I need a financial advisor - how on earth do I find a good one?!

[deadleaves]

I need a financial advisor to help me decide what to do with my savings and how to plan for a pension. I don't have masses of money, about £70k savings, and am looking to avoid poverty in retirement!

I have no idea of what to look for in a reputable financial advisor (and are pensions advisors something different?)

Any advice of where to start would be gratefully received ( I am in Wales).

I would keep asking around (like this!) I don't have any to suggest but hope others will.

Ask your friends as a starting point and also head over to the MSE forums so that you become more knowledgeable yourself before talking to a financial advisor.

Do you have a workplace pension and are you paying in as much of the matched contributions as you can? And what are your short and long term goals?

Remember that financial advisors are in it to make money for themselves (of course, it's their job) so look out for their fees, especially ongoing fees on any investments.

You can always just pay for advice and then self-invest, but this is where educating yourself first is vital.

Money Magpie has some great advice too and I like her podcasts. Here's a post about financial advisors:
www.moneymagpie.com/manage-your-money/why-you-should-use-a-financial-advisor-to-review-your-pensions

I've been listening to the Meaningful Money podcast. Pete is a financial planner based in Devon (I think) and the podcasts are actually really interesting! All about how to save for retirement with an ISA, a SIPP and an accessible emergency fund.

There's a very supportive Facebook group as well that can help steer you to either do lots yourself or find a reputable FA

Agree with PPs, mainly Financial Advisers are there to sell you a product.

What are your financial priorities? Are you saving for something in particular (house, retirement, holiday home, new car, helping children with university or home deposit etc) if so, when will you be likely to need the money? Or is it more in the nature of a rainy day fund?
How old are you?
Can you afford to take any risk with the £70k (all or it or a part?)
Are you in a stable industry?
Do you have children? If so, what ages? Do you plan to have children in the future?

The MSE forums are great and will give you a good steer. IF following their advice you think you need an investment product, THEN look at getting an IFA

Ok, I am late 40s with two young children. The savings I have will be losing money as interest rates are so low.

I have a pension from a decent scheme from a previous job that will pay about £10k a year. I pay £400 a month to a NEST (or Nesta?) pension at work but someone told me that is crap and to look for a better pension, but I have not idea where to start. My job is not secure and I don't like it but haven't had any luck finding another job.
I think my age is seriously against me now in the job market.

I want to save enough to buy a small property (to live in) when my kids are grown, so in about 13/14 years - I will need to buy outright. I also want a liveable on pension - don't want to travel the world but would like to be able to have a decent social life.

Thanks for all the tips on resources etc.

I had a meeting today with an IFA that I found via www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en?gclid=CjwKCAjwy7CKBhBMEiwA0Eb7anYhMGzl3b5CJIKsr3g5-kHkbrcarePX0kZ4hTUuUq8_LUjXjzc-HxoCnW0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds which is the government backed advisory service and has a section listing IFA's that are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Also, most of these offer the initial consultation free of charge.
I'm not associated in any way to this site but found it very informative.
Good luck!

Try VouchedFor. It’s like TripAdviser for financial advisers. Clients leave reviews of their adviser. You can search by local area to find well regarded advisers- they should all have their charging structures on there too.

Much of the information you need can be found online, eg retirement tools to help you understand how much to save/what income you can expect in retirement.

You shouldn’t entirely opt out of Nest as you’d lose your employer’s contribution, and I’m not sure Nest is objectively “crap” (did they give a reason they said that?). But you could reduce your contribution to the minimum and pay any excess elsewhere.

I’m self employed and use Nutmeg for my pension, you can do a risk analysis to understand what investment approach is right for you, and they select a portfolio that matches that risk appetite.

A pension paying £10k a year is already a valuable asset, and unless you’re a higher rate taxpayer you might want to save anything extra into an ISA rather than a pension (and platforms like nutmeg etc provide those products too).

If you’re a higher rate taxpayer the current rates of tax relief make it a no brainer.

Jason Butler is a good source of advice on financial planning. He has podcasts, YouTube channel, blog, website, books, etc. Rather like Dave Ramsey, he is very good on organising your financial goals into a hierarchy (emergency fund, pay off unsecured debts, pension provison, longer-term investment goals, etc) and

Does your £10k pension scheme also pay a lump sum when you qualify? How are your state pension contributions looking - you can check this online. Don't opt out of your employers scheme - you would lose their contribution and that is free money.

Pension, job, £70k in savings, goals with a time horizon - sounds to me like you are off to a flying start, OP. I echo others here that I would get some more education on what to do yourself before handing over your hard-earned to a FA. Your time horizons could lend themselves very well to a low-cost global index fund in an ISA wrapper - Vanguard is a name that comes up all the time on financial independence/small investor boards.

I have a financial planner (not advisor) - had to have one to deal with my share of the pensions when I divorced. I found him on the website a PP mentioned. He's brilliant.

Identify your financial planning needs etc. The moneysavingexpert website is another good source of information for people.