ARF investment on retirement

[Ravima]

Am considering talking to Davy, Goodbody and Invesco re the above. Does anyone have any comments or recommendations? I know that the annual fee is one thing and the level of service they will provide, such as meeting me at least one a year to review the fund.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to have my money in places where clients haven’t been shafted repeatedly…

(PS the above is absolutely no reflection on two of those names. But your question might as well be “I’d like someone to babysit my children. I’m torn between my Mum, someone from a babysitting agency, or Hannibal Lecter. What do you think?”)

 

[Dave Vanian]

I'm a broker in a small firm so I suppose I'm biased. But my experience of the big corporate firms is that they charge a lot more than smaller firms and the service isn't very personalised. (1) They tend to work from a script and (2) the person you deal with today may or may not still be working there next year. There are various threads here on Askaboutmoney with recommendations of brokers and several who answer questions here so you can get an idea of how they operate.

...such as meeting me at least one a year to review the fund.

Out of curiosity, what would your expectation be of such a fund review meeting? Personally I'd be wary of any broker who would be attempting to recommend fund switches or market timing at an annual meeting.

Agree fully with Gordon's sentiments above. He's being coy, but I won't bother as it's all in the public domain anyway. Have a read. (I've no personal axe to grind with Davy and indeed I could make money by selling their products as they pay commission to brokers. I just won't recommend a firm who have treated their own clients like that, particularly given that it was the senior management who lined their own pockets with it.

 

[moneymakeover]

There's
Zurich
Irish life
Mercer?
Probably others

 

[Steven Barrett]

But my experience of the big corporate firms is that they charge a lot more than smaller firms and the service isn't very personalised. (1) They tend to work from a script and (2) the person you deal with today may or may not still be working there next year.

I've spoken to many clients who literally got a form in the post and asked to fill it out and send it back. They did get a little booklet giving informing them of their retirement options. And the corporate were getting 4% of the pension value for this advice!

I've also heard of corporates with sales boards that are totted up each week with rankings given. One story was a guy was struggling at the bottom for a few weeks but sold a few ARF's for close to €1m each, all at 4% commission. That saw him rocket to the top.

There's plenty of other brokerages like this too.

You want an advisor who is paid to look after your interests. Not someone who sees you as a way of using your money to make large commissions.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)