themselves as independent financial advisors (IFAs) because, free from the influence of product manufacturers, they provide unbiased advice based on a thorough research of the whole market.
Restricted Financial Planners
Restricted financial planners offer advice on a restricted set of products/providers. For this reason, they cannot legally be referred to as ‘independent’, which doesn’t infer anything negative. If the restricted financial planning service in question operates on behalf of a particular business, they may only offer advice along those lines.
How Do Financial Planning Services Charge?
Financial planning services often charge differently depending on who you are dealing with. This is also a very useful question in determining what financial planning service works best for you.
Fixed
When consumers do not want continuing guidance, a fixed fee is often used for one-time assistance such as merging pension schemes, creating an annuity, or creating a comprehensive financial plan.
Percentage
The most typical fee structure is paying a percentage of the money handled or invested. A percentage fee often consists of an initial setup cost for new products, a recurring fee for product administration, and a fee for the underlying investment portfolio.
Hourly
The amount of hours the task is anticipated to take should be estimated by the advisor, and their invoice should detail the hours spent.
With these points in mind, you should be able to narrow your options down to the financial planning service/s that work most effectively for you. We hope this has offered some useful guidance to you.
