Is your ISA as good as you think it is - have you been duped by these guides?? (Buyers Guide: Equity ISA's)

Member Name: pollee

Product:	Buyers Guide: Equity ISA's
Date:	07/06/01 (256 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Can include information on technical issues

Disadvantages: No advice

This subject really gets my goat!! As an Independent Financial Adviser I pride myself on giving independent financial advice (just like it says on the tin)and I do this by using independent software that considers all the companies and depending on the criteria important to the client will then get rid of those companies that don't have the options required. I then do the leg work with the ones that are left and using my knowledge look at the 'what if' scenarios the client might encounter etc etc so we can get as close to the right thing for them as possible. Them we look at performance and charges and make a recommendation.

These ISA guides offer between 6 and 10 ISA 's normally, include a bit of blurb about past performance, as required by law include all the small print which makes the reader thinks it's legit and then includes applications forms. The reader, thinking that this publication is actulally making recommendations, and that these are the best ones available opts for one of them and the broker company takes the money, invests it and gets a fee for doing so.

WHERE WAS THE ADVICE????

The companies that have been recommended have all paid to be included in the guide, by advertising in the guide and paying for the publishing and distribution of the guide.
If you have one of these hanging round take another look, the companies recommended are companies that have adverts........spooky eh? :-)


None of it is impartial.......but the reader often invests anyway......

Often there are discounts available, so if you invest through the guide you will have a reduction of the initial charges, great if you already knew that one of those companies was the right one for you and your circumstances. Otherwise you are getting a discount to invest in an ISA that might be the wrong choice for you and where will you be in five years time when it becomes obvious it was the wrong choice? Up the proverbial
creek without a paddle because the law says no advice was given so the onus is on you as the reader to make the investment decision.

If you see one of these guides do use part of it for information purposes, often they include information about how an ISA works and what your allowances are, but remember that they are not unbiased, just because they arrived tucked insde a newspaper.

The cost for distributing one of these guides is approximately £60,000 minimum plus the printing costs. This has to come from somwhere and it comes from the ISA companies who have a big advertising budget.

If I had a pound for every one who was unhappy with their investement but said they thought it was a good one because they had seen it advertised a lot on the TV or in the papers I would be writing to you from the Bahamas!

Remember, the charges are the same whether you invest direct with the company or via an IFA. So take advice, invest time in your financial future by visting a professional, make an informed choice, and invest via these guides at your peril!!

Soapbox dismantled and in the cupboard now!

Summary: