Our fees

Our fees are transparent, fair and easy to understand.

Our ‘Discovery meeting’ is the first stage of our journey together. It’s where we get to know you, understand your goals and what you’ve done so far to achieve them. It’s also the time when we’ll discuss fees and explain how much we might charge if we work together.

The amount you pay for our services will either be based on a percentage of the amount you invest, a fixed fee or a combination of both.

As we’ve said above, we’ll confirm our fees when we meet. However, we want to prove our commitment to transparency, so we are happy to disclose our fees below.

Discovery Meeting

No charge. This cost of this is borne by us.

Following the Discovery Meeting if we agree that a Cashflow Model needs to be produced we will charge £495 or £995 if a detailed report is required.

Recommendation & report

Following our initial discussions, we will produce some outline guidance on what we consider would best meet your objectives.

If you wish to proceed with our recommendations, we will research and recommend the right product for you, fully outline all the associated costs, give you key information about each product and assist you in completing all the necessary application forms and paperwork.

Our charge for this service is 1% of the amount you invest and/or transfer subject to a minimum fee of £1,500, some examples are summarised below:

We apply a “Decency Charge” whereby regardless of the investment holdings, we apply a cap to overall initial charges of £10,000.

This payment can either be taken from your investment upon receipt by the provider or paid directly by you. There is one exception to this; where the advice concerns Defined Benefit or Final Salary pensions, our fees will need to be paid directly by you. Where we receive such a payment, we will waive our fee for the analysis, research and preparation of our recommendations.

Ongoing advice

In today’s world of ever-changing legislation and volatile markets, it’s vital that your situation is reviewed regularly to ensure you remain on track to achieve your objectives.

We offer four ongoing review services:

• Silver Review
• Gold Review
• Platinum Review
• Diamond Review

These cost between 0.25% and 1% of the investments held. We will recommend the most suitable level of service at outset and continue to monitor the service levels to ensure it is the most suitable one for your requirements.

Under each service, we will provide you with regular valuations, reviews and meetings, to help you ensure your financial plan and investments remain on track and to make any changes we believe are required.

Naturally, you may also elect to have no ongoing service, in which case you will not be charged an ongoing service fee.

Our ongoing fees are paid monthly. They start at the end of the first month after your initial investment and are payable monthly thereafter while you receive an ongoing service from us. You can either pay your agreed ongoing review fee directly from your bank account or, if the provider allows, the fee can be deducted from the investments we manage for you.

As part of our review services, we will review the level of ongoing service we provide you to ensure you are receiving the right service to help you meet your needs and objectives.

Pension transfer advice costs (where protected benefits exceed £30,000)

We can work with people who have Final Salary or Defined Benefit pensions in three ways:

• Triage
• Abridged advice
• Full advice

Triage

This is an educational process to help you decide whether to proceed to advice. There is no financial commitment from you and no advice from us, either personal or generic.

There is no charge for this service.

Abridged Advice

This process involves an initial fact find and risk assessment.

Once this is completed we will either provide you with a recommendation to remain in your existing scheme or, if the assessment does not produce a clear outcome, with your agreement we will move to the full advice process to determine the right course of action.

The charge for this service is £1,500.

This charge is payable on completion of our assessment unless you proceed to full advice where the cost of abridged advice will be offset against your final full advice costs.

Full Advice

If you wish to proceed to full advice, we will fully research your existing scheme, and alternative options, in the context of your retirement objectives. The outcome of this will either be a recommendation to retain your existing pension or transfer it to an alternative scheme.

The cost of our advice will be 1% of the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) subject to a minimum of £3,500 and a maximum of £10,000.  For example, if the CETV was £200,000 our charge would be £3,500, whereas if the CETV was £700,000 our charge would be £7,000.

Charges for full advice are payable irrespective of whether our recommendation is to transfer and will be the same whether we recommend you remain in your existing scheme or transfer.

Protection

When advising on protection products, including:

• Term Assurance, Mortgage Payment Protection and Life and/or Critical Illness.
• Income Protection Insurance and/or Sickness and Unemployment Insurance.
• Family Income Benefit.
• Private Medical Insurance and Accident.
• Business Protection including Relevant Life and Key Person insurance.

We can be paid either by commission, payable to us by the product provider, or by a fee, which you pay directly to us. Both options will be presented to you for you to agree prior to implementing our recommendations.

Irrespective of which you choose, our minimum fee for the implementation of the protection products listed above is £750.

Regular contributions

We will agree an implementation fee with you at outset before we set up any regular payment into products such as (but not limited to) pensions or ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) for you.

Our fees may be based on a percentage of each contribution made or a set fee which can be paid directly or taken from the recommended contract. This is subject to the minimum initial advice fee of £750.