The consumer body, which campaigned for the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), said in one case an IFA charged £2,450 more than the cheapest quote for the same service.
According to the latest Which? report, an IFA in Scotland quoted £50 to transfer £5,000 into a stakeholder pension, whereas another IFA in the South East quoted £2,500 for the same job.
The average fee quoted to transfer a £10,680 investment into a stocks and shares ISA was £356, but one South East adviser quoted £2,500 whilst two others from the South West and the East of Englad quoted £106.
The disparity was similar for protection services, Which? claimed.
It said an IFA in the North West quoted almost £2,000 more to arrange a policy than a Scottish IFA quoted for the same job. The average fee for protection was £596.
Which? asked 200 IFAs for quotes for setting up four products – a stakeholder pension, an ISA, an assurance policy and an income protection policy – and then compared the results.
The sample of IFAs surveyed was a mixture of those charging only fees, commission only, or a blend of the two.
The survey did not specify which IFAs based some of their income on commission.
For each of the services there were between eight and 56 advisers who could not provide a quote as they did not offer the service required.
The consumer champion said all of the quotes were given by the same method of communication, but could not state whether this was over the phone, online or in person.
For each service, the IFAs were given the same hypothetical client in terms of age, health and income.
Advisers said they saw several flaws in the research, pointing out that different business models, even among advisers who only charge fees, make it impossible to compare quotes fairly.
Chris Budd, director of Ovation Finance, said: “A one-off pension transfer like this would not be appropriate for our charging structure as we charge an hourly rate or retainer.
“The point of the RDR was to make IFAs base their business models on on-going relationships with clients, not one-off jobs.”
Richard Fyfe, director of Fyfe Financial Planning, said fees vary depending on the level of research needed.
“Clients who are new to us will be charged more as we will not have all of their relevant information on file, whereas for regular clients, a quote would be less,” he said.
Fyfe added that asking for ISA quotes from highly-qualified, specialist advisers, whose charges are likely to be higher, would skew the data.
“I doubt ISA recommendations would be core business for these advisers as clients would be daft to pay these charges,” he said.
“They would not need a chartered financial planner to set up an ISA; most firms would have cheaper, less senior advisers and paraplanners for this work.”
