You should check first of all that your Financial Adviser is Chartered from a recognised institution and that they appear on the register that the institution makes publicly available.

Chartered Status is now considered the benchmark in the UK and any adviser who cannot demonstrate their ability to attain this status is correctly considered second-tier in the UK market. There is no reason it should be any different in Portugal.

If your adviser is not Chartered, it is best to seek advice from someone who is academically capable of passing the relevant exams and implementing Independent Advice that isn’t a “one size fits all” generic solution.

After all – you wouldn’t be happy paying Savile Row prices only to receive a suit straight out of the bargain bin at your local discount Supermarket – yet that is what some firms have been selling the equivalent of here in Portugal for many years in terms of their investment “solutions”.

We have discovered extremely high charges being made within funds – often without the client being aware they existed. For example: one client had an ongoing cost of 2.71% per annum. When we added this charge to the other ongoing account fees our client was paying – the total cost per annum came to over 4%. This meant our client was seeing over 50% of their investment return eaten away in non-transparent charges.

These kind of charges raise the issue of whether the fund providers are in fact paying your Financial Adviser to make recommendations. This could create a clear conflict of interest.

A sign that you may be paying huge amounts in charges is that you are aware that financial markets have been doing well, yet your portfolio seems to lag significantly behind. Whilst this isn’t a definite indicator you are paying over the odds, it is worth reviewing it with us so we can conduct a forensic examination with you and, if necessary, make the necessary corrections to ensure your costs are lowered to an acceptable level.

Your Financial Adviser should have a duty of care to you, and you only, and only recommend investments that are in your best interests, with transparent charges that you understand, and are aligned to your attitude to investment risk.

If you are concerned that either your Financial Adviser does not hold the appropriate qualifications, or, that you are paying extremely excessive charges on any existing investments or pensions you may hold, please get in touch.



The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this report constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by HOLBORN or any third-party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in in any other jurisdiction.

Holborn Assets Wealth Management (CY) Ltd, authorised by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC) License number 394/20, passported throughout the EU/EEA.

For more information, please contact us on +351 289 126 911, portugal.enquiry@holbornassets.com

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