Should I switch some of my savings to the new Vanguard financial advice service?

Hello, My wife and I have most of our savings and pensions invested with a traditional financial advisor. We are both in our sixties and retired. At the moment we are not touching our pensions or savings so both are hopefully growing. I recently (Feb this year) invested 10k in a nutmeg ISA (ESG, risk level 7.1) after looking at the boring money recommendations - so far so good with that. I know want to put another 10k somewhere else and I'm tempted with the Vanguard ESG fund (risk 5). Two questions: does this sound reasonable (I don't want to pick my own stocks or funds)? And just having seen your Vanguard news about their financial advice service, would you recommend switching some of our savings or pensions to them or is this a wait and see situation? I do think the fees are fairly high with our advisor Thanks.

Hi Nigel,

This does sound reasonable if you’re looking for ESG funds but it’s difficult to comment on whether these funds are suitable for you without knowing your wider circumstances. I think from what you’ve said, and as you don’t want to pick your own stocks or funds, that you need to either rekindle the relationship with your current financial adviser or find a new one. If you want to take advice, it’s better for an adviser to have the full picture and review all of your savings, investments and pensions together. To make sure they’re suitable to meet your individual objectives and risk preferences.

Vanguard have just recently launched a financial advice service as you say. I would suggest considering this, and possibly comparing to what your current adviser provides as well as others. There’s a directory of ‘full fat’ advisers as well as digital advisers on here (myself included!). You could just find out how a few of them work, the proposition they provide and what they charge. It’s important with financial planning advice, to ensure you trust the adviser that you pick so you might want to have an initial chat with a few. But generally, it is better to have one adviser looking after all of your affairs than having amounts invested through different advisers where there’s no cohesive strategy. I hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes

Carly