Finding an IFA

[stripytees]

I need to speak to someone about my finances but seems like many companies are only interested if you are on a huge income and have significant assets already to invest. I tried one of those websites that's meant to match you with a suitable IFA and no one got back to me.

I'm on a low/average income but have a BTL property I want to sell. After CGT I should end up with at least £200k I want to partly invest but partly use towards a (very expensive) professional training to take my career forward, and about £10k needs to go towards paying off my other debts.

How do I find an IFA interested in advising?

Are you needing help with capital gains tax? If so then I wonder if an accountant could help with the calculation and completion of tax return.

Unbiased and VouchedFor should be useful for finding a Financial Planner. Look for someone who has fixed fees for the planning part, then let you do the investing yourself, or if you want to use them to do it then a fixed fee for implementation and then a percentage based fee for ongoing management & advice.

£200k may not be enough to interest some advisers but keep shopping around. You do not need to have someone near you, it can be done remote. I would look for those who say they are a financial planner, rather than adviser, as you want a plan on what to do.

You could consider learning yourself. There are only so many things you can do.
Max out pension. Max out ISA. Use a GIA and move that to ISA each year trying to avoid paying too much capital gains tax (the allowance is dropping over the next couple of years).
Look at your life insurance, income protection insurance etc. Think about a legacy plan - who is dependent on you, who would inherit.

There are books, podcasts, YouTube videos, training courses with access to professional planning tools.

The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has a directory of all members who are financial advisers, and it can be searched by location/postcode to find ones local to you. I'd avoid ones described as "wealth management" as they are most likely to have minimum asset requirements of £250k or more.