Your experience with us / our process
What can you expect?
Finding an adviser can be an infuriating business and often a hit and miss affair. We reduce this frustration by enabling people to control their rate of commitment to us. You can become a client secure in the knowledge that you will waste neither time nor money before you are sure we can help. Also, we guarantee not to take you on as a client if we are not absolutely convinced we can add value.
A good financial adviser is your own project manager for your financial future. Not only will we help to bring order and efficiency to your planning but we will ensure that you are aware of the issues that affect you so that you can be sure of making informed decisions with confidence. Our role to bring predictability to your objectives and our ability to negotiate with the wider financial world on your behalf pays dividends.
You will receive a programme of regular contact, whether your preference is for face to face, e-mail or telephone with key reporting milestones flagged well in advance so that you do not miss something important. You will be provided with full access to advice and information from a dedicated adviser. During the early stages of our relationship we will often spend between fifteen and twenty-five hours just obtaining accurate information and data on any existing schemes and investments, we then use this to report to you. Rather than simply giving you raw data, our expert analysis will provide you with genuinely useful information and help you to be at the centre of the decision making process.
We will then use this information to create with you your lifetime plan. This will enable you to monitor your progress towards your given financial goals and then help to continue to assess whether or not you are on target, for example in sustaining a required level of retirement income or achieving investment growth.
Understanding your attitude to risk
Helping you to understand your attitude to risk and the role it plays in your planning and investment selection is central to looking after you successfully. Doing this effectively will help us to ensure that your results live up to your expectations.
One of the many tools we use is a sophisticated risk and expectation profiling system, which gives us an insight into the type of investment planning which will suit you, whatever your objectives. The outcome is a Strategic Asset Allocation indicating to you how much money would be appropriate for you to have in cash, equities, property and so on. You will then see a portfolio of investments built specifically for you, which reflects your appetite for taking risk and your requirement for returns. Of course this needs periodical reviews to take into account the dynamic investment world and your own changing circumstances and needs.
What to do with all of this financial information?
You will have preferences, timescales and lifestyle choices to consider, all of which influence the final outcome. To assist you in this process, we look at a variety of financial solutions and possible outcomes, including cost analysis, valuations and possible alternatives. There is no limit to the number of studies we conduct for you, so you are assured that we will have considered every option available to you. We are concerned with finding the right solution and not with the time it takes and pride ourselves on attention to detail. We will help you to prioritise your needs, understand what is possible, what shortfalls you face and identify the risks you face. Key to your comfort is your understanding of the solution. Many of the problems people have experienced with investments and pensions could have been avoided had the adviser taken the time to ensure full understanding on the client’s part.
Your Annual ISA Allowance
One of the key benefits of the retainer service is that we will try to ensure that you do not miss out on the benefit of important annual allowances, such as your ISA.
Your commission-free investment is able to grow from day one, giving it a head start on any investments from which commission is deducted. You may have saved hundreds of pounds in upfront commission payments and the long-term effect of not paying this charge can be significant. Not only this, but you will have access to the broadest possible choice, unhindered by the need for commission, from which we will recommend appropriate investments.
It also means that your monthly retainer fee can almost pay for itself in the commission savings you make. Many commissions are avoidable only by using a Fee Only adviser as, sadly, investing directly will not usually result in a saving.
Meetings
Our clients place immense value on our open door approach to meetings, your retainer pays not only for access to us, but also for high quality information.
Whilst it is often the case that a number of meetings can prove useful in the early stages, the schedule is driven by your needs. With the exception of our overseas clients and those situated far from London, we would expect to schedule meetings every six months but are available to our clients when required.
Further into our relationship, you may find that two high value meetings each year are adequate to meet your needs, especially when coupled to our online capability and the convenience of e-mail. Flexibility is key as we appreciate that there may be times when you are extremely busy but will still want to ensure that your financial and investment plans are on track.
Ongoing service
With us looking after you, you are free to focus on other aspects of your life. We will ensure that you have a structured review process and are kept informed of relevant issues. Only by keeping your planning under review can we help to ensure that your objectives are met.
We are committed to replying to any query within 24 hours as your needs are paramount and we appreciate the importance of timely responses as part of a quality service. You can also be assured that our fee structure for retainer clients will not mean you are invoiced for every piece of correspondence and telephone call. Clarity is essential to our success in looking after you.
Annual Review
You will always have an annual review, even if this is conducted remotely because of your circumstances. This is a meeting where we confirm your financial priorities and present your annual report. Within your report we provide a timesheet showing the team members who have worked on your account and the time spent, this will allow you to continually assess our level of service and whether we deliver value for money. It is also important in helping you to gauge the effort going on behind the scenes on your behalf.
Also covered will be the progress you are making in meeting your objectives allowing you to make any adjustments in a timely manner. This helps you to head off many of the problems which typically affect financial planning. You can derive confidence from accurate information. Understanding your planning in detail gives rise to an informed dialogue which, in itself, helps to build confidence in the process.
You need not feel that you will lose out if it is difficult to get into London, many of our clients reside a long way away and, indeed, some live abroad. Modern communications mean that you will still receive the level of service you deserve, much of it available twenty-fours hours a day online.
On-line data access
If, as with many clients, you value having all of your information in one, easy to access location, we provide secure client log-in facilities on this website.
As your independent financial adviser, we are uniquely placed to provide information on all your assets and accounts. We understand the importance of accurate data and the frustration caused by an incomplete picture. The continued development and ongoing growth of this service is part of our commitment to client service.
In addition
As a valued client, we will be happy to work on the many financial needs or requirements that you may have, including:
- Retirement planning – both, pre and post retirement
- SIPPs and SSASs
- Wealth creation
- Portfolio construction
- Investment Advice
- Policy Analysis
- Investment Risk Assessment
- Tax Management
- Data Collation and Secure Storage
Whilst we are proud to say that we are one of the very few genuinely Fee Only Advisory Practices, however, we can also state with confidence that our fees will almost always pay for themselves. You can be secure in the knowledge that you are paying for impartiality and to guarantee that you have an adviser working with only your interests in mind, not beholden to any providers of products or services. Whilst conveniently hidden from view, commissions are not the most effective to pay for advice, nor are they usually the cheapest. By paying fees you can benefit from discounts available on, for example, investments and pensions, which cannot be passed on to you otherwise. You will also know that our recommendations to you are uncompromised.
Saving on Pensions
Given the long term nature of pensions, whether you are planning for your retirement or have already retired, the compounded effect of setting up or moving to a commission free scheme can be considerable. It is easy to forget that if you can increase your retirement income by 10% per annum it will make a huge difference to your standard of living. Many investors do not realise that existing schemes may be paying commission to advisers with whom they have no relationship. Clearly, if you can avoid some of these wealth destruction traps, you can benefit considerably. Few people stop to think whether or not they are receiving value from the commissions and charges they are paying, often believing them to be inevitable, when quantified in pounds, shillings and pence, the experience can be sobering.
Saving on Investments
The deduction of upfront commissions from investments is a constant drag on investor returns. Even experienced investors selecting their own funds find it virtually impossible to avoid. Many websites offer a discount or draw people in by using it to offer other ‘free’ services, such as a SIPP, but it is still there. Usually, the choices available will be restricted to those which pay commission. It is possible to construct a case for commission where you are receiving accountable advice or a quality ongoing service but, where you are selecting the investments, it is impossible to justify. The commission upfront may be at least 3% and can be as high as 8%. By avoiding taking commission altogether, we can give you a recommendation from a much broader range of investments and usually save you money in the process.
How can we deliver such cost effective benefits?
The answer is very simple, unlike most advisers we have focussed on getting the right people and investing in the right processes. We also, ensure that cross subsidy is reduced. Commission is fine if you would like to chat to an adviser with no real expectation of doing anything. If, however, you are serious about your financial planning and expect to be taking advice, do you really want to be paying for those who do not? The fact is that commission based advice is more akin to a sales process and there are many more people who do not buy than buy. That makes it very inefficient and the rewards for a successful sale have to be correspondingly high. Many of our clients have experienced this process at first hand and understand the impact that it has, not only on the quality of the advice but on their wealth creation. Quite simply, they come to us because we are different.
The application of technology to our unique and highly cost effective business model enables us to provide durable, quality advice at sensible fee rates. At the heart of this modern approach is our IT platform, an essential part of delivering a high quality and pro-active service to our clients. We are also committed to dealing with the right number of clients in a lasting relationship rather than going all out for the ever greater sales targets which are central to the more traditional adviser’s proposition.
Helping you to set the agenda
One of the benefits of complete transparency is client control. Because you will have the information to give you the complete picture, for once, you will be able to set the agenda. Too often, clients have found that they have been unable to exercise control in the past, simply because they are not given sufficient understanding. Our focus is to ensure that you are in total control of the process.
