LIA - investment qualification of advisor concerning?

So what funds did they advise to switch from and to, and what reason did they give other than "poor performance" ? Why did they think that the new funds were a better idea?
 
@DeeKie While I'm conscious of your wish to respect your father's autonomy, I think the only way you'll be able to satisfy yourself as to whether or not he's been given good or bad advice is to get details from him as to what he was in and what he's now in.

If he was moved from a product with overly high charges to a product with lower charges, that could be good advice. Or if he was in a fund that was demonstrably wrong for his needs and objectives and he was moved into a more suitable one, that could be good advice.

As has been said already - switching from one fund to another within the same product doesn't usually cost anything and certainly doesn't generate commission for the broker, so if that's what it was, just make sure your father understands why he was switched and what he's in now.

Switching from one product to another with a different company does generate commission for the broker so you should ask to see the Statement of Suitability to see why the broker felt that such a switch was in the best interests of your father.

Possible worrying statements...

  • "Switch from the fund you were in to New Company's similar fund because New Company will give you a better return than Old Company. Look at New Company's past performance. (Nobody can predict what will happen in the future and even an excellent track record in the past doesn't promise better returns in the future.)
  • We will monitor your fund on an ongoing basis and we will recommend fund switches to you if we think that something's going to happen in the markets. Our team watches the markets every day, finger on the pulse etc. We will charge an ongoing trail commission for this of X% per year." (Worthless and potentially costly tinkering with funds to justify trail commission.)
Unfortunately - and this is the hard part - even if your father has received poor advice to switch products just to generate a commission for the seller, it's difficult to prove. The seller may well be able to show research that shows that Company B's funds have done better than Company A in the past. Despite my first bullet point above, if your father agreed with the seller and signed the forms, it would be difficult to PROVE that the seller has done anything wrong to the point of being able to do anything about it. Don't shoot the messenger...
 
I'm going to give the advisor the benefit of the doubt.

He's bought a book of business and it's in his (and probably the sellers) interest to hold on to as many clients as possible.

Advisors are under pressure from CB to keep/maintain contact with advisory clients. New guy may have looked at this (because it wasn't reviewed in ages?) and explained in detail why he was making the changes. He may have a completely different view of funds than the older/retiring broker. Your father may not want to give you all the details.

He had three ARFs with same company so that, to me, might mean he matured all the pre-retirement products at different times and could not add to existing one/s because there were early exit charges on them (ie. initial commission paid was being recovered by provider and they couldn't mix 'new' money with (say) a plan that had 2/3 years of penalties on them. The advice could have been to mature then like that for tax reasons.


Gerard

www.prsa.ie
 
ClubMan said:
The main problem with this thread is that, two pages in, we're all still largely trying to guess the details of the advice given and the reasons for any changes that were made.
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I think that's a bit unfair to the OP if you are suggesting they should be providing more detail. The thread quickly moved off topic from the original query posed. The OP was looking for information on whether the adviser was adequately qualified or not. That has been answered and acknowledged by the OP.

DeeKie said:
Thank you all. It’s helpful to learn that 9 is at the upper rather than the lower level. I did not find the qqi link on my searches so this is much appreciated.
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Well meaning posters have sought information about the advice and changes but the OP hasn't looked for opinions on this, probably because they have very limited knowledge of what this was.
 
llgon said:
I think that's a bit unfair to the OP if you are suggesting they should be providing more detail. The thread quickly moved off topic from the original query posed. The OP was looking for information on whether the adviser was adequately qualified or not. That has been answered and acknowledged by the OP.
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And they subsequently implied that they had concerns about the advice given so questions about the nature of that advice are perfectly on topic.
DeeKie said:
Just a call and she got him to switch his investments. I need to find out more but I’ve always been respectful of his autonomy. Something feels off about this though.
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At this point the OP hasn't looked for analysis of that advice, that's why you're trying to guess what it was.

ClubMan said:
The main problem with this thread is that, two pages in, we're all still largely trying to guess the details of the advice given and the reasons for any changes that were made.
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llgon said:
At this point the OP hasn't looked for analysis of that advice, that's why you're trying to guess what it was.
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In post numbers 8, 12 and 14 the OP gives details of what their father had and what advice was given, in as much as they know. Why do you think they posted that?
 
Because they were asked by posters and were courteous in their responses.

My original comment on this thread was in response to Clubman's post, which I thought was unfair to the OP. I'm not having a go at anyone who was helpful in providing advice regarding the father's investments, just pointing out that it isn't what the OP had looked for.
 
ClubMan said:
Probably minor in the greater scheme of things but there may be fund switching fees charged by SL.
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An absolutely minor charge. I think it's €50 for a switch...if you go over 12 in a month, which I have never had a client do.


Without knowing what funds the father is in and what the funds are recommended, it's impossible to know what is going on. Even then, there are so many other details required to make an assessment of the situation. The new advisor is not switching to another provider, so there is no churn going on there.

I have found that plenty of retiring advisors had switched off in the final years of work as they are preparing the business for sale and thinking of the extended holidays they are taking. A lot of their older clients are heavily invested in bonds and not generating any returns on their money. Without knowing any detail, it is impossible to know.

But as it is a fund switch and not a transfer to another provider, there is not a commission churn in play here.


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)
 
Steven Barrett said:
An absolutely minor charge. I think it's €50 for a switch...if you go over 12 in a month, which I have never had a client do.
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SL do not charge for any switches - it's a claus in the T&C to protect if they wanted to implement it in the future.
There is no limit on how many switches you can do per year.
 
@Sarah Ryan Always thought that there were 12 free switches in any 12 month period. Then €60 per switch.

Do they differentiate between switching 'assets' and switching funds?
 
Thanks all. My mind has been put at ease. The instructions he gave were to move all funds in two funds currently invested in Standard life UK property to Standard Life Managed funds and to move all funds in both policies currently invested in Retirement with profits to Standard Life Managed funds.

I’m just posting this as people have kindly volunteered additional information about my original question. I am ok with the advice I think I just wanted to see how vigilant I should be about this new person and my lovely Dad. I put a lot of faith in experience and professional education. This person has very little experience so the professional education becomes more important. At least they seem suitably qualified.
 
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LDFerguson said:
In post numbers 8, 12 and 14 the OP gives details of what their father had and what advice was given, in as much as they know. Why do you think they posted that?
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I posted this as people seemed to intimate that this information was required to discuss the qualifications of the advisor. I wasn’t looking for guidance on the advice given to Dad. Just wanted to understand what the jargon in the qualifications meant. That being said, as always this forum is kindly going above and beyond. Which is appreciated.
 
llgon said:
Because they were asked by posters and were courteous in their responses.

My original comment on this thread was in response to Clubman's post, which I thought was unfair to the OP. I'm not having a go at anyone who was helpful in providing advice regarding the father's investments, just pointing out that it isn't what the OP had looked for.
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Thank you.
 
DeeKie said:
Thanks all. My mind has been put at ease. The instructions he gave were to move all funds in two funds currently invested in Standard life UK property to Standard Life Managed funds and to move all funds in both policies currently invested in Retirement with profits to Standard Life Managed funds.
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I am not a financial advisor but property funds are liable to suspensions so, if you get locked in you are waiting to get your funds back until the fund becomes liquid again. That can take years in some cases.
 
Sarah Ryan said:
I am not a financial advisor but property funds are liable to suspensions so, if you get locked in you are waiting to get your funds back until the fund becomes liquid again.
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Thanks Sarah. Not sure if this is relevant to him. I will mention it. I had this experience myself when I tried to move money a few years ago. It struck me as an unfair rule, and I feel it should be mentioned to people allocating pension funds to property in bright lights!
 
llgon said:
I think that's a bit unfair to the OP if you are suggesting they should be providing more detail. The thread quickly moved off topic from the original query posed. The OP was looking for information on whether the adviser was adequately qualified or not. That has been answered and acknowledged by the OP.



Well meaning posters have sought information about the advice and changes but the OP hasn't looked for opinions on this, probably because they have very limited knowledge of what this was.
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@ligon

When threads go off topic, we generally edit them to focus on the question asked.

However, in many cases, and this is a prime example, the question asked triggers a much bigger and more important question which the OP did not ask but which he should have.

The key issue in this thread is whether the new guy is trying to exploit the OP's father. There are many dishonest, well qualified advisors.

ClubMan and others are right in trying to establish what the advice given was.

Brendan
 
Thanks Brendan and everyone. All the responses have been brilliant and helpful.
 
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