Question
I have recently sacked my financial adviser and have engaged an Actuary who is helping me to run my SIPP, but cannot give me any advice on investing.
I have not been very impressed with financial advisers and have not got much faith in them, therefore I am having to learn how to invest the money in my SIPP myself. How do I go about getting the best advice? as well as reading your excellent web site.Answer
As it stands, there are three main options open to you:
1. Make investment decisions yourself. Whether this is practical (or wise) depends on how keen you are to get involved, the amount of money in your SIPP and your needs going forwards. For example, investment management might be especially challenging if you're already retired and drawing an income, as your investment strategy would need to avoid the risk of the pension fund running dry. If you take this route use a platform or discount broker who refunds sales commissions (or uses funds without this built in) to cut costs.
2. Use a financial adviser. The adviser will make recommendations to you, most likely funds, with you having the final say on whether to enact them. Financial advisers tend not to be investment specialists, often preferring to recommend funds of funds or outsource to a discretionary manager for larger sums.
3. Delegate to a discretionary manager. This means giving someone full discretion on running your money. You'll agree objectives and the level of risk to be taken, then let them make all day to day investment decisions. Such services tend to invest in funds and shares.
Finding a good investment adviser/discretionary investment manager who provides value for money is sadly very difficult - if I knew a sure fire way of finding one I'd have put details on this site long ago.
The key things to look out for are a good track record at what they do (can the adviser/manager show you examples of the work they've done for other clients?), ability to give a sound explanation of how they decide on the split of different assets and select investments, along with a clear explanation of exactly what you'll pay and the service you'll receive in return.
If the actuary you've engaged is making the decisions on what proportions of your SIPP to invest in different asset classes (i.e. trying to match potential risk/returns to your needs) then the job of investing the money should be somewhat easier, as you'll just need to focus on worthwhile investments in each area. This isn't too difficult provided you're willing to spend some time gauging the better funds for various assets/geographical areas. Taking a straw poll of the funds rated by various research/broker websites wouldn't be a bad start.
Otherwise you may well be better off taking advice, if you can find someone you trust.
I have recently sacked my financial adviser and have engaged an Actuary who is helping me to run my SIPP, but cannot give me any advice on investing.
I have not been very impressed with financial advisers and have not got much faith in them, therefore I am having to learn how to invest the money in my SIPP myself. How do I go about getting the best advice? as well as reading your excellent web site.Answer
As it stands, there are three main options open to you:
1. Make investment decisions yourself. Whether this is practical (or wise) depends on how keen you are to get involved, the amount of money in your SIPP and your needs going forwards. For example, investment management might be especially challenging if you're already retired and drawing an income, as your investment strategy would need to avoid the risk of the pension fund running dry. If you take this route use a platform or discount broker who refunds sales commissions (or uses funds without this built in) to cut costs.
2. Use a financial adviser. The adviser will make recommendations to you, most likely funds, with you having the final say on whether to enact them. Financial advisers tend not to be investment specialists, often preferring to recommend funds of funds or outsource to a discretionary manager for larger sums.
3. Delegate to a discretionary manager. This means giving someone full discretion on running your money. You'll agree objectives and the level of risk to be taken, then let them make all day to day investment decisions. Such services tend to invest in funds and shares.
Finding a good investment adviser/discretionary investment manager who provides value for money is sadly very difficult - if I knew a sure fire way of finding one I'd have put details on this site long ago.
The key things to look out for are a good track record at what they do (can the adviser/manager show you examples of the work they've done for other clients?), ability to give a sound explanation of how they decide on the split of different assets and select investments, along with a clear explanation of exactly what you'll pay and the service you'll receive in return.
If the actuary you've engaged is making the decisions on what proportions of your SIPP to invest in different asset classes (i.e. trying to match potential risk/returns to your needs) then the job of investing the money should be somewhat easier, as you'll just need to focus on worthwhile investments in each area. This isn't too difficult provided you're willing to spend some time gauging the better funds for various assets/geographical areas. Taking a straw poll of the funds rated by various research/broker websites wouldn't be a bad start.
Otherwise you may well be better off taking advice, if you can find someone you trust.
Read this Q and A at http://www.candidmoney.com/askjustin/796/how-to-get-advice-for-my-sipp
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