What Do I Get For My Money? (Published on IFAonline 1-11-07)

John Robinson's Talking Point

I travel regularly on trains and often chat with fellow passengers, usually based upon where each of us happening to be going on that particular day.

One such conversation showed me that there is still consumer confusion surrounding the advice given by some IFAs.

I was talking to a guy on a Kent train, coming into London and he told me that he ran his own business, importing garden furniture.

He then asked me the nature of my business and this is what he said when I told him: ‘Oh, so you work with IFAs do you? I‘ve got an IFA and he looks after my pension. He has been looking after me for a few years now. I’ve had a few pensions in that time and he has moved my money around a bit.’

I was interested in what the guy had to say, so I just asked him what the IFA did for him on an ongoing basis and how he paid for it: "Well he usually contacts me when he wants to move my pension. I don’t know why he has moved it so much and I don’t know how much it costs me.

"I suppose there must be a cost to moving it and he gives me loads of paperwork, so I guess it says in there somewhere what the cost is."

Reading back the conversation to myself, as I am writing this blog, it sounds like a ‘Mystery Shopper’ article in one of the pink industry papers.

I can assure you, however, that this is how the conversation went and I have not embellished it to put the IFA concerned in a bad light.

In light of the train conversation, I was interested to listen to a speaker from the FSA at a recent industry conference.

She was speaking on the RDR and its possible implementation and she made one comment that reminded me of the man on the train: she said that the substance of the discussion paper is to ‘help consumers understand what they are getting for their money’.

How difficult is it to put together a client service proposition and price it so that people know what they are paying for?

This is one of the most fundamental issues affecting the reputation and quality of individual IFAs and the industry as a whole.

I only hope that this man was in the minority of clients who work with an IFA but I suspect that may not be the case.

John Robinson is a senior consultant at FP Advance

The views expressed in this article of those of its author and do not necessarily represent those of IFAonline or any other Incisive Media affiliated organisation.This article was first published by IFAonline, part of the Incisive Media group.

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