Financial Advisor Scotland

Since I have a couple of shares in Bank of Scotland my financial adviser has said I should take them up on the offer of extra shares for 2pounds. Is this wise to do since they have already gone down from 2.40 something to 2.38 today. Surely this can only be good if you sell them again quickly?? Is he advising me correctly???

I am a position trader, But I do have some investments, among them is the Bank of Scotland

This is one of the best banks in the world and probably one of the most profitable. They have been operating successully your years, it wasn't until the bought Citizens Bank in the US did they start to have any problems, which should all be behind them.

Although it would be inappropriate to give you direct advice in this type of media, but I'm not selling mine and may buy more for family members

2008-05-29 09:29:01 by Susan

Ramblings of a Standard Nerd episode 3: Personal financial advisor This week I talk about what happened to me when I applied for my student bank ...

It is commonly held that IFAs can search the entire marketplace for the best products. However Royal Bank of Scotland private banking tell me their products (publicly advertised on their site) are not available to IFAs. Do IFAs know about these (potentially better products) or not? If a better product is available in the market but not to the IFA is it not a conflict of interest for the IFA to sell the customer an inferior product knowing there is a more suitable product they don't earn any commission on?

So RBS is trying to tell you that IFA's don't have Internet access or are too dumb to type YOUR details into RBS web site ?

What a load of b*llsh*t ... RBS is just trying to avoid you getting a better deal elsewhere i.e. con you into signing up with their 'secret' (only published to the whole world) 'better' (if only compared to other RBS) product ...

If you are with RBS Private banking you must be very rich (only the very rich and very poor** pay someone else to manage their finances) so I suggest you ask your Accountant

**'normal' people who refuse to learn how to manage their own finances soon end up in the 'very poor' category with an IVA ...

2007-09-10 15:28:31 by siliconglen

How do i go about finding a decent IFA in the uk (scotland) and how much should i expect to pay?

All IFAs have to be registered with the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Check their website www.fsa.gov.uk You can find by name or town - eg. search for Edinburgh. It will give you a list of advisers in that town. Find out their area of expertise - if you want advice on pensions, make sure they have a G60 qualified adver, or investments etc.

The questions you need to ask are

Do you work on a fee only basis or fees/commission? For general advice you can expect to pay from £75 upwards for a consultation, depending on the level of adviser you speak to although this can be rebated if you place business with them and they receive a commission from a company.

Ask if they are directly regulated

Ask if they are tied to any particular provider - some IFAs will only use 3 or 4 providers who pay them the best commissions

Ask for references - a decent IFA will be more than happy to give you the name of a client or clients who they have done work for.

Make sure you are given a Terms of Business letter at the outset and read it before signing.

Make sure a Fact Find is completed thoroughly.

Make sure you have a written financial report before making a decision.

Never make a cheque or bank draft or transfer payable to the company for an investment etc.

Make sure you receive a proper invoice from the company for all work carried out for you.

Hope this helps

2007-09-11 05:25:58 by girlie

My partner and I are currently looking to buy our 1st home together. We are using a financial advisor and he is trying to get us to take an interest only mortgage for the 1st two years. However, I know that I will not be able to make the savings to cover the actual mortgage. He thinks that if I remortgage after 2 years inflation rates would mean that we would have sufficient capital to put down on the house, therefore, not owing any extra. Has anyone else been in the same position? If so, what do you recommend?

Any help would be brilliant as I am now at the stage where I want to rip my hair out. We are in UK (Scotland) if that helps anyone?

Realize that the power of 'amortization' is that you pay very little principal in the first years, and a lot of interest. Typically on a 30 year fixed mortgage, you will pay 1% of the principal in the first year, and 1.1% in the second. Hence if you refinance after 2 years on a traditional mortgage, you will be refinancing 98% of the balance on a traditional mortgage.
Your advisor is making 2 predictions:
1. The house value will rise in 2 years
2. Interest rates in 2 years will be the same or lower than now.
Ask him how he knows that to be true?
If you wish to have an interest only mortgage, do not take one with only a 2 year horizon / balloon. Go for a LIBOR based mortgage, that will allow you to convert at anytime within a 10 year horizon.

2007-07-23 06:22:01 by fat_arse

problem bad credit about seven defaults only 1k to pay then they will be all satisfied, partner only a year discharged from bankruptcy. Is there a financial advisor out there that could help.

we are in scotland.

I have enough funds to put the services in and get the foundations but the rest would need funding for short terms as i plan to live in one and sell the other. My partner is a builder and friends etc are all in the trade so build costs will be really low. Any broker out there that specialises in this?
Gillon J - my partner is recently discharged. I have not been bankrupt and for your information the bankruptcy debt has been repaid in full all 14k it was a small company that didn't make it as for myself the defaults were due to me not working through an illness and the debts were not high. We have worked hard to repay them all. I was asking for help not smart remarks

7 defaults after just being discharged, no offense but that is not an attractive proposition

2009-02-26 14:33:17 by Linda S