How we are paid

We provide our services on a fee charging basis and our independent status ensures we are able to act in our clients’ best interests without restriction or bias.

The level of any fee or charge and the timing of when this is to be paid will be agreed in writing before any work is undertaken. As part of our commitment to Treating Customers Fairly, we require our clients to sign a formal agreement to confirm their agreement to those fees and their instruction to engage our services.

Our fees are based on the cost of the works proposed, the complexity of the advice required and the nature of the assets being advised on. Whatever the basis and level of fee, this will be confirmed in writing at the outset and agreed by the client before any chargeable work begins.

Our initial consultation is carried out at our own expense and without charge or obligation following which a maximum Initial Advisory Fee for the required services will be advised.

There are various ways of settling our initial fees as follows:-

By Invoice

Should your preferred method of payment be ‘by invoice’ and we are instructed to proceed with our recommendation the agreed fee will usually be invoiced in line with the stages of the service process which are detailed as follows:

30% initial payment. 50% on presentation/submission of our recommendations. 20% on implementation.

As an example, on a £1,000 initial fee our initial payment would be £300, £500 would be payable on presentation of our recommendations and the final £200 would be payable on implementation of our recommendations.

Our standard settlement terms are 14 days from the date of invoice however there may be instances where the invoice terms require to be varied and we will inform you of this accordingly.

There is also the option to pay by CHAPS/BACS which will be fully detailed on our invoice presented to you.

By Investment

You may prefer our initial adviser fees to be paid directly from your new plan or existing arrangements if ‘adviser charging’ is facilitated therein.

Please note that by settling our initial fee in this manner will have a detrimental effect on the initial growth potential within any plan as our agreed initial fee amount will be deducted directly from your plan.

As an example, a pension consolidation exercise may command an initial fee of 3% of the final transfer value of, say, £100,000. Our fee for this exercise would be £3,000 and would be payable from the new provider before investment of your residual pension fund.

Commission

Certain product providers, usually on the recommendation of life/protection plans, will pay commission. Our initial fee therefore will be settled by the commission offered by the provider for the recommendation and implementation of these type of plans.

Ongoing Services

We encourage our clients to ensure their arrangements are reviewed at least annually and we would ask you therefore to carefully consider the level of on-going service you would prefer going forward. We have a number of options for you to consider as follows:-

Transactional Service – no annual valuation or review. This service is purely ‘transactional’ only.

Annual Review Service – For clients who require on-going management of their arrangements we offer the Annual Review Service where you will receive the following:-

An Annual Valuation.
A full Annual Review of your arrangements.

The on-going annual fee for our Annual Review Service proposition is 0.5% per annum and which can be settled via the ‘by invoice (or direct debit)’ or ‘by investment’ methods detailed above. As an example a portfolio valued at £100,000 would have an annual on-going fee of £500 per annum. Please remember by setting our on-going fee by investment will have a detrimental impact on the growth potential of your funds.

Wealth Management Service - for clients who require a more bespoke ongoing service we offer our Wealth Management Service where you will receive the following:-

A Valuation each quarter.
A full Annual Review of your arrangements.

Unlimited telephone/e-mail/face to face access to a regulated adviser at all times.

Bi-monthly Newsletter including current market commentary to ensure you are kept fully up to date on the key issues.

Peace of mind regarding legislative/market changes requiring urgent attention addressed on your behalf. The on-going annual fee for our Wealth Management Service proposition is 1.0% per annum and which can be settled via the ‘by invoice (or direct debit)’ or ‘by investment’ methods detailed above. As an example a portfolio valued at £100,000 would have an annual on-going fee of £1,000 per annum. Please remember by settling our on-going fee by investment will have a detrimental impact on the growth potential of your funds.

Similar to our investment services, we will provide you with a personal and financial review prior to making our recommendations to you. Should you accept our recommendations we will arrange the implementation of these for you. The reasons for our recommendations will also be provided to you in a written report.

We do not charge a fee for our insurance and protection services as we will normally receive commission from the policy provider. You will not be subject to VAT for this service.