Our Fees
We believe in fairness and transparency and how we charge for our services is no exception.
Our fees are based on the complexity of the service required rather than simply as a percentage of your investment. This is a much fairer way to charge our clients. If an accountant or solicitor proposed to charge you based on the value of your investments alarm bells would start ringing and we believe it shouldn’t be any different for financial planners. That’s why we charge fixed monthly fees for our services based on the complexity of your financial affairs and our ability to add value over the long-term.
Our Service Tiers
Our fees are charged as a monthly subscription with an additional one-off fee at the start of our relationship to cover the additional work involved with taking on a new client. Our subscription services are based on the level of complexity as shown below:
Tier 1 – Clients with minimal complexity – £216 per month / £2,592 per annum with an initial fee of £2,700
Tier 2 – Clients with moderate complexity – £324 per month / £3,888 per annum with an initial fee of £3,375
Tier 3 – Clients with significant complexity – £432 per month / £5,184 per annum with an initial fee of £4,050
Tier 4 – Client with high levels of complexity – £540 per month / £6,480 per annum with an initial fee of £4,725
Tier 5 – Client with very high levels of complexity – To be agreed on an individual basis.
Examples of areas of additional complexity are:
- Tax Planning
- Pensions Annual Allowance Planning
- Pensions Lifetime Allowance Planning
- Pension Drawdown Strategies
- Inheritance Tax & Estate Planning
- Business Investments & Planning
- Complex Investments or multiple Investment Strategies
- Commercial Property
- Small Self-Administered Schemes (SSAS)
- High Value Investment Portfolios
Financial Protection Products
We outsource financial protection advice to Cura Insurance. Cura have a long history of providing excellent service and advice since they were established in 2005. They have won numerous industry awards over the years including the Customer Service Award at the 2021 Yorkshire Financial Awards and were awared the 5 Star Platinum Trusted Service Award in 2021 by Feefo for consistently delivering excellence. Cura are protection specialists and are therefore well placed to advise on life assurance, critical illness cover and income protection.
Annuity & Secure Retirement Income Products
Clients looking to convert their pension holdings into a secure lifetime income would generally receive a product recommendation based around their retirement income requirements and attitude to investment risk. We would then arrange the recommended financial products on our clients’ behalves should they accept our recommendation.
For this service we would charge a minimum fee of £1,500 but the charge could be higher depending on the level of work involved.
Annual Fee Comparisons
We charge flat fees as we believe they are fairer than percentage fees; A client with £1m invested should not pay a fee 10 times the size that a client with £100,000 invested would. However, every client is different and the work involved varies. We therefore base our fees on the complexity of each client’s position and have fee tiers which we believe are appropriate. Overall, we believe our fees are extremely competitive compared to other financial planning firms, are appropriate based on the work involved and the value we can add.
Hopefully this will provide not only a good comparison of our fees against other advisory firms but also an indication of the fees we might charge clients in your individual circumstances.
Most financial planning firms still charge a percentage for both initial fees and ongoing fees. In its December 2020 report, our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), estimated that the average adviser charge is currently 2.4% on new money invested plus 0.80% per annum ongoing. The relevant section from the FCA report is highlighted below and the full report can be found at https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/calls-input/evaluation-rdr-famr.
Whilst the FCA’s report indicates an average initial charge of 2.4%, we would like to think that most advisers would not charge so much on larger investments. In our own experience, most advisers tend to charge a 1% intitial charge on larger investment amounts irrespective of whether these funds come from cash or are already invested. We have therefore used an average initial charge of 1% in our charge comparisons below.
Tier 1 – Minimal Complexity
Clients with £500,000 held in their pensions saving £1,000 per month towards their retirement in 10 years’ time.
Our Fees: An initial fee of £1,620 followed by ongoing fees of £2,592 per annum.
Comparative Fees: An initial fee of £5,000 followed by ongoing fees of £4,000 per annum.
Potential Saving: £3,380 initially, followed by £1,408 each year.
Tier 2 – Moderate Complexity
Retired clients currently drawing down on their pensions which are currently valued at £500,000.
Our Fees: An initial fee of £2,700 followed by ongoing fees of £3,888 per annum.
Comparative Fees: An initial fee of £5,000 followed by ongoing fees of £4,000 per annum.
Potential Saving: £2,300 initially, followed by £112 each year.
Tier 2 – Moderate Complexity
Clients with £1,000,000 held in their pensions and making large pension contributions around the Annual Allowance each year.
Our Fees: An initial fee of £2,700 followed by ongoing fees of £3,888 per annum.
Comparative Fees: An initial fee of £10,000 followed by ongoing fees of £8,000 per annum.
Potential Saving: £7,300 initially, followed by £4,112 each year.
Tier 3 – Significant Complexity
Semi-retired clients with £1,000,000 in Pensions & ISAs, currently drawing down on their pensions which include a commercial property within a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP).
Our Fees: An initial fee of £3,780 followed by ongoing fees of £5,184 per annum.
Comparative Fees: An initial fee of £10,000 followed by ongoing fees of £8,000 per annum.
Potential Saving: £6,220 initially, followed by £2,816 each year.
Tier 3 – Significant Complexity
Semi-retired clients with £2,000,000 in Pensions, ISAs & Taxable Accounts currently drawing down on their pensions.
Our Fees: An initial fee of £3,780 followed by ongoing fees of £5,184 per annum.
Comparative Fees: An initial fee of £20,000 followed by ongoing fees of £16,000 per annum.
Potential Saving: £16,220 initially, followed by £10,816 each year.
Tier 4 – High levels of Complexity
Retired clients with £2,000,000 in Pensions, ISAs & Taxable Accounts currently drawing down on their pensions whist actively mitigating potential inheritance tax liabilities on their estates.
Our Fees: An initial fee of £4,860 followed by ongoing fees of £6,480 per annum.
Comparative Fees: An initial fee of £20,000 followed by ongoing fees of £16,000 per annum.
Potential Saving: £15,140 initially, followed by £9,520 each year.
What our customers say about us.
Services Included:
Our Monthly Subscription Service includes the following services:
- Access to your Financial Planner, Customer Relationship Manager and Support Team as a Financial Sounding Board throughout the year.
- Annual Forward Planning Meeting to discuss:
- Actions outstanding from the last 12 months
- Changes to your circumstances
- Changes to your short-term objectives
- Changes to your long-term objectives
- Changes that need to made to your Financial Plan
- Action to be taken during the next 12 months
- Followed by:
- Annual 12-Month Action Plan
- One –Page Financial Plan
- Annual Update to your Lifetime Cash Flow Forecast
- Annual Review of your Pensions & Investments
- Annual Schedule of your Pension, Investment and Protection Policies
- Implementation of our recommendations
- Annual Meetings to discuss areas of additional complexity such as:
- Tax Planning
- Pensions Annual Allowance Planning
- Pensions Lifetime Allowance Planning
- Pension Drawdown Strategies
- Inheritance Tax & Estate Planning
- Business Investments & Planning
- Complex Investments or multiple Investment Strategies
- Commercial Property
- Small Self-Administered Schemes (SSAS)
- High Value Investment Portfolios
- Followed by:
- Annual Review of area of additional complexity
- Implementation of our recommendations
- General Administration, Electronic Date Storage & Record Keeping.
- Quarterly Financial Focus Newsletter.
- Liaison with other professional connections such as solicitors and accountants.
- Liaison with product providers on your behalf throughout the year.
Please note that if convenient, areas of additional complexity can be reviewed at the same time as
your Annual Forward Planning Meeting and the subsequent Annual Review.
