Is this financial advisor taking the P re pension?

[Banjaxx]

I’m self employed, had a good couple of years and my accountant recommended a financial advisor to look at a pension for me. He’s recommended a lump sum to a product to take me under the 40% tax bracket for last year, fair enough, it’s a fairly sizeable amount and his percentage is 3%, again fair enough given the amount and the savings it will gain me. However he wants to set up a regular monthly contribution to this pot and I asked him what his fees etc are in relation to that regular contribution…. He said 20% but he’d knock it down to 10% for me… that’s where I started loosing faith is this standard practice?? I could set up my own fund and just pay it straight in with nest or the like, the lump sum I can see the sense in the fees as it’s saving me a pile of money in tax and it’s a phased investment so phased over 6 months but all out of this tax year, but for the regular contributions I was just a bit speechless, am I being unreasonable?

Lmao he sounds like a thieving pisstaker!

That sounds outrageous to me. I don't have any experience of FAs and their fees though.

You lost me at 3%. Far too high.
Don't forget that you will also pay fees on the fund and some if them are fund of funds so multiple layers of fees. A costs and charges disclosure should state the £ amount.

You lost me at 3%.

Same.

That's extortionate

5% initial charge would be fairly high. 20% is batshit.

It isn’t that difficult to set up your own personal pension account - many with very low fees (definitely well below what he is suggesting, and as another poster mentioned I suspect you will be paying some of those regardless). You can and then set up direct debit or make quarterly contributions based in income (I am self employed as well, and for me it can be quite variable so prefer to contribute in lumps)

Yes, even 3% is ridiculous.

You could do a lot worse than just open a Vanguard SIPP, the fee is about 0.5% if that.

10% sounds waaayyy more than what any reputable financial advisor should need to charge you.

Have a look on Meaningful Money for the sort of information provided by a good financial advisor that spends a lot of time telling people they don't need to pay a financial advisor, in most cases.

3% is ridiculous. Cannot find words to describe the 20%, reduced to 10%.

Are the accountant and the so-called financial adviser related?

Thanks all, I’m a bit pissed off, the accountant recommended him and they’re clearly mates so it’s made me loose confidence in the accountant too to be honest.

We pay 1.5% on a £330,000 portfolio, you are being robbed blind.

I haven’t signed anything yet and might email him and put the brakes on. I did call another IFA to check the 3% wasn’t extortionate and he said it wasn’t as it’s not what he would consider a large lump sum and there would be higher rates for lower amounts (it’s sizeable to me though)