'Most people pay for financial advice by commission. We don't think they should. We think they should pay fair, upfront, transparent fees instead.

A lot of IFA's find our focus on fees very irritating. It's not how people pay for advice that counts, they say, it is how good the advice is when they get it.

The problem with this is that how you pay for advice tends to have an impact on how good it is when it comes.'

Merryn Somerset Webb, MoneyWeek website

'According to research published last week, eight in ten adults don't understand the difference between the various types of Financial Adviser.

It also reported that 70% of the 6.6 million people who received financial advice over the past 12 months believe they spoke to an 'Independent Financial Adviser' (IFA) - a highly unlikely prospect, given that true IFA's account for only a tiny proportion of all advisers.

A genuinely independent adviser has access to the whole of the market, not just a section of it. But that's not the only criterion. To qualify for the title of IFA, advisers must (by law) offer customers the option of payment by fixed fees, rather than by commission on investments.

This provision is designed to cut out the risk of 'commission-bias' on the part of advisers, in favour of providers who'll cut them a bigger slice of the pie.

Simon Wilson, MoneyWeek, 09.06.06

'How do I find a good Independent Financial Adviser (IFA)?'  It's a question I get asked a few times a month during most of the year, but every 10 minutes or so in the run-up to the end of the tax year.

It isn't an easy one to answer. Why? Simple, because the vast majority of IFA's are still paid not in upfront fees (like lawyers), but in commissions and to me that just doesn't make any sense.

This is not to say that there are no good IFA's out there. Of course there are. Thousands make it clear that they are proper professional business people, offering a real service, by charging a set fee and rebating all commissions to their clients.

So the first part of the answer to the question of finding a good IFA is to make sure you get one that charges fees. If you can't find a good one via word of mouth, go to unbiased.co.uk and look one up.

The site allows you to specify your needs, including how you intend to pay. Click on "fee" and you'll already have gone some way towards getting good financial advice.'

Merryn Somerset Webb, The Sunday Times, 08.04.07

'All readers who want to be sure they are getting good, impartial advice should use a fee-only adviser.'

Merryn Somerset Webb, MoneyWeek, 08.06.07