How we are paid
On receiving an enquiry we invite a prospective client to come to our offices for a preliminary meeting. The purpose of the meeting is firstly to establish whether we are able to assist with the prospective clients needs and objectives and secondly to discuss how we would be paid for our services should we be instructed to proceed. There is no charge for this preliminary meeting and no obligation on either side.
After the initial free consultation, we will agree with you whether you pay us a fee, or we are paid out of the cost of any financial product you buy (commission). We will always tell you about any commission we earn, and it will be taken into account in working out our fee.
Commission is paid to an IFA firm by a provider, usually an insurance company or an investment house for the successful placing of business. The commission is included within the providers normal product charges, so there is nothing you need to pay us in addition. The amount of commission is based on a percentage of the premiums payable or sums invested.
Our philosophy is not to charge an hourly rate for our services. If we were to do this two things may happen. Firstly, we could simply double our income by working twice as slowly. Secondly, every time we took action on your file we would need to invoice you for the work that was completed- in effect you would be providing us with an open chequebook.
Our belief is that clients prefer to know up front what the charges are. For that reason we have a policy of charging a set fee for each piece of work undertaken.
If a fee is payable we will rebate all initial commissions received into the product or investment. or refund the commission to you less any fees that are due. We will do this within 28 days of receipt from the provider. We will retain any servicing fee or fund based payment made on products to help meet the ongoing costs associated with servicing that product.
If you ask us to arrange a mortgage for you we can be paid by either commission or a fee. If you choose to pay us a fee, this will usually be 1% of the loan amount witha minimum fee of £500.
Whether we take our remuneration by way of commission or fees will be a matter of discussion and agreement, and no charges for fees will be made without prior notification in writing.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.