Tabifa Reviews 53

My objective in placing my savings into an investment account and an ISA both of which are managed by Raghav Sharma was firstly to preserve the value (so it can be passed on) and of course to increase the value as much as possible but without taking too much risk. Over these last few years, I believe it has been very difficult to increase value and the skill has been to maintain the value against the odds. This objective over the last year has been achieved and there has, happily, also been an increase in the value. More importantly I have confidence in Raghav’s management and in his dealings with me and, assuming the current world situation improves which I believe is likely, I am optimistic that the value of my savings will increase by quite a degree, however and most importantly, that Raghav will continue to ensure the value is maintained

Thornton & Baines, and my advisor Tom Divall, have been knowledgeable, thoughtful and reliable in all my dealings with them. Highly recommended.

Lovely people to deal with. Patient and understanding. Been very supportive through a stressful time.
Can thoroughly recommend this company.

Our reviews are always conducted in a friendly, courteous and professional way and Tobias makes every effort to explain all aspects to someone who is relatively new to investments

A basic error in their IHT calculation gave me no confidence in their ability to deal effectivel with my estate.

This business should not be authored to give financial advice or handle client funds, they are downright incompetent. They recommend investing with their big buddies at Quilter, who are equally incompetent. Only have any dealings with T&B if your aim is to lose money, they treat customer funds as if they were the beneficiary of a charity. And if you ever want your money back, be prepared for a long wait!!

Terrible company. They work by pestering you continually once they have your phone number. I originally filled in an online form to see an online brochure on estate management. This was followed by phone calls. After continuos calls every few months I eventually agreed to discuss my estate with them. This went through a series of phone call meetings then Zoom meetings. I specifically instructed them that I did not want to touch my existing ISA stocks & shares investments. They then asked me to sign an online agreement that I would pay them £595 if they provided a financial report following my instructions. Which with hindsight I mistakingly signed. They then wanted yet another Zoom meeting to present their report & they would expect me to agree to it on the Zoom meeting and they would action it. I insisted that they sent the report prior to any zoom meeting so I could study the details. To my astonishment the report they emailed contained details of transfering my ISA stocks and shares to their control. They would then invest them in different ISA stocks and shares which they would then manage for me. These were at higher management fund costs than my existing investments & had their own annual management fees on top!.
I instructed them I did not wish to go ahead as the advice was contrary to the instructions I had given them.
I then received a series of emails approximately each month threatening legal action for the £595 advise fee. I replied to everyone of these raising questions about the advice given being against my main instructions (not to touchy ISAs). They ignored all my replies and points raised. They keep saying they have sent "letters" , I havent seen any letters & and think they refer to emails as letters. Plus they had never sent a formal invoice or email asking for the money before sending an email threatening legal action. They continued sending threatening emails each time having ignored all my replies. I even sent one reply offering to pay 50% of the £595 just to settle it as a goodwill gesture, even though I didn't feel I owed anything as they hadn't followed my instructions.
This has culminated today (6months after their invalid advice) in a phone call again threatening legal action from a trainee analyst!!. Who refused to listen to the points raised and lack of following my instruction not to touch my ISAs. He told me to pay it and contact the ombudsman if I thought I had a problem with the advice given in the report.
My advice is to stay clear of Thornton & Baines , they will sound plausible and lead you in but do everything via Zoom meetings and phone then give poor advice.

I do not post reviews often but I received the call from Thornton & Baines on a Wednesday afternoon, I was not open to it but the lady said some things that would be of interest. I accepted the proposal of a free consultation with Saira Manga at the company and it was the best thing I have done. Many things I did not know I was lacking, I found out about and it really opened to my eyes, she kept me updated with everything, answered all of my questions, made me feel very comfortable and was very kind. I am pleased to be a client here as of last month.

I have been with Thornton & Baines for a number of years now and my wonderful financial adviser, Daniel Candy did my proposal for my investments as to my requirements. I am extremely happy with Daniel as he is always professional, helpful, always listens to my need and has always given me good advise. I would gladly recommend him, which I have done.
Well done Daniel and thank you so much for your services, much appreciated and loving the ZOOM meetings, they are really good, saving time and money for me. Hope it stays

After contact at a holiday show I visited I was contacted by Thornton and Baines with the offer of a financial review of pension etc arrangements. They included the incentive of a gift of chocolates if I met (now by Zoom) with their advisers. We did meet and indeed I supplied them detailed info and had a further meeting. I was thoroughly underwhelmed by their report - no way would I use their services and had I done so their fees were eye-wateringly more expensive than my current IFA's. When I put it to their senior adviser that their proposal had no merit and their fees were expensive, he did indicate that he'd follow up with a more appropriate proposal. he hasn't despite it being over a month ago now and the chocolates never arrived despite me reminding them on several occasions.

Update 17 Jan 2021: The above review came to the attention of their MD and he did a) phone and personally apologise, pointing out that the adviser who had been dealing with me was no longer with the company. b) He further undertook to get the chocolates to me and they arrived yesterday. c) And finally, he did get the senior adviser to follow up on his promise to provide a more detailed financial report on my investments. That has been delivered too. He didn't ask me to update my review, but I feel it to be appropriate to at least add this addendum.

Cold call - pleasant but alleged I’d enquired at an event I didn’t attend

Thornton & Baines (tabifa.com) are a personal finance planning company with an office in Covent Garden who, both according to reviews by employees and my own direct experience, use extensive cold calling tactics to target potential customers.
They invited myself and a guest to a 'Tea at the Savoy' estate planning afternoon seminar which on the occasion I attended had a series of guest presentations followed up by a contingent of female staff in a uniform of pencil skirts and high heels whose function was to sign attendees to a series of meetings (advertised at £500 but with fee waived as a 'special offer') at their offices to discuss their personal finances.
After initial financial fact gathering by a junior partner they bring in a senior partner to take the conversation forward. Over the course of the three meetings I had with them they prepared lots of charts and a powerpoint presentation which although generic in nature did incorporate some advice which they tried to target at my own financial situation and goals.
Their initial commissions are exceedingly high for their investment advice but they justify these charges on the basis that you wouldn't pay future commissions if they didn't manage to increase the value of your investment in succeeding years.
They offer their services through an intermediary broking service who are limited in the funds in which they can invest and would not suit somebody who wants to be more specific with their investments.
Their investment services seem to be restricted by this and I did find it odd that independent financial consultants would be allowed to have such a limit on their own activities; in fact, their own website states clearly:
'We are not restricted in our advice in any way, Being independent means we have many solutions to choose from'
which would appear to be a complete contradiction. This and their above average fees were instrumental in my decision to remain with my current financial planners who do not have any such constraints.

Thornton & Baines would therefore seem to be more suitable for somebody who might want to tap into their estate planning knowledge than actually invest any capital with them.

This is an evaluation of the company based on my own observations and personal experience with them and Thornton and Baines have the right to respond should they feel that the review is inaccurate in any way.

Since posting the review I have been approached twice by phone and once by email asking me to revise or remove this review and offering a cash incentive for me to do so whilst at no point refuting any of my comments about them.