How We Charge

Not all firms charge for advice in the same way. We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you have at our initial consultation. We will not charge you anything until you have agreed how we are to be paid.

You will pay for our services on the basis of fees, commission, or a combination of both. VAT may be payable on some fees, dependent on the services you choose. We will advise you whether or not VAT will be charged when we confirm the final fee.

Our fees are charged for the key areas of our service being:

Initial Consultation

This is always held without charge (at our expense) and without obligation. This helps us to understand your financial goals & objectives and will confirm how we can support you in working towards these.

We will also discuss the cost, and levels, of our services both initially and throughout our relationship with you. We provide a bespoke offering where we aim to tailor our services to each client based on their individual needs.

Following this initial meeting, we will write to you with a detailed engagement letter confirming the specific services we will provide and the fees for those services. We will never charge you anything until you have agreed how we are to be paid by signing a copy of the agreement document.

Planning & Design (Advice and Recommendation)

This can be a continuation of the initial discussion, where agreed, or a further appointment. This process covers the:

• Gathering of information about your existing financial arrangements and full personal circumstances;
• Understanding of your investment knowledge and attitude and tolerance towards investment risk;
• Recommendation of an asset allocation model that matches your risk profile and the subsequent assessment and suitability of any existing holdings;
• Preparation of our recommendations to you;
• Arranging a further meeting to explain and discuss our recommendations in detail.

You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge. You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first. We will confirm the rate we will charge in writing before beginning work.

Construction & Ongoing Maintenance (Implementation and Review)

Having presented you with our recommendations, if you are happy and wish to proceed we will then charge you an ‘implementation fee’ and waive the ‘advice & recommendation fee’. This is subject to the minimum implementation fee being the same or more than the advice & recommendation fee.

Investment Construction

We will act for you in the following ways:

• Handle all fund and policy administration on your behalf;
• Provide regular updates to keep you informed of progress;
• Ensure all your documents are issued in line with your expectations;
• Provide confirmation of all actions taken on your behalf in writing.

Our Insurance and Protection Services and Costs

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

We rarely need to charge a fee for our insurance and protection services as we will normally receive a commission payment from the policy provider that is sufficient to cover our professional time. However, if we need to charge any additional fixed fee we will inform you of this in advance. You will not be subject to VAT for this service.

Ongoing Maintenance

We will discuss the full range of our ongoing services and their associated costs during our initial consultation. These services include, but are not limited to, providing you with:

• Structured reviews to give you peace of mind;
• Portfolio rebalancing report when required;
• An assessment of your circumstances and any changes to your plans that are needed;
• Regular updates and information regarding your holdings;
• A choice of differing levels of support depending on your needs;
• Ongoing support with correspondence and administration issues.

We recognise that all clients do not have the same service requirements and you are free to choose the exact tailored level of service that best suits your needs. On this basis, an appropriate fee will be advised and agreed.