Martin will be joined by Andrew Hagger of comparison website moneynet.co.uk to answer questions on all aspects of savings and investments.

You can post your question at http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/2010/jul/23/live-clinic-your-savings-advice and get an answer from Martin or Andrew at lunchtime on Tuesday.

Alternatively, post your questions here and we will answer them promptly.

Martin Bamford, chartered financial planner at Informed Choice, says: “Desk-based monitoring is not something we’re in favour of because it’s done after the fact and often remotely, both of which increase the likelihood of oversights occurring.”

Informed Choice also avoids risky areas of advice and products: “Pension switching and structured investment products are two areas with potentially heightened compliance risks,” says Bamford. “The obvious expedient of having well qualified people and a remuneration scheme that rewards quality of advice rather than product sales remains one of the most effective ways of mitigating risk.”

We believe that our approach to risk management not only protects our business from the impact of regulatory intervention or bad publicity, but also provides much needed reassurance to our clients.

Standard practice in the rest of the IFA market is for compliance checks on a limited number of client cases. The article in Professional Adviser highlights large IFA firms that are only checking between 25-35% of files.

This approach to file checking, something that is usually carried out after the event, creates the opportunity for inappropriate advice to find its way to the end consumer before it can be identified and rectified.

The embedded approach to compliance and risk management we have created at Informed Choice means that it becomes an ongoing process, rather than something that occurs at one point in time.

In the old days, it might have been just about acceptable for a sole financial adviser to do everything from deal with a new client enquiry through to submitting an application form to a product provider.

With the increasingly complex nature of retail financial services, tougher regulation and a more financial aware consumer, this is a model that now looks increasingly unattractive from a risk management perspective.

You can read the Professional Adviser article in full here.

Martin Bamford, managing director of Informed Choice and a chartered financial planner, warns: ‘The continued trouble in the eurozone could trigger further bank collapses.

‘These plans are opaque, full of small print and difficult to analyse.’

You can read the article in full at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1294452/Low-risk-investments-nasty-sting.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz0tdcZ2gV2.

Do speak to us if your bank is trying to sell you a structured investment product and you would like a second opinion before committing your capital.

Informed Choice investment director and chartered financial planner Dermott Whelan was quoted in the Guardian this week describing our House View for various investment asset classes.

Dermott Whelan of independent financial adviser Informed Choices agrees there is a lot of uncertainty across asset classes and says their recommended portfolio would actually be underweight in gilts.

He remains neutral on UK and American equities but likes the look of Asian (excluding Japan) equities because “these economies are generating growth well in excess of developed Western economies.”

You can read the article in full here and download our latest Investment Outlook report, for Q3 2010, here.

Nick said that the old attitude that your bank would look out for your best interests needs to be replaced with a more questioning attitude.

‘You need to think there will be sales pitch it may be labelled as advice or financial planning but that person in front of you has got some aggressive sales targets,’ said Bamford, chief executive of Informed Choice. ‘You should always shop around and give yourself some breathing space to get a second or even third opinion. Don’t be sold.’

You can read the Citywire article in full here.

The only way to receive impartial and unbiased financial advice that is in your best interest (and comes without the product sale) is to speak to an independent financial adviser who operates on a fee basis.

This removes the need to sell a financial product to earn commissions and means they will focus on what is best for you.

Talking about the end to compulsory retirement at age 65, Nick said:

“But just because most people will have to work for longer, it doesn’t mean they should delay making decisions about pensions and retirement savings,”

For people in their 20s, Nick had this to say:

“If it turns out that you should be putting away £200 a month but actually you can only afford £70, the worst thing you can do is to think that it is pointless saving anything at all,” says Bamford.

“Yes, investments can go down as well as up but they’re still likely to give you better returns over a long period.”

For people in their 30s, Nick had the following words of wisdom:

“We all need to return to the old values of not spending more than we earn,” says Bamford.

“People are living for longer and sometimes you need to rein back spending and save for the future.”

You can read the article in full here.

Martin Bamford, managing director of Informed Choice and a chartered financial planner, warned: “The eurozone crisis could trigger further bank collapses which could undermine the backing of some structured products in the UK. The trouble is, it is close to impossible to understand where the financial protection actually rests with a structured product.”

The other advisers quoted in the article, Tim Cockerill from Ashcourt Rowan and Robert Lockie from Bloomsbury Financial Planning, shared similar views about the risk of using a structured investment product.

You can read the article in full here.

The product (called the Capital Guaranteed Enhanced Growth Plan 1) aims to deliver 200% of any growth in the FTSE 100 index over a six year period, with the original investment returned at maturity.

As with all structured products, this plan has some fairly meaty drawbacks.

Speaking to the Guardian earlier, Martin commented:

“This is fairly typical fare from a bank to try and get some cash in during a difficult period. But investors will find they are penalised if they make a withdrawal, while the averaging process Cater Allen is using could make a significant difference to the return investors will get.”

He also warned about the ‘averaging’ process during the final year of the product, where an average value of the FTSE 100 is established to determine the finishing level of the index.

“This can really affect the return investors receive if the index rises significantly during that final year,” Bamford argues. “They’ll get an average, when investors in other products will see the full benefits of that growth. If investors want equity-style returns with less risk, they are better off building a balanced portfolio rather than investing in this kind of product.”

Martin also warned about the wisdom on relying on the financial security of such a plan being backed by a Spanish bank, during the current eurozone crisis.

You can read the Guardian review of this plan here. Do contact us if you have any questions.

Martin is the author of three personal finance books – The Money Tree, Brilliant Investing and How to Retire 10 Years Early. All three books were published by Pearson Prentice Hall and were sold nationwide in book shops and online.

The first and second were WH Smith’s business book of the month,’ said Bamford. ‘But there’s not a huge amount of money to be made from selling books. The main benefit is the enquiries it has generated. Even now, four years after the first book was published, people call me because they have read the book or someone has told them about it.’

‘It was a combination of a few hours every weekend and some late nights after I had left work and fulfilled my family obligations. I’m not a morning person,’ he says.

“The most urgent priority is making pension contributions, if you are a higher rate taxpayer and had planned to make contributions at some point during this tax year anyway,”

“There is a high probability that higher rate income tax relief on pension contributions will be abolished or scaled back even further in the Budget, so making these contributions now makes real sense.”

The article also explored taking action ahead of likely changes to capital gains tax. On this point, Martin warned not to let tax decisions dictate investments:

“We are not advising our clients to realise capital gains,” he says. “While we expect to see the rate of CGT increased in line with income tax rates and the annual exemption reduced, there is a good chance this will apply from the start of this tax year. This could mean those investors who have rushed to dispose of assets will face a hefty tax bill,” says Bamford.

“You should never let the tax tail wag the investment dog, so selling investments quickly is a foolish strategy.”

You can read the article in full here.