Wealth Management ?

[Investmentadvice]

Anyone got experience with using a Wealth Manager? In particular Fisher Investment? To manage your pension funds?

Would be grateful for any advice. At the moment we use the company pension funds and they invest in whatever they want.

I was with Barclays Wealth Management for a while. After five years of a few wins and losses my funds were pretty much the same as their fees seem to eat any profit. I took the money out and made a much better income by investing in buy to let myself. I don’t understand stocks and shares and bond markets but I do understand bricks and mortar.

I was with Barclays Wealth Management for a while. After five years of a few wins and losses my funds were pretty much the same as their fees seem to eat any profit. I took the money out and made a much better income by investing in buy to let myself. I don’t understand stocks and shares and bond markets but I do understand bricks and mortar.

Sorry for double post!

We use a wealth manager - their returns have tracked above the market for the last 8 years. Yes we pay a lot in fees but we don’t have the time or skill to do it ourselves. Our wealth manger has a requirement of £1m in investable assets before they take you on so they are able to access certain funds that aren’t available “retail” . It works for us - but we were referred by older colleagues whom we trusted.

Thank you

Thank you. Who do you use if you don’t mind me asking?

Do compare a few, it’s a big step: goodmoneyguide.com/review/partners-wealth-management/

If you’re thinking about doing it yourself take a look at Rebel Finance School. They have a series of free videos on YouTube so it will cost you nothing but time.

A lot of what they say makes sense, though does go against the “norm”.

I was with Bewin Dolphin and the charges were eating into a stagnating fund , I was paying £10-12k
a year and just had the realisation that in 10yrs that was well over £100k . On receipt of a letter from my FA saying they were concerned about the growth I decided to change the whole lot to Vanguard. Very happy , the transfer was easy and I’m paying a set nominal charge . What growth is made is for me not being lost in charges .

The vast, vast majority of them are not worth it - generally the fees are ruinous and have a real impact on your returns. It might feel psychologically safer to pay someone to do it, but it's rarely financially prudent.

It's not difficult to do yourself. Start with the UKPersonalFinance subreddit and read up about Bogleheads. Cheap all world tracker funds are your best bet, depending on how far off retirement you are, and what you want to do with your retirement.

And no matter what, stay away from St James' Place.

You will almost certainly pay less with your employers scheme

It might be worth paying and talk to an IFA or Accountant

But

1. Whose charging what and
2. What are their returns like

Also with brewin dolphin and very happy - my advisor is outstanding and I’m making really good returns and his advice is sound and sensible

Came here to say exactly this!

We used www.findawealthmanager.com to find a firm - it was a great service.

Watch the fees. I do mine via interactive investor, very easy and signed up with a referral link for year no fees

Thank you. Not sure we have the knowledge or time for it.

If we are doing it ourselves do we have to move it to a private pension?

Thank you all,

Fisher Investments suggested we invest everything in equity; they have not mentioned their fees just yet. We just had a first meeting and have scheduled a second one.

We have also had various FA, and have one at the moment; but not sure we have got much out of them either.

A very large global equity tracker fund across several markets and sectors should only cost a few pennies per £ per year in fees. Vanguard, Fidelity Magellan, S&P500 are just some of the very long established names. Your returns will match the market.

I had a prolonged episode with Fisher. After a few interesting discussions over a few weeks/months I decided I didn't want to use them due to high fees. They kept pestering me. I had to be quite short in telling them to never phone me again. I felt they were high pressure selling.

I don't know Fisher.
I do know that a lot of wealth managers (e.g. SJP) eat up your gains with fees and are not in fat particularly active fund managers themselves.

A lot of people would be better off buying ETFs off their own back, targeting ones that expose themselves to a basket of shares with the level of risk or type of industry they want exposure to

We have been with Fisher Investments for the last ten years. They are excellent- I would highly recommend.

we have most of our money in the Pru Growth bond which an IFA set up for us. It seems to be making good returns - about 7% this year and the fees are a small percentage of the fund

Yes you’d be moving it all into a SIPP invested in a global index fund and then you just leave it alone. No moving around, no stressing about which stocks to buy or which to sell.

Have a listen to this podcast interview with the Donegans (the couple who run Rebel Finance School). If you like what you hear then you can check out their YouTube channel. If you’re not interested then you’ve only lost an hour listening to the podcast.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-olympic-mindset-podcast/id1635157169?i=1000723798694

The other thing with a wealth manager is they can help with a number of other things - eg ours has set me up with a currency trader for moving large amounts of money from overseas, house insurance when high street insurers wouldn’t touch us (high value house plus a cellar which underwriters don’t seem to like) and an incredible mortgage broker who could access all our financials off the wealth manger so could do a stress test for various banks and we didn’t have to spend any time on mortgage applications at all - just got presented with the best deal. Definitely helped us hugely over the years.

You absolutely did the right thing. The compounded financial drag effect on a portfolio caused by management and excessive fund fees is staggering. Well done!