Have you used a financial advisor and if so was it worth it?

[paddleboardingmum]

I'm determined to get my act together this coming year. I've never used a financial advisor and t's not like I'm minted. Just wondering whether to use one for savings, retirement planning, things like that. How would I even find one?

You can pick up on a lot of financial basics by reading threads on MN. There are loads of them but the main points are the same (see below). If you don't already know about pensions and ISAs; read up about those first. You can also pick up a lot from the money saving expert website.
Apologies if you know these main points already but this is what a FA would tell you first:
Spend some time analysing your spending and work out a rough monthly budget.
Build a nest egg in easy-access, interest bearing savings; this should be enough for 3 - 6 mos of expenses in emergencies.
Contribute as much as you can afford to your workplace pension, especially if salary sacrifice is an option; if no workplace pension scheme; investigate a personal/private one. Top up your pension contributions in early March if you have not maxxed your contribution over the tax year.
If you have surplus cash, open an ISA. Google for the best interest rates; decide on cash or stocks & shares - these are a better investment longer term. Cash ISA interest rates seem to be best for the year so be prepared to open a new one every 13 mos or so and roll the old ISA funds into the new account.
Open jr ISAs for your DC(s).
Pay extra on your mortgage if possible to speed that along and potentially save on interest.
If you have additional cash beyond £20k p.a., investigate savings bonds and GIAs. These are not as tax efficient as ISAs but you are not limited to £20k and they are better longer term than just holding ££ in a straight savings account.

To find a financial advisor/wealth advisor, if you're in a union or work for a big company, check your benefits b/c you may be able to have a free consultation.
Otherwise, ask around amongst your friends and colleagues.

All of the above

and be wary of places that charge fees (like St James Place)

also be wary of doing nothing with your finances for years - if you do the above you will be a in a good place

Wow that's brilliant @tarheelbaby thanks for taking the time to post this. Really helpful and hope it helps others as well.

Thanks @thrive25 too thats good to know.,

We did and still do. The company DH's employer used for their pension plan offered reduced rates for employees. This means the person we used already has DH;s pension in their sight and we added our personal ones to it.

They went independent after a couple of years and we continue to use them as we are very happy.

We did it originally to totally update what we do, we used one in connection with our bank aeons ago and never got really around to update what we had when DD was a bit older and it was definitely worth it.

They had a lot more insight in the legislation than I have and I work in banking. I don't have the time to read every update about pension legislation for two very different pension schemes, the tax issue about inheritance tax and how my investment funds we use for our ISAs perform.
We pay for them to do it.

Over the last 10 years it really worked very well, we see them around every 18 months and have a review and do changes if they think it can be tweaked.

Be careful. I chose a local guy who advised me to put all my pensions etc in one pot . He invested it in a total crock of shit and if it hadn't been for the FSCS, I'd have lost over 30K.

I’d recommend the Rebel Finance School series on YouTube before you start paying for advice. It’s a great place to start and best of all, it’s free. I have an IFA but am thinking of ditching them this year having followed the RFS course- when I sit down and work out how much I’m paying in fees to the IFA, it’s quite sobering.

Thanks @cocopops I will look that up.

Thanks to all who have posted this is really helpful advice.

@paddleboardingmum , thank you. I hope it serves you in good stead.

In answer to your original question I do have a FA. The same company mananges my in-laws affairs and that is helpful. They also have some specialist knowledge about US regulations which is helpful for me. They are lovely people and an independent company, not part of St James Place (class action suit against them, I think!) or any larger company. That said, like @cocopops , I think they're pretty expensive for what they do so I'd advise against an IFA or WM unless you are fortunate to have BIG money, international tax issues or some other thorny situation.

MiL used a financial advisor. He was lovely and personable, but incredibly slow. The investments he made were based on a gamble on MiLs health which we would have known at the time was unlikely to come off (if she'd told us) and her estate lost about £30k because of it. DH would never use one again, but in part that was because of lack of contact, not responding to enquiries and having no urgency at a difficult time. He said "leave all this to me" and then did very little, leaving us to deal with HMRC in MiLs final days for things he'd told us he was doing months before.

I don't really think he added any value above advice you can get on the internet from financial forums, but that may depend on what sort of amounts you are talking about and how complex you want things to be.

I personally think not, unless you have a LOT of extra money (like, the proceeds of a house sale but you already have somewhere to live) and/or complex pension arrangements, multiple countries involved, something like that.

If you don’t have all that much, it gets simpler. I’ve never read any financial advice that DIDNT involve using the maximum amount you can put in an ISA for example. But it took me a long time to get to grips with how ISAs work and the different types - this page is good https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/how-isas-work Forcages I was using an ISA for a general savings account that I wasnt managing to leave untouched for example, which was pointless as I was losing lots of interest every time I took money out of it. So I now have a ‘general slush fund’ which is where I keep my ‘haircuts, Christmas and maintenance’ money. I was too old to have a LISA but I have advised ds to open one.

I do think it’s really worth finding good sources of information and to keep reading them. I’m on a Facebook group for the specific employers’ pension I’m with, for example - at first it was gobbledygook to me but as I’ve kept reading it and looked up specific things it has got easier. I look at Moneysavingexpert a fair bit. I read relevant threads here. I hear mixed but generally positive things about Rebel Finance.

Thank you @paddleboardingmum for starting the thread as I have the same question and thanks to everyone who’s given such great advice

Meaningful Money community group on Facebook - helpful and friendly.