How good are the Quilter Cirilium funds? Also are my advisers fees excessive?
03 November 2021
Question by Neil
Hi! I've been getting into finance and investing since the initial lockdown. A friend of mine, who is in finance & investing, offered to give me an appraisal of my SIPP around June/July last year to which I agreed, as I had only ever taken my IFA's word as to where my money should be and how well it was doing. It was in the Quilter's Cirilium Moderate held by Sanlam and had preformed ok-ish for term it was in there (about 11 years).
I then moved it in to 5 other funds as suggested which may perform better. Over the next year, some did and some didn't but ultimately it moved sideways. I then approached my IFA to move it in to something to generate some 'aggressive' growth. The pot was only about £161k and I was charged £4.5k for the privilege of my IFA to move it in to Quilters Cirilium Dynamic (or it may have been Adventurous). This charge seemed to be somewhat excessive and I made him aware of my dissatisfaction on that front.
After several weeks, he still hadn't replied and so I followed it up at the weekend. Seems he never saw it, apologised and said he would get back to me. He has and I am girding my loins in order to stomach the load of old waffle I dare say he will have factored into his reply. So, two things. Firstly, is it me or does that charge seem excessive? Second, how good are the Quilter Cirilium funds and what is a viable alternative? Thank you
Answered by Boring Money
Hi Neil,
Thanks for your question and sorry you seem to have had a bad experience here.
From your message it seems as though they have charged you £4.5K just to switch funds? If that is the case that is a lot of money and certainly a lot more than I have ever heard of.
We do not charge anything for fund switches and I have never seen these sort of charges before. It is very easy for an adviser to change funds and takes minimal work. So yes this charge is definitely excessive.
Then not replying to an email where you are expressing a concern is also a red flag. Although maybe we give him the benefit of the doubt and he actually didn't see it.
On the Cirillium funds they have not performed that well recently. If you compare them to the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds they have underperformed across the board.
It would be good to know a bit more about your situation as this all seems a bit off to me. So if you would like you can drop me a message we can talk about it in a bit more detail.
Thanks
Luke James
Independent Financial Adviser
