When it becomes just a little too much

I had a great meeting yesterday with a new client.

Some time ago he had made the sensible move to consolidate his disparate pension plans onto one well known investment platform for self-directed investors.

He had read widely and consulted various people about the best way to invest these funds. He decided to buy a number of collective investment funds.

He also had professional experience in a particular sector and selected a small range of firms in which to invest by buying some of their shares.

So why did he feel the need to buy our investment advisory services?

Well he had this nagging feeling that whilst he was prepared to listen to recommendations from a professional friend and read loads of information about investments, he didn’t have a cohesive thought through investment plan.

Once we had been able to identify his appetitive and tolerance for risk we created for him an asset class model that would work really well. We then selected a series of individual funds to marry up to that model.

He could then choose the timing of the disposal of the shares and assets that he was not going to hold onto and the purchase of the recommended funds.

So he has taken a little of the management stress out of his pension portfolio.

We think this will become quite a common approach in the future with consumers quite able to set up their own ISAs, Pension and General Investment Accounts online and then buying advice as an when they need it.

One of the advantages of this approach is that the initial charges often levied in the buying process will not be incurred.

This cost saving can then be used by the consumer to buy advice as an when they need it and after all it is advice where most of the consumer value lies.

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