The benefits of financial advice

Want to make your money work harder but aren’t sure how? Getting financial advice could help you get started.

First things first. When we talk about advice to make your money work harder, we’re essentially talking about investment advice. Because investing gives your money a greater potential to grow above and beyond inflation than cash.  

Keep in mind that investing comes with risk, which means you may not get back what you put in. And remember that investments should be seen as medium-to-long-term commitments, so you should be prepared to invest for at least 5 years.

There’s a fee involved for investment advice and usually a minimum investment amount. But don’t let that put you off. Let’s take a look at how an advice fee could pay for itself.

OK, so assuming you could invest your money for 5 years or more and are prepared to accept a degree of risk, how do you actually go about doing it?

You could learn how to choose your own investments. But building up the knowledge to make an informed decision on what to do with your money isn’t always a quick task. By delegating the research to an adviser, it could free up your time and energy to spend on something else.

There is a cost involved with instructing a professional to do some work for you. But if you have other things you’d rather do with your time than spend hours researching online, an advice fee could be a fee worth paying.

If you’ve never invested before, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the size of the task. It can feel like a whole other world. It certainly speaks another language. So if you’re not sure where to even start, an advice service could help to cut through the noise.

Whether you take advice online or with an adviser, it can help to reduce the task of investing to a manageable size. You’ll be asked a set of simple questions to clarify what’s relevant, before having your options helpfully streamlined for you.

Bear in mind that different advice services charge different fees and usually have a minimum investment level as eligibility criteria. To find out about getting investment advice from HSBC, see your advice options.

Ever struggle to decide what to watch on Netflix? The modern world offers us a huge amount of choice. But while choice can be amazing, it can also be stressful. The more options we have, the harder it can be for our brains to process, the higher the potential for anxiety and – often – the slower our decision making. 

Consulting a professional can be a great way to sidestep this ‘decision paralysis’ and take action. And why’s that so important? Because when it comes to investing in your future, time is money. The sooner you start investing, the longer you could potentially leave your money and therefore the greater its potential to grow. 

Remember, as we’re talking about investing, there is always a degree of risk involved.

When you research something yourself, you may doubt whether you’ve come to the right conclusion. You know, that ‘what-if-I-missed-something?’ feeling. 

Yet when you receive a professional investment recommendation, you can feel reassured that the investment decision you’re taking is a well-informed one that’s right for you.

Financial decisions can be difficult to make on your own. And they’re rarely just about you. Either directly or indirectly, they can also affect your partner or family – which can add to the pressure.

The pace of modern life means our brains are constantly being pulled into short-term activities, which creates short-term thinking. And that makes it difficult to focus on what you want your future to look like – and what it will take to get you there.

By consulting a trusted adviser about those longer-term decisions and discussing with them the risk and time commitments involved, it can feel like someone’s got your back. And not just anyone. Their professional and objective view means you’re benefiting from their years of knowledge and experience.

If you’re looking for a helping hand to start investing, you can get online investment advice. You simply answer a series of questions and we’ll help you work out how much you can afford to invest, how much risk you’re comfortable with and – perhaps most important – whether investing is right for you.

The minimum investment is a £1,000 lump sum or £50 a month. There’s no obligation to implement our advice – but if you decide to go ahead, you'll pay a one-off advice fee of just 0.5%, and ongoing management charges of between 0.45% and 0.58% a year, depending on the fund we recommend.

If your needs are more complex and you have £100,000 or more in savings and investments with HSBC, you can meet with one of our advisers for a full financial review. From protecting your family to planning your retirement, they will spend time getting to know your current plans and future ambitions.

Our advisers can make recommendations from a wide range of products that we’ve hand-picked from selected providers, including HSBC. The costs for this service are a 2.75% advice fee (or a minimum £960 fee), plus ongoing management charges.

To learn more about financial advice and other ways to manage your finances, visit the Money Advice Service.

Not everyone wants or needs financial advice. If you're happy making your own investment decisions, you can buy funds via our online fund platform, Global Investment Centre, or shares via our online sharedealing service, InvestDirect. As with the advice options, eligibility criteria and some fees apply.