Has anyone used Goldcore for investment advice?

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ATC110

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Has anyone used GoldCore for investment advice? If so, would you recommend them?

Are they classed as a low-cost fee-based broker?

Thanks in advance
 
I would recommend them, I own gold through them and thought about investing in a fund but didn't as the ones they were pushing were very long term, i found them to be a very clued in outfit however, very professional, far as i know, Constantine Guirdieve is now working for them in some capacity.
 
Thanks Farmerette. Is their primary focus on gold investment or do they offer comprehensive advice? Also, regarding their charging structure, are they low-cost?
 
Goldcore sold its Wealth Management dept in July 2015 in a management buyout
 
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Thanks Marc.

Considering the average investment figure mentioned above, do you cater for clients with a five-figure sum to invest? Also, considering the potential collapse of the euro, would it be possible to invest in funds of another denomination (the obvious disadvantage being the inherent FX risk) or at least euro denominated of a stable eurozone state such as Germany?
 
Goldcore sold its Wealth Management dept in July 2015 in a management buyout
 
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With the exception of a pension /PRSA fund, how liquid would these funds be for someone who wants to get out of cash but may need access to funds?

Thanks again
 
Goldcore sold its Wealth Management dept in July 2015 in a management buyout
 
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Our initial fees for portfolio advisory services are typically around 1.5% for an average client (based on an average investment of €1,000,000) but since we do not use Insurance company structures there is no insurance company levy to pay so you avoid a 1% tax payable on most other investments in Ireland making the effective cost payable around 0.5%.
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Hi Marc

I don't fully understand this. If I say to you that I have €1m to invest in a fund, I can understand that you might set up a fund for me and charge me €15,000 for doing so and that would be a lot cheaper than the initial charges and ongoing mangement charges of the life companies.

But let's say I go to you saying - I have €500k in cash, €500k in an Irish Life fund, €500k in self administered pension fund and a few properties and a few mortgages and I want a general review of my finances. How do you charge for this service which may or may not lead to investing in one of your funds?
 
Hi Brendan,

I'll let Marc reply to your second question, but your first point is interesting and worth discussing further in relation to charges.

I am also trying to get a handle on what the initial and ongoing charges would be if I setup a portfolio with goldcore. (Can I firstly say they deserve great credit for listing their charges on their website so you can get an idea of the cost).

Let's pretend I have 100k to invest, from what I can see it would work out as follows:

[broken link removed]

Initial Setup Cost
3% / €3000

Annual Costs
0.74% (goldcore review + balancing)
0.48% (underlying fund charges)
= 1.3% per year

While this is cheap compared to the unknown total cost of going down the life company route (anything between 1.5% and 3% from various bits of reading) it should be also compared to a simiar service available in the US where the cost is a nice 0.25%:

[broken link removed]

(They have an eye opening graph showing the impact of 0.25% Vs 1.0% annual fees over 10 years showing showing 100k of additonal cost assuming 1M fund with 7% growth)

So costs still matter, GoldCore I think are ahead of the game in Ireland for their approach and transparency but I still feel their ongoing costs are too high.

I would welcome a debate on the need for ongoing management of a fund on an annual basis once it has been setup and you have set your own rebalancing rules.
 
Goldcore sold its Wealth Management dept in July 2015 in a management buyout
 
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Marc said:
We tend to work on the basis of a fixed fee for the preparation of a comprehensive financial plan which ranges from €2,000 plus VAT depending on the complexity of the plan.

A credit for the financial plan may be given against the implementation fees charged.

In a Financial Plan we cover an audit of existing General insurance (car, home, health insurance) and other policies (Life, PHI, Keyman etc)

We assess pension provision in terms of adequacy and structure which can extend to corporate restructuring if appropriate.

We assess net capital (assets minus liabilities) in the context of the client's financial goals (third level education for children, holiday homes etc) and the likely cash flows during the client's life.

We also comment on taxation issues and the optimisation of lifestyle cashflows from income and or other sources during the client's life.

Finally we comment on the provision or otherwise of Estate Planning (Wills, Enduring Powers of Attorney and more complex legal structures such as Trusts and Family Partnerships)

Part 2 - Implementation

A financial plan is pointless unless it is implemented.

For any contract we arrange, any third party commissions received belong to the client and are offset against fees. An often overlooked aspect of this is say with deposit accounts where we can be paid anything up to 0.35%pa from banks for introducing deposits.

For a client with a mix of cash and a portfolio this can have the effect of significantly reducing the ongoing management cost since the commission on the deposit is paid to the client's fee account.

Furthermore, when we arrange to rebroke existing life assurance polices for example we typically end up saving the client money through reduced premiums.

Our typical fees and expenses can be found on our website [broken link removed]

Part 3 - Expert team review

For our wealth management clients, part 3 of our process is a wider review of their overall financial arrangements by our external team of expert tax consultants, lawyers and other professionals.

This covers the areas of
Wealth Enhancement - Managing taxes on current and future tax events
Wealth Protection - Protecting your assets against being unjustly taken
Wealth Transfer - Estate Planning
Charitable Giving - Philanthropy is increasing significant for many clients in Ireland

Part 4 Review and rebalancing

I have written at length on askaboutmoney on the subject of the value an adviser brings to a client.

We can demonstrate two key benefits here:

1) The point made about the cost of investment in Ireland compared to the USA is well made. But the fact remains this isn't the USA. It isn't even close. By my reckoning having spent considerable time in both the UK and USA on a timeline Ireland, from the perspective of a retail financial services client, is about UK 1995 and USA 1985.

This is just my personal assessment based on my limited personal experience meeting several firms in the USA who manage many billions of dollars, working as a qualified financial consultant in the UK for 15 years and working as a qualified financial adviser in Ireland since 2008.

So what can I do for an Irish investor?

Well, I can offer clients portfolio administration services for as low as 0.05%pa with transactions costs at €30 per trade.

I can offer Executive Pensions from 0.35%pa with no administration costs and offer Institutional class investment funds with costs as low as 0.12%pa even for Emerging Markets. I think this goes some way to moving Ireland towards the international model.

But both of these products are just commodities and cost is all that really matters here.

The average investor still needs assistance with all this. For proof of this look at the questions asked everyday on Askaboutmoney.

These structural cost savings which we are able to deliver mean that we are able to charge a fair and transparent fee for service without the total cost increasing for the investor.

The value added part in the process is our working with a client to identify their goals and objectives, creating a portfolio which is matched to their attitude to risk, keeping them disciplined and in the markets when all the talking heads are trying to say that now is the time to sell and that they can help them avoid risk through some fancy market timing strategy. For the avoidance of doubt, I have never met anyone who can meet these claims reliably.

But to be clear, this is not a service for those who want to do this themselves and we do not provide an execution only service.

Our reasons for this are clear. I am yet to meet a DIY investor who has no emotions, who understands all the relevant taxation issues, who can work out all the cash-flows and who understands modern portfolio theory.

My final point on this is that our service is based on a consultative relationship with our clients. If they no longer see value in our service, they will simply go elsewhere and they are free to do so since we do not lock them into our portfolios.

The ongoing fee is therefore not built into the contract but rather it is a payment by the client for the ongoing advice provided - as it should be.

However, our existing clients have found that we add value greater than our ongoing fee and that is why we continue to expand both our business and service offering.

By way of an illustration of this, here is a trade confirmation I received for my own pension today:

Confirmation of Stock trade
Reference = 2533156A
Client = (IT303) Independent Trustee Co Ltd Re: Marc Westlake
Stock = (VANEMSI) Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund
Currency = EUR
Type = Buy to Open
Quantity = 125.3136
Price = e119.6997
Gross = e15,000.00dr
Net = e15,030.00dr
Trade Date = 07 Jun 2011 07:06:00
Settlement Date = 07 Jun 2011

How many advisory firms operating in Ireland today are offering portfolios with Vanguard Emerging Markets Funds in amounts of €15,000? Not many is my guess.
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The above-mentioned charge of €2000+VAT (in bold & italics) equates to approx. 5% of a €50,000 investment.

Does this represent good value? Would appreciate some opinions
 
For clarification we have two distinct services here which are being mixed up.

We offer a financial planning service which looks at financial goals and objectives, risk assessment of income replacement and life assurance, pension provision, financial management looking at budgeting and lifetime cash flows, tax planning, Investment planning, debt management, estate planning and philanthropy. The fee for this is independent of the fee charged for an investment portfolio. However, we typically offset financial planning fees against portfolio implementation fees.

We also offer a stand alone portfolio service with fees starting at 2.5% rather than the 5% stated in the post above.

Equally, where we charge a planning fee and the client uses our portfolios we give a credit for the planning fee already charged so most clients do not pay both fees but rather just the implementation fee.

Hopefully that clears up that misunderstanding.
 
I am more confused than ever now Marc.

Is this explained on your website. If someone goes in for a general financial planning service, what is the fee? I presume you charge an hourly rate lilke other professionals? If so, what is that rate?
 
Brendan,

No we tend to charge a fixed fee so that there is total clarity about what a job will cost. With an hourly fee this is not possible.

However, where we do work on an hourly fee basis, our fees are as follows:

Head of Department - €300 - €400 per hour
Adviser / Technical Assistant - €150 - €250 per hour
Para planner / Technical support - €100 - €200 per hour
Personal Assistant / Business co-coordinator - €50 - €100 per hour
 
Could you clarify your post above please Marc.

What's the difference between the financial planning service and stand alone portfolio service?
Is the former priced at €2000+VAT?
If only certain aspects of the financial planning service were applicable, would a reduced rate apply?
 
The stand alone portfolio service relates to those investors who simply wish to purchase a portfolio of investments. For many prospective clients this will be offered by our network of strategic partners. These are a select group of independent financial advisers who share our philosophy of doing what is best for the client.

The financial planning service tends to be more appropriate for those with more complex financial affairs so recently we have incorporated businesses as limited companies in order to be able to avail of the more favourable tax treatment.

Another popular area is Approved Retirement Fund ARF drawdown strategies or estate planning strategies.

We don't tend to offer a transactional based service for someone who wanted to arrange a mortgage for example. Although if as part of the plan an insurance policy is called for we can arrange it but it isn't our sole reason for being in business if that makes sense. We are not a traditional product broker.

The way we describe it is that we provide what the client needs rather than what they think they need.



I hope that clarifies the position.
 
Marc said:
The way we describe it is that we provide what the client needs rather than what they think they need.
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This could be perceived as arrogance. Or a somewhat patronising belief that your investment decisions are invariably going to be better than those of a mere client.

Marc said:
For clarification we have two distinct services here which are being mixed up.

We offer a financial planning service which looks at financial goals and objectives, risk assessment of income replacement and life assurance, pension provision, financial management looking at budgeting and lifetime cash flows, tax planning, Investment planning, debt management, estate planning and philanthropy. The fee for this is independent of the fee charged for an investment portfolio. However, we typically offset financial planning fees against portfolio implementation fees.
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From reading this and other posts here on Askaboutmoney.com, it occurs to me that you seem quite fond of a small number of financial fund providers e.g. Dimensional & Vanguard. These cannot be accessed easily by an Irish retail investor anywhere outside of Goldcore.

So is it fair to say that a client pays from €2,000 + VAT for a financial planning service and then the investment recommendations within the financial plan will tend to be steering him into funds that he can only then buy from Goldcore at additional cost?
 
Goldcore sold its Wealth Management dept in July 2015 in a management buyout
 
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