Am I expecting too much from my investments??

[DatGirlBellamy]

I've been wondering whether I'm expecting too much, or whether I need to rethink my financial adviser.
He's been looking after my investments for a few years and is very cautious. I appreciate that he's trying to protect my money, but last year my overall return was only about £11k, and it feels like my investments are just ticking along rather than helping me get closer to the life I'd like in the future.
He tends to stick with more traditional investments and doesn't seem very interested in newer products or different strategies. Maybe that's sensible, but I can't help feeling I'm missing opportunities.
Has anyone else reached a point where they questioned whether their adviser was too conservative? How did you decide whether to stay put or look elsewhere? Or is this just what investing is like these days?

@DatGirlBellamy if you had simply put it in an S&P 500 tracker fund, you would have made £29,000 and would not have had to pay any fees to a financial advisor. Unless you are an astonishingly low risk investor, that’s a pretty miserable return he has made for you.

I think that’s low too. In the last calendar year, the return on my investments was 15.5%. I manage that myself. Why are you paying someone to manage it? You could do it yourself.

Talk to your advisor first. Make them earn their fee.

Educate yourself about fees, tracker funds and different types of investments. If you are not tech savvy and find calculating percentages difficult I would question whether DIY investing is best for you?

A different advisor may be worth considering if your current one isn't right for you.

Mine is still hidden from 9 this morning, no idea why

6% from £162 is a bit conservative but it is also likely to mean you were well protected from market falls. Those didn't happen, but you might have a different view if they had.

The truth is no conventional financial adviser is going to stick your money in Crypto - and for good reason. If they had it's very likely you would have lost loads over the past year.

You could ask to up your risk a bit. I'm guessing a return like 6% means you have maybe 50% in shares and the rest in bonds or cash. You could up the shares to 80% or even 100% if you want - but don't complain if prices fall and you lose money.

Also - with £162k I might question whether you need full advice.

As many have said, I doubt you need a financial advisor. What are they charging? If it's an ongoing fee based on your portfolio size, this is too expensive. It does depend somewhat on what your investment horizon is, but if it's more than 5 years the best thing you could do would be ditch the advice and transfer it all to a low cost global index fund, ideally in an ISA. To give you an idea, mine made me 28% in the past 12 months and the fee is 0.15%. There are definitiely better returns to be had.

Have you never filled in a risk assessment form for him which determines the level of risk you want to take? It's standard with my adviser and we repeat it every year.

If you don't really have much market knowledge, it might be worth looking into copy trading. That's what I've been doing instead of trying to pick investments myself. I started with around £8,600 and have made over £119,000 so far, although that's just my personal experience and everyone's results will be different. If it's something you're interested in and you're not sure where to start, I'm happy to point you towards a few YouTube channels that explain how copy trading works and the traders I've chosen to follow. Do your own research first though, and only invest money you can afford to lose.

I’ve been doing some half assed investments myself and got 10% so I’d be pretty miffed at 6% from a pro!

I’ve just bought an investment policy and went for risk 4 (1 being low, 6 highest). No guarantees of course but the anticipated return is around 14%, and a .8% fee. I only have £32k invested so thought I’d go for a higher risk for the better return. I don’t think 6% is that great unless you’ve asked for lower risk investments.

Could you tell me which course you did, please? I have an IFA, but I'd still like to educate myself better about savings and investments.

Sure, I did Rebel Finance on YouTube. Ten lessons (free of charge) and my investments are doing great! It starts from scratch so you’d know lots of the initial stuff but it really is great.

Has your friend actually accessed their money? Crypto doesn’t behave like this anymore

I’ve done 25% myself this year using Plum.