Nomansland
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When I asked him how much I owed for his services he said that the way they operated was that I could invest in whichever product I chose through them (including the Augusta syndicate) by simply paying him the initial 3% outlay instead of the nominee company.
My question is does this constitute independent financical advice??
In a lot of cases, it is not possible for an individual investor to invest in a fund without paying the standard commission. Where someone approaches the fund provider directly, they just charge the same commission rate they would if the business was introduced through a broker, but pay it to themselves.
If you are getting fee-based advice, where an adviser is charging you a fixed fee or hourly rate, make sure you check if the adviser can get you a rebate of the normal commission. If you don't, while you may be getting unbiased advice, you may effectively end up paying twice.
I have never found this to be the case.
I have found that with a number of funds, if an investor goes direct they will of course pay the commission (the promoter keeping it in such a case).
However, in all cases, it has been possible to negotiate that the investor's commission goes into their investment "pot of money" if the investor has asked for a fee-based nil-commission arrangement through a fee-based adviser.
That's fine, as long as the investor is aware that investing directly does not automatically mean they will not incur commission and clarifies the situation prior to making the investment.
If you do not seek this clarification and make sure you agree a rebate of commission in some form, it is quite likely you will end up paying commission, even though you think you're investing on an execution-only basis.
I invested in the fourth with Augusta. I went throught it in detail with my accountant. Like you I was attracted by German commercial property. Also, it is the same guy who did the forrestry funds some time back which I thought were a good idea. They have a german guy as one of their directors who does their negotiating over there which has it's advantages.
As for getting independent advice, I generally vet things with my accountant as it is hard in this country. If someone told me they were independent I would nearly make them take an oath on it - Definitely check them out to verify their claims.
best of luck
So it seems, 42% of your original investment will be actually be eaten by known & disclosed costs associated with the project i.e. 27% + 15% (3%*5 years).
South - If you read my earlier post you would have seen the properties are sourced by a German National who is a director.
I'm glad someone else pointed out the connection with the forestry funds. There is a thread on these boards where the forestry people declined to answer some very basic questions about their funds. Perhaps someone else can find the link.
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