Apologies in advance for the long post. My father will be 75 shortly and his pension plan is valued at over €500k. I live in the UK and came over to meet his current advisor with my parents this week - who it transpires has been taking 4% initial commission on all contributions thus far.
At our meeting, there was no mention of fees and despite the fact that he has gradually been putting more and more of the Irish Life policy into cash (so that the current allocation is c65% at a cost of 0.75% and a return of 0%) the advisor's recommendation was for an ARF rather than annuity. Given current rates and no requirement for a guaranteed income, I have no problem with this suggestion, but it doesn't quite square with the low-risk cash approach taken so far.
Leaving all these concerns behind, the meeting came and went with no mention of fees at all. I followed up with another call and the advisor did agree that perhaps it should have come up. He confirmed that he would charge 2-3% initial and 0.25% - 0.5% trail. He said the allocation rate would be c98% and it wouldn't make any difference if it was done directly by my Dad or through him - the allocation rate would be the same. There was absolutely no mention of any enhanced allocation potential.
Having sleepwalked through this initial meeting, I need to wake up quickly. My gut feeling is that we are being potentially misled about what my Dad could achieve and I would just like to know if these concerns appear valid and if he was to do this himself (or choose another advisor) would he be better off?
The whole Irish system appears to be dramatically different to the UK and designed to be more complex and layered with fees - but perhaps this perception is just my lack of knowledge!
I'm happy to do what it takes and we would potentially be in a position to make the investment decisions on an execution only basis if an appropriate product exists (preferably with a flat fee structure rather than percentage based!)
Any possible help or pointers would be sincerely appreciated as I don't want my Dad to be taken advantage of.
Many thanks in advance
Rebecca
At our meeting, there was no mention of fees and despite the fact that he has gradually been putting more and more of the Irish Life policy into cash (so that the current allocation is c65% at a cost of 0.75% and a return of 0%) the advisor's recommendation was for an ARF rather than annuity. Given current rates and no requirement for a guaranteed income, I have no problem with this suggestion, but it doesn't quite square with the low-risk cash approach taken so far.
Leaving all these concerns behind, the meeting came and went with no mention of fees at all. I followed up with another call and the advisor did agree that perhaps it should have come up. He confirmed that he would charge 2-3% initial and 0.25% - 0.5% trail. He said the allocation rate would be c98% and it wouldn't make any difference if it was done directly by my Dad or through him - the allocation rate would be the same. There was absolutely no mention of any enhanced allocation potential.
Having sleepwalked through this initial meeting, I need to wake up quickly. My gut feeling is that we are being potentially misled about what my Dad could achieve and I would just like to know if these concerns appear valid and if he was to do this himself (or choose another advisor) would he be better off?
The whole Irish system appears to be dramatically different to the UK and designed to be more complex and layered with fees - but perhaps this perception is just my lack of knowledge!
I'm happy to do what it takes and we would potentially be in a position to make the investment decisions on an execution only basis if an appropriate product exists (preferably with a flat fee structure rather than percentage based!)
Any possible help or pointers would be sincerely appreciated as I don't want my Dad to be taken advantage of.
Many thanks in advance
Rebecca