Charges

1.      Our Services

We offer an initial discussion (without charge) when we will describe our services more fully and explain the payment options.  If you decide to go ahead, we will:

• Gather and analyse personal information about you, your finances, your needs and objectives;
• Recommend and discuss any action we think you should take and, with your agreement, arrange relevant investments for you.

 2.      Payment Options

Not all firms charge for advice in the same way.  We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you have.  We will not charge you anything until you have agreed how we are to be paid.

§         Paying by fee: Whether you buy a product or not, you will pay us a fee for our advice and services.  If we also receive commission from the product provider when you buy a product, we will pass on the full value of that commission to you in one or more ways.  For example, we could reduce our fee; or reduce your product charges; or increase your investment amount; or refund the commission to you.

§         Paying by commission (or product charges):  If you buy a financial product, we will normally receive commission on the sale from the product provider.  Although you pay nothing up front, that does not mean our service is free.  You still pay us indirectly through product charges.  Product charges pay for the product provider’s own costs and any commission.  These charges reduce the amount left for investment.  If you buy direct, the product charges could be the same as when buying through an adviser, or they could be higher or lower.  We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier.

§         Paying by a combination of commission and fee:  In some circumstances, we also charge a fee on top of any commission we might receive.

§         Paying solely by fee

§        For advising on mortgages: You can choose how we are paid, for example an upfront, non-refundable fee of £350 plus a fee of typically 0.5% of the loan amount.  In the latter case, we can be remunerated instead by receiving commission from the lender.

3.      How Much Might Our Services Cost?

If you choose the fee option:

We will agree the rate we will charge before beginning work.  We will tell you if you have to pay VAT.

Our typical charges are:

Financial Adviser:        £150 per hour

You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge.  You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first.