NS&I - Find a financial adviser

If you are looking for financial advice but haven’t got a financial adviser, we can help you find one. Using Unbiased.co.uk’s search facility, you simply enter your postcode and then select the criteria that are important to you.

Search for a financial adviser

When choosing a financial adviser, here are some of the key things you should consider:

Independence
Not all financial advisers are classified as being “independent”. Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) offer advice on the whole of the market, whereas others are limited to providing advice on products from one, or a small selection of product providers. These are called tied (or multi-tied) agents, and may include sales staff from your bank or building society.
Remember too that an organisation can offer different types of advice on different products, such as 'whole of market' advice on mortgage choices, but only tied advice on investments.

Costs
Find out how, and how much, they charge for advice. Charges can vary quite a bit depending on the service you want. And don’t forget that opting for a commission-based financial adviser, where there may not be explicit fees as such, could still prove costly later on. In this instance, the provider of the product you select will pay commission to your adviser.  That commission is factored into the pricing of your chosen product, so ultimately you do end up paying the bill. In addition to the costs of setting up a plan, there may also be additional annual charges on top of this, known as trail commission, which is paid to the adviser.

Some advisers allow you to pay for their services through a combination of fees and commission. The adviser charges a fee, which is then offset against any commission that the product provider pays.

Location
Do they provide a telephone only or face-to-face advice service? Can they offer you a home visit or out of hours appointments? Or do they only offer office based appointments, or only operate during standard working hours? What would you prefer?

Expertise
Must they have particular skills or areas of expertise in pensions, investments, Inheritance Tax or paying for long term care to help you?  How will you measure this?

Qualifications
What should your adviser have? Most advisers have been through a fairly rigorous set of examinations. It’s the only way they can become authorised financial advisers.

It’s generally agreed that the most highly qualified advisers are either Certified or Chartered Financial Planners which may be important to you if you have complex financial affairs.

However some areas of advice require advisers to have additional qualifications before they can make recommendations – for example to advise on long term care insurance. If your adviser has not passed the relevant exams, they may have to ‘sub-contract’ this advice to an another expert or alternatively you may want to choose a different adviser.

Recommendation
Do you know anyone who uses a financial adviser? Their recommendation could provide much needed reassurance. Alternatively, ask your adviser to provide details of some of their customers who may be happy to talk to you about the service they have received.

Finally, once you have chosen a financial adviser, you may wish to go and see them at their premises so that you get a good feel of how they run their business. Most advisers have websites now and this can also give you information on the way they work with their clients.

You can easily find out if your financial adviser is authorised by checking they are on the Financial Services Authority (FSA)’s register. It is quick and easy to search for this on their website.