Financial adviser/ pension

[newtothis15]

I have a choice whather to go for an adviser -
Adviser A
On the phone Chartered Financial Planner dpecialist in pensions 285 plus vat ph or
Adviser B
Face to face
Independent Financial Adviser 120 incl Vat. He says he gives financial overview of my financial situation abd pension as well.

Which one did you like the best when you spoke with them?

The cheaper one...just read his profile he is holistic planner...just do not know whether the more exoensive really would give me much more value for money i much more specialist advice?

Holistic planner sounds a bit new age. Is there incense and pan pipe music?

What research have you done of your own?

I’m a big believer in professional advice, but you get the most from it if you are prepared and knowledgeable. Don’t waste your money having someone tell you the basics of pensions.

How specialist do you need your pension advice to be? If you had high net worth I doubt you’d even be posting this - so do you really need specialist advice?

Plenty of IFAs will have an initial appointment with you for free, too.

If you need advice about final salary/defined benefit pension schemes then you really need an adviser with the appropriate licence for that, otherwise they'd have to refer you on to another adviser who does.

Price difference doesn't necessarily reflect a big difference in the quality of advice available. One may have higher overheads due to more staff, premises in expensive location, etc. Or as they charge by the hour perhaps one is much faster than the other.

Is your pension situation particularly complicated- will the specialist advice benefit you?

Or do you need more of an overview?

What position are you starting from on your finances - are you confident in managing most things and need advice on something specific or do you want to understand more of a broad picture?

I would like to see a broad picture of my finances as a family, plus looking at my work pension ( statement of benefit etc), just an overall pciture. I would not be implementing change to my work pension scheme at the moment, but I would like to know what options with pension contribution are

Overall picture is what you can do yourself. I think you should be clearer about your aims from the meeting, before you spend money on it. You don’t need an IFA to understand a work pension scheme which will most likely have a scheme booklet - and often a department who are more than happy to explain it (though they can’t advise). What is it you’re looking to find out?

Absolutely get a statement of all your current pensions and savings. Start with a list of everything you have and worst case if you can't look online phone each for a statement.

For example state pension can usually be looked up on line.

A financial advisor will only know what you can tell them about what you have.

What other advice do you want?

The first meeting should always be free of charge, once they have got all the information on your pensions and they have provided an engagement report for you, you can the decided what action you wish to take, this should include all the charges. This off course depends on what pensions you have and what you want to so with them.