MONEY COMMENT
By
When I'm pottering about in the kitchen (my wife does the cooking and I help with the donkey work), I like to have the radio on in the background. Yesterday evening, I was distracted by the Moneybox programme on Radio 4 and so we didn't eat until quite late in the evening. By the way, if you missed the show, you can catch the repeat on Radio 4 at 5pm on Sunday, 27 April. Moneybox sent a mystery shopper (here's his imaginary profile) to visit several company salesmen and independent financial advisers for advice on investing a windfall of over £75,000. When I heard some of the outrageous "best advice" this poor chap received, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Some advisers were clearly putting their own pockets before the needs of their clients. For example, an adviser from Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY) wrongly claimed that this (cautious) client could not lose any of his capital by investing in a corporate bond ISA. Another adviser, this time at the Halifax, claimed that, investing in a shares ISA, the customer could expect to "make a killing and double his money"! These two salesmen were among the worst. However, it was obvious that a great deal of the advice given was "commission driven", i.e. advisers thought about their sales targets first and put their unfortunate clients a poor second. Overall, the advisers did not find out enough information about their clients to give quality advice and used far too much jargon. This is disturbing because it shows that, despite industry clean-ups and tougher regulation, some bad apples are still out there. Our advice to Fools would be: Finally, if you're unsure in any way about the advice you've received, don't understand the products you've been offered or are unhappy with high-pressure sales techniques, walk away. More: Learn To Invest | ISA Centre
