Our Services and Fees
We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to give independent financial advice. This can be verified on the FCA Register: www.fca.org.uk/consumers. We are not restricted as are most firms which only sell a limited range of financial products even if superior ones exist and we advise from the whole market. We also provide a comprehensive financial planning service. We are also authorised to provide guidance on a very wide range of sometimes complex and specialist areas.
All of our staff are salaried and they have no sales’ targets which normally apply elsewhere. Our service is based upon client service and not transactional sales. Our charges are clear and simple and all agreed with clients prior to any costs being incurred.
Our advice process can be divided into five distinct stages, as follows:
- Initial Meeting – During the initial meeting/telephone conversation and subsequent completion of our Questionnaire and Risk forms, we gather information and review your overall situation to determine where guidance would be helpful to you. As a Firm we have chosen to invest in covering all the costs of these initial interactions.
- Client Proposal – You will receive an Initial Review, again at our cost. It will confirm our understanding of your situation and provide general guidance of what may benefit you, including any future costs. This will encourage the next stage, perhaps after a meeting or telephone appointment. After considering the guidance, if you then instruct us to progress certain aspects, without specific recommendations, there are still no advisory costs involved at all.
- Our costed Advisory Report – If the need for a detailed, regulated Advisory Report is agreed, upon prior acceptance of the fee for its production, we then research your full options and present recommendations. This will include proposals to meet your specific needs. It will be a comprehensive report and the fee applies whether you progress any recommendations or not.
- Implementation – Where you agree, we shall then implement some or all of the instruction only aspects or recommendations. This will involve acting between financial and investment providers and you.
- Ongoing Review – Ongoing reviews through regular contact and/or meetings are necessary to ensure continuing suitability of your strategy. Any costs associated with these reviews will be disclosed to you in advance. There are no additional charges for reviews of your discretionarily managed investment strategies.
You pay for our services, with fees being agreed in advance.
Special Services
If there is specific chargeable work aside from our normal and free services (such as for comprehensive retirement reviews or the specific arrangement of alternative products), these are likely to incur time-costed fees. You can ask for an estimate of the cost and for a cap to be applied too and we shan’t exceed that without your prior consent.
Where we review a Salary Related Pension/Deferred Annuity Transfer, our time-costed charges are subject to 2% of the value and a minimum £2,000. VAT may apply.