Our charges are intended to be fair and transparent. They are based mainly on how much time will be required to make and implement our recommendations, together with - in the case of higher-risk investments in particular – a contribution towards the additional costs involved to us to ensure the best possible outcome.
Full details of our charging structures are set out in the Client Agreement. You will be asked to sign a Fee Agreement which covers all our charges. You may also need to sign provider forms to authorise them (rather than you) to pay us, but these are their requirements and not more money.
For both new and existing clients, we will on occasion invest substantial time to assess areas in which we think our advice would be valuable to you. Until you sign a Fee Agreement there is no charge for this.
We are happy to charge on whatever basis you want, and will offer advice on this also. For example, for a couple where one is a 40% taxpayer requiring retirement advice, a charge of £1,000 to their pension fund would have “cost” them £600 if paid by invoice (they could pay £600 net into pension for a £1,000 fee).
We may also offer a “success fee” structure, reducing or eliminating the initial cost, with a higher subsequent cost only if a particular outcome is achieved.
For all clients, we operate a ledger system by which each year we assess whether the total income received has been more or less than had been agreed at the outset for that year. Other than timing issues, variances may occur especially where fees received are a % of fund value (some providers do not offer a £ alternative). We will normally carry forward any credit balance to offset against the future cost of our services, whereas with debit balances we will add these to any future charges.
We reserve the right to reduce our costs if we feel that the service provided has been below the high standards you should expect, or if our estimate of the time required was too high. We will never increase our charges once engaged on a task.