How we work

The service we provide is designed to develop a long-term working relationship with our clients. Financial strategies can not be carved in stone. They need reviewing and adapting to keep on track as circumstances drift from original assumptions. As anticipated life stages are reached, planning and portfolios must adapt to each new phase. Changes in tax and other legislation, and in financial and economic conditions also need monitoring, and strategies reviewed accordingly.

If you are building a house, you need bricks and tiles. We do not build houses for our clients, instead we build long term financial strategies. In designing and formalising the architectural plans, we will naturally need to stipulate bricks and tiles to be used in the construction. These may well include, ISAs, deposit savings accounts, investment trusts, PEPS, Stakeholders, SSASs, unit trusts and so on.

But these are only the building blocks to be used in a strategy, as bricks are used in a house. Our service is primarily concerned with providing the architect's plans.

However, in many cases fund managers, pension and product providers pay commissions for recommending their particular bricks. Although we can offer both fee and commission based services, typically clients prefer a commission based approach. Since we can be remunerated by commission when it is available, we rarely ever need to raise an invoice for our clients. This is especially relevant for our private clients, since all personal expenditure is out of post-tax (and National Insurance) income, and nor is any VAT paid reclaimable. The level of these commissions may vary across provider and product.

To avoid any question of bias, we establish with our clients at outset what we do, our level of remuneration, and the service we provide. Thereafter, whatever brick we recommend, from whichever provider or fund manager, our level of remuneration is the same. Moreover, this set structure is often actually below the normal commission terms available, and so enables us to enhance the standard product terms for the further benefit of our clients.

So, whatever we recommend, our clients can be sure that there is no question of our recommendation being biased by the differing levels of commission being offered us. If a higher level is available than agreed, we rebate the difference to enhance the contract; and where less or none available, we simply invoice the client as a fee. Thus the issue of commissions can not bias our choice of either product or provider.

The initial exploratory discussion is, of course, free and totally without obligation to take matters further.