I was recently awarded damages for thedeath of my partner. I need to invest it wisely for my family.

I am confused by the different advisors and their charges;

and what they do;

and whether some have access to more funds and why;

and whether they get funds cheaper;

and how can you compare the prices of like with like when you are being sold something they claim to be cheaper? etc

I am "once bitten twice shy" by an IFA who ripped me off months after I was bereaved. Charging me 7% for an investment of life insurance payout without letting me know verbally or giving me correct advice. A cautious investment that made 2.9%/annum over 5 years. I could have gone to the BS for that! When I asked her about why she hadn't mentioned the price, she said she couldn't see the point!

trust me stay away from advisors they charge a lot of money for advise that a few hours on the internet could get you. as for investing depends on how safe you want the capital to be if safey is your main focus go for high interest accounts like ybs 9% per year savers account. if you are willing to take a risk the best option there is investing in power companies more so the renewable ones as they can pay back as much as 5000% over 25 years.

hope this is of any help

regards Edward

Especially at the mo with all their price rises eh?

Thanks for that advice. But even though I should know as I did A level Economics, I am not confident of what I am doing myself, but will have a go. with some of it at least. Can you mention any names of power companies so that I can look at their historical growth.

So do you use a stockbroker? and what are the typical charges?

the best companies to look at are branches of shell and bp and companies like e-on and npower but only the renewable sections of thes companies sometimes they have several trading departments with seperate sets of shares. Nilo energy is the main one to look at this company has no real history and are settng up there first wind farm in the next couple of years. A good place to start with very very high return e.g. double your money in the first year when comstructed with the equivelent return for 24 years after but this company is a very high risk as they have not completed the planning procedure. your looking for the new plc energy companies as there shares are low and they generally the rate of change of there net worth is a lot high (shares increase in value by a higher %). brokers charge around 60 pound depends on how many shares you buy. it is best to go on the FT website and look through companies look at the dividend as this is what will make you more money in the long term, can't recall which company it was but one was paying out nearly 15% a year in dividend. Depends how much you want to spend but UAE properties is getting pretty big with 100's of thousands of pound to be made on each property if choosen wisely with constant income from they high rentals up to and beyond 1,000 pounds per week. As for if i use a stockbroker well not very oftend i tend to keep shares just for the dividend.

Hope this is any help Regards Edward