Financial Adviser vs Private Investing
Are you brand new to investing, want to save for retirement or just looking to see better performance growth on your investments?
At some point in your life you are likely to need to make financial decisions, whether it’s saving into a pension, some sort of life/income protection or just investing savings or inherited money into the financial market. The first decision is do you want to pay for professional help or do it yourself.
A financial adviser can help you make the right decision about the most appropriate product for you.
SavvyWrap
Spreading your investments across a number of companies tends to generate mountains of paperwork and increases the hassle of getting up to date valuations. Wouldn’t it be helpful if there were a simple, reliable way of keeping track of all your investments? We offer something called the SavvyWrap.
The SavvyWrap is a web-based service that enables us to manage your entire portfolio from one web page, regardless of where your investments are held. SavvyWrap means we can take a holistic approach to your financial planning, making your money work harder, looking after you through all life’s changes and making your financial life easier.
The platform we’re using to support our service simplifies and speeds up the reporting and management of client portfolios. We spend less time dealing with paperwork and more time actively managing client portfolios.
Hargreaves Lansdown
Unless you are completely new to the investment world you will have heard of Hargreaves Lansdown. The company is one of the largest investment supermarkets for private investors where they can buy and sell funds and shares via its website and through the post to retail investors in the UK. Many investors like the idea of cutting out the middle man (a financial adviser) and running their investments themselves. The main concern is whether someone has the knowledge and expertise to pick their own funds, not only to match their appropriate investment risk, but to provide them with the performance they expect/hope for. Wannabe private investors should consider whether it is worth saving initially by not using a financial adviser or stock broker for the potential and likelihood of smaller returns in the long term.
Costs and Charges
Almost all saving and investment products have fees and charges associated with them. While some fees are made clear up front, you should always be aware of all other fees and alert to the fact that there may be hidden charges.
Managing savings and investments can involve time and money and investors should expect to pay reasonable charges to cover this. If you are paying higher fees you would hope that this is because the company or fund manager is confident that it will perform well. You should always try and make sure you know how much you are paying and that you are satisfied the service and investment performance you’re getting or expecting to receive is good value.
Many investors are unaware of all the charges included when they commit to investing their money. This is often the case with those who invest with Hargreaves Lansdown. Below is a comparison of the costs and charges between the SavvyWrap and HL.
The SavvyWraps ongoing charges on shares are cheaper and are more or less the same for collective funds. However the real difference is on the administration instructions, such as statements and transfers. Hargreaves Lansdown makes charges on almost any changes an investors wants to make whereas the SavvyWrap’s service provide most of these actions for no extra charge.
However, you should be aware when you use an independent financial adviser there will be ongoing adviser charge based on the value of your investments. Savvy Financial Planning set this at 1 – 1.2% of a client investments (ISAs, Pensions, Trusts and Bonds). But it’s important to remember Independent financial advisers offer the most comprehensive advice, they consider every aspect of your financial situation before dispensing advice that is fully tailored to your circumstances and could have access to certain funds and products a private investor may not.
That ongoing adviser charge is paying for the expertise and professional management of your portfolio. We make independent recommendations based on the entire market and hold no bias as to which funds we use.
Financial Advisers get a bad-wrap a lot of the time, but it is their job to keep you on the right path to achieve your short and long term financial goals. They’re in a position to let you know if you are falling behind by actively managing your investments.
To learn more about our SavvyWrap get in touch today and speak to a specialist.