How we are paid

The way in which we are paid differs according to the type of business we are undertaking for you.

For protection and mortgage work we will be paid a commission by the provider of the contract we arrange. The relevant amount will be confirmed to you in the written recommendation/report we provide detailing our recommendations and will also be confirmed in any Key Facts Illustration you receive in respect of the product concerned.

For pensions and investment arrangements, because you have a choice as to whether you wish to engage our services on a short term basis, for example, to solely undertake an investment for you or a long term basis where not only do we arrange the investment but we undertake regular reviews of your investments, we have divided our fees/charges into two sections.

The first relates to the initial advice process, which could involve a full financial review or perhaps the undertaking of a specific transaction for you.

The second relates to the on-going service where we would take on responsibility for managing and reviewing your pensions and investments on an ongoing basis.

Initial Advice Service

Our preferred method of working is to charge fees on an hourly rate as we feel that this is the method which is most fair to both the investor and our firm, i.e. you only pay for the time we spend working for you. We will explain and agree the rate we will charge before beginning work and will tell you if you have to pay VAT. At the outset we will give you an estimate as to the expected cost of the work involved and contact you if we feel our costs are likely to exceed the initial estimate.

Currently, time spent by a Partner on your case is charged at £150 per hour whilst administrative time is charged at £50 per hour.

There may be occasions where we will undertake work on a fixed fee basis where the cost is agreed at the outset but you should appreciate that the agreed fixed fee will be based on our estimate of the time required to undertake the relevant work for you.

On-going Service

Our recommendation is that where our clients hold pension or investment arrangements, they are reviewed regularly to ensure that they remain appropriate for our clients' requirements.

In most cases this will take the form of an annual review as described in the section on this website headed 'How We Work'. Some clients may prefer to have more frequent reviews but the basis upon which we will review our client's arrangements is agreed at the outset.

As with our Initial Service Proposition, our preference is to undertake reviews on an hourly cost basis with time spent by a Partner working on your case currently being charged at £150 per hour and administrative time charged at £50 per hour.

Some clients may prefer not to structure an on-going service into their agreement and if this is the case, we are more than happy to agree an on-going service schedule at a later date.

We have become aware that some clients prefer an alternative arrangement where, rather than charging for our time on an hourly rate, we are paid a percentage of the funds under management in order to cover the cost of regular reviews. This arrangement has been particularly attractive to clients that wish to have the freedom to contact us at any time without having to be concerned that any time spent dealing with their enquiry will be charged at our hourly rate.

For the 'Percentage of Fund' service we look to receive a minimum of £250 per annum. Under this structure, subject to a minimum of £250 being received per annum, we charge the equivalent of 0.5% of the portfolio value up to £250,000 and for portfolios over £250,000 charge 0.5% on the first £250,000 and 0.25% on the excess above this.

Therefore, for a portfolio of £250,000 the annual fee would be £1,250. For a portfolio of £500,000, the annual fee would be £1,875.

The increase in costs associated with reviewing and maintaining larger investment portfolios not only reflects the additional work involved but takes into account the fact that our professional indemnity premiums, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy we pay and other regulatory fees are all based on how much our clients invest or have invested through us.

Further details on the way in which we charge are available on request.