Worth paying for independent financial advice, or are IFAs a waste of money?

[falstaff1980]

My 80 yo mother lives on her own and has mild cognitive impairment. She's got about 200K in savings, and her house is worth about 1M. She just about manages on her own, but I have an LPA and have to sort out all the bills and house maintenance.

Right now I'm wondering where to put her savings. It's mostly in ISAs, normal savings accounts, NS&I fixed-term bonds, premium bonds, and some FTSE tracker funds (all setup and managed by my father, who passed away 5 months ago).

I'm wondering if I should pay for a proper appointment with an IFA? Or am I better off just researching this myself on sites like https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/? I'm thinking to keep most of it instant access, and some still in shares, maybe something like this:

25% in instant access savings accounts.
50% in 1 year fixed term accounts for a better rate.
25% in a FTSE 100 tracker index, whichever has lowest management charges.

I'd keep away from 5-year fixed term savings in case my mother needs to go into a care home.

For the long-term, if my mother gets full dementia and does need to go into a care home, I'd then need advice on what to do with the house - are IFAs any help here?

IFA is a waste of time, don’t bother. Sounds like investment ideas you have are good.

I agree with @Sunflower8848 . In my experience IFAs we’re rubbish and I got much better information online (from reputable sources).
Your ideas seem really sensible.

For this it's a waste of time.

Stick as much as you like in a tracker ISA with someone like Vanguard and you are done. Just make sure the property is maintained properly as well.

We had an appointment with an IFA who was personally recommended to discuss issues around inheritance tax, before mum lost capacity. He was extremely helpful, saved us lots of money and didn’t charge us anything. He explained that if he gives good advice people may return later when they want to invest in products that produce commission for him. I have no idea whether other IFAs work in the same way though.
you definitely want to look at the position on inheritance tax given your mum’s assets.
I think your strategy is a good one sticking to a cautious approach, although I don’t worry about having too much on instant access. And as you know, there’s a current maximum of £20,000 pa for ISAs. Good rates are still available just now. NS and I fixed term bonds are good as are premium bonds.

If your DF has recently passed away your DM can use 2 x the annual £20k ISA allowance in the new tax year. You have to ask the bank for a spouse ISA form and make sure the transfers are done properly but its useful to be able to put more in tax free accounts now interest rates are higher.

when I had a limited company I used an IFA and honestly it wasn’t worth it. They recommended Aviva and other mainstream offerings that I could have found myself or better

my accountant and will writing company gave me the best financial advice. Could you book with them instead?

You’re at the low end of the range where an IFA is useful, and your mother is at the stage when you’d be moving away from long term investment for growth and emphasising security.

An interesting post OP, and the responses too.

PS. I think it might also depend what kind of IFA. I met an IFA once and felt it was for people who were serious about financial planning at a high level (much higher than the simple query I had for example). It felt like a hard sell and there was a high commission/charge (I cant remember which). So, it might depend on who you see as well and what kind of company. The IFA I saw was in a big corporate company so she was not really the right person for my small query. It was a bit embarrassing even, and I didn’t warm to her. Maybe a smaller company or one man / one woman band might be better for some (I’m guessing here). I think there is always an introductory meeting to see if it is right for you.

In my case my mother had cash savings of about £400k. She perhaps could have seen an IFA herself but too late for her now I felt to understand the issues, and I doubt very much she would trust me enough to hand over the reins to me. I also haven’t the time or the energy to do all the research etc. In the meantime interest rates are high now so she’s is doing well enough.