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[Tony H]

Hello everyone, I have a very small private pension that I think is time to make sure is with the right plan and provider can anyone give me an idea how much an independent financial adviser should charge to give advise in such a matter either in charge per hour or to do a one off review? 
TIA
Tony

[chrisgixer]

Depends entirely on what that particular advisor charges.

Some top end advisors charge £200 an hour, so not worth the effort. In fact, its probably not worth the effort full stop, for a small pot of cash.

Can you tie it in with a remortgage or some other financial advice, and kill two birds?

Its a lot of work to find out what's the best thing to do, and even more to put in place. So advisors will want to charge the time.

It's going the wrong way really. If you've got the cash, its worth an advisors time. If you haven't...

[Entwood]

Be a tad cautious ....  many "advisors" will offer you free consultations and "advice" ... but they get their money from commission fees from product suppliers ... so most of their "advice" will always be that your present arrangements are "wrong" and you need to change to x,y or z ... 

[Vamps]

Be a tad cautious ....  many "advisors" will offer you free consultations and "advice" ... but they get their money from commission fees from product suppliers ... so most of their "advice" will always be that your present arrangements are "wrong" and you need to change to x,y or z ... 

What E said, ime.......

[LC0112G]

Be a tad cautious ....  many "advisors" will offer you free consultations and "advice" ... but they get their money from commission fees from product suppliers ... so most of their "advice" will always be that your present arrangements are "wrong" and you need to change to x,y or z ... 

No. Commission paid by pension companies to advisors has now been banned. And adviser must now charge you, either as an explicit fee, or as a percentage of the fund value. They must tell you how they're going to charge before doing any work.

I suggest you go over to the pensions sub-forum on Moneysavingexpert and ask there. Pay attention to DunstonH in particular.

[chrisgixer]

Yes there's no money in pensions products. Especially not for the advisor.

[Marks DTM Calib]

As for advisors, I am yet to find one, paid for or otherwise, that speaks clearly and concisely and can ever beat the deals you can find on line with a bit of searching.

Reality is though, if you have a pension pot, no matter how small, your best yield will always come from seeing it throguh to the point of maturity, an early cash in value is always poor (and that includes transfer values)

[jonathanh]

 a few thoughts here

a) IFAs may noe be able to charge comission any more without telling you but it does not stop the buggers trying to sell you other stuff where they can hit you with hidden charges.

b) a point virtually always missed is when you need advice and when you need information.  If you were to ask someone to make a recommendation based on your circumstances = " advice".  If however you want someone to point you in the right direction to find out more and generally how things work - that is not advice.
( wait till and IFA disagrees with me)

Mark is broadly right however - best is to find out yourself if you can.

to the OP - drop me a PM if you have a more specific question - I may be able to help ( not for comission, fees or anything else)

[LC0112G]

Reality is though, if you have a pension pot, no matter how small, your best yield will always come from seeing it throguh to the point of maturity, an early cash in value is always poor (and that includes transfer values)

Huh? You cannot cash in a private pension - and never could. You must be (at least) 55 years old which is set to rise to 57 in the future. There are some scams that claim to liberate your pension, but these are all rip-offs, and you will lose the lot. And a pension isn't an endowment - there is no such thing as maturity - you cannot surrender it early, or use it as security on a loan/mortgage etc.

[LC0112G]

b) a point virtually always missed is when you need advice and when you need information.  If you were to ask someone to make a recommendation based on your circumstances = " advice".  If however you want someone to point you in the right direction to find out more and generally how things work - that is not advice.
( wait till and IFA disagrees with me)

Not an IFA, and I sort of agree with you. However, the other side of the story is that an IFA is legally liable for any and all advice they give you - forever. If that advice turns out to be incorrect/wrong then you could sue them for compensation. Therefore the IFA has to take out insurance to cover them in case of future complaints. That insurance is expensive because it doesn't just cover the period in which the advice is given, but has to cover into the distant future incase a complaint is made in 20-30-40 years time. So you can understand that an IFA will want to cover their ar5e

[Marks DTM Calib]

Reality is though, if you have a pension pot, no matter how small, your best yield will always come from seeing it throguh to the point of maturity, an early cash in value is always poor (and that includes transfer values)

Huh? You cannot cash in a private pension - and never could. You must be (at least) 55 years old which is set to rise to 57 in the future. There are some scams that claim to liberate your pension, but these are all rip-offs, and you will lose the lot. And a pension isn't an endowment - there is no such thing as maturity - you cannot surrender it early, or use it as security on a loan/mortgage etc.

On cash in I am referring to transfer/movement from plan to plan and not a take a wedge of cash and spend it. 

[jonathanh]

b) a point virtually always missed is when you need advice and when you need information.  If you were to ask someone to make a recommendation based on your circumstances = " advice".  If however you want someone to point you in the right direction to find out more and generally how things work - that is not advice.
( wait till and IFA disagrees with me)

agree- BUT

a) my point is only pay for advice if you need advice

b) watch out how many IFA's wind up their business- there is no business to sue in 10 years - so no insurance needed.  anyway proving stuff isn't easy

Not an IFA, and I sort of agree with you. However, the other side of the story is that an IFA is legally liable for any and all advice they give you - forever. If that advice turns out to be incorrect/wrong then you could sue them for compensation. Therefore the IFA has to take out insurance to cover them in case of future complaints. That insurance is expensive because it doesn't just cover the period in which the advice is given, but has to cover into the distant future incase a complaint is made in 20-30-40 years time. So you can understand that an IFA will want to cover their ar5e

[jonathanh]

Reality is though, if you have a pension pot, no matter how small, your best yield will always come from seeing it throguh to the point of maturity, an early cash in value is always poor (and that includes transfer values)

Huh? You cannot cash in a private pension - and never could. You must be (at least) 55 years old which is set to rise to 57 in the future. There are some scams that claim to liberate your pension, but these are all rip-offs, and you will lose the lot. And a pension isn't an endowment - there is no such thing as maturity - you cannot surrender it early, or use it as security on a loan/mortgage etc.

On cash in I am referring to transfer/movement from plan to plan and not a take a wedge of cash and spend it. 

That might be true for final salary, but not so for money purchase - there there should be very little if any costs in transfering between providers.  the exception is with profits funds where there may be a redemption penalty but WP is largely out of favour now

also if you are over 55 and your pot is less than £30k, you should be able to draw it as one lump sum

[LC0112G]

Reality is though, if you have a pension pot, no matter how small, your best yield will always come from seeing it throguh to the point of maturity, an early cash in value is always poor (and that includes transfer values)

Huh? You cannot cash in a private pension - and never could. You must be (at least) 55 years old which is set to rise to 57 in the future. There are some scams that claim to liberate your pension, but these are all rip-offs, and you will lose the lot. And a pension isn't an endowment - there is no such thing as maturity - you cannot surrender it early, or use it as security on a loan/mortgage etc.

On cash in I am referring to transfer/movement from plan to plan and not a take a wedge of cash and spend it. 

But is still makes no sense. There are a few legacy products which have what are called "Garanteed Annuity Rates". Assuming your pension is NOT in one of these, then the transfer value is simply the market value of the assets you currently hold. Valuing a legacy "With Profits" fund can be difficult, but a modern SIPP/Stakeholder/PP is almost always just the value of all the assets you hold.

You can use your "pot" of money to buy virtually anything inside the pension "wrapper". Transferring is simply selling what you currently hold for whatever it's current market value is, and buying something else instead. So for instance you could sell your current Vodaphone shares and buy Shell shares. Transferring from one provider to another is a lot easier than it used to be, although there will be costs because the assets have to be re-registered to the new provider. The providers now have to tell you what their charges are, and provide you a yearly statement. If you think you can get lower charges elsewhere, then transfer. Yearly fees are typically 1% ish, but you can get that down to less than 0.5% with some products.

I don't see how it could be much simpler? And as of the last budget (once the legislation goes through parliament) you can take all of your pension pot as a lump sum the minute you turn 55 (although 75% of it will be taxed). No requirement to buy an annuity or anythig else - you are free to pi55 it all up the wall if you want.

[LC0112G]

b) watch out how many IFA's wind up their business- there is no business to sue in 10 years - so no insurance needed.  anyway proving stuff isn't easy

No - AIUI the FCA/FSA mandate that all IFA's have to have the insurance. So even if the IFA packs up, the insurance was in place at the time the product was sold, so you can still claim against that IFA's insurance company in the future - possibly the distant future.

And the burden of proof is generally on the IFA to prove you weren't mis-sold. It's not far from the PPI scams where you appear to be able to claim from a bank for missold PPI even if you never has a PPI. If an IFA's factfind/notes aren't complete then the default position is that the FCA finds in favour of the complainant.