Some of my best friends are advisers…

I like advisers, I have one. However, I’ve been learning a bit about this d2c business as well. Disclaimer here. I’m doing some work with Fidelity in this space.

Without my adviser I wouldn’t have the right cover, I wouldn’t have a view of a plan, how far off I am. I’d probably not have chatted about stuff that’s important, relative priorities, not just financially. So I value my adviser. He’s also a damn fine bloke, check him out at @rolandwdoliver.

However, I’d also like to play with some money, invest it in different things, not on my long term plan. Now I’ve got my plan, I’d be quite happy not paying my adviser. I should point out Roland and I had a great chat about fees and he was very sensible about charges. But do I need the ongoing management? I’d be happy to pay fees when I need another plan, or my plan changes.

I’d like to have a platform that lets me have advised money and d2c money. To me it’s just money. Some stuff I need help with some stuff I don’t. I want my adviser to see stuff when the time is right. I’m happy both my adviser and my platform provider market stuff to me. I don’t see myself as a possession of one or the other.

But rules around this stuff are hard. Not just regulator rules, but platform rules or adviser rules. Different charges based on channel, different communications based on channel. Some platforms wouldn’t let me transact on my own money if I started as an advised client. Some advisers only want me if I fully commit to their service proposition.

It’s not how I think, be interested to hear views on how you think.