How we are paid
Fees and commission
The fees that we charge are ordinarily in line with the value we add. We aim to make reasonable profits so that we can continue to provide our services in to the future.
The services we will provide to you, and the fees we charge will be documented in our Service and Fee Agreement and presented to you for your prior approval.
Working on a fee basis we are able to pass on substantial discounts on financial services. These discounts can be as much as 3% - 5% of the initial value of investments and 0.25% - 0.75% annually.
Financial Planning
Our initial fee is typically 1% of the sums under advice with an ongoing charge of 0.5% pa.
Clients with a Financial Planning agreement will benefit from reduced fees for subsequent services.
Project
The fee for individual projects will be agreed in advance and will typically be 2% - 3% of the sums under advice.
We have found that charging for time alone can present a barrier to productive communication. However, where it does make sense we charge:
Director: £225 per hour
Financial planner: £160 per hour
Administration: £40 per hour
Commission
In certain instances banks, insurers and other product providers may offer us commission. Normally we would rebate this commission to you. However, you may prefer to pay for our services by commission. If this is agreed then you should note that although you pay nothing upfront you would pay us indirectly through increased product charges.
Commissions or any other form of benefits paid to us by a product provided are fully disclosed to you.
Why fixed prices and not hourly rates?
If we charge time, all the risk is the clients if the work takes us a long-time, they pick up the tab. We should have the experience to price the work correctly.
It is not fair on either party for work to be taken on without knowing what the price would be. Most clients are nervous of giving people an open ended cheque book!
Billing for time focuses us on effort and not necessarily on results.
Reward based on time encourages inefficiency and ultimately the firm will not be competitive.
As time cant be charged, we are constantly looking to demonstrate the value we add by way of our expertise through spotting opportunities to save tax, improve cost savings, enhance potential investment returns and deliver high levels of service. Typically, these are the only things that clients are willing to pay for.
Fixed price agreements encourage us to search out efficiency savings in our work processes. This makes us more competitive and allows us to attract new business, maintain service and grow.
Equally there are times through our experience where we save a client or make a client a significant sum of money. Whilst it may take us minutes to spot that opportunity it is as a result of years of investing time in ourselves and systems that have enabled us to achieve that. It is therefore unfair on us to have to charge a proportion of one hour for that experience.
