It all starts with a conversation. A no-obligation meeting where we’ll explore what you’d really like to do with your life – what do you want to achieve, what does your dream retirement look like, and what have you always wanted to do but haven’t got around to yet?
If we get along like a house on fire and you’d like to move forward, we’ll dive in even deeper. We want to know what you earn, spend, own and owe. We’ll use this information to map out your future, plotting your life’s milestones on a timeline and showing how your financial situation will change as the years go by.
If you’re not on track to achieve your goals, we’ll advise you on how to improve your outcomes. This might involve looking for ways to reduce the amount of tax you pay, identifying expenses that are no longer priorities, or showing you the difference extra savings could make to your retirement.
We’ll stress-test your plan to see how it’d cope with market crashes or unexpected events, testing various scenarios such as downsizing or paying off your mortgage early.
We’ll help you to:
› Remove any fear you might have about making financial decisions
› Manage any emotional ‘baggage’ you might have around money
› Understand the choices available to you
› Work out 'how much is enough' to confidently plan ahead
› See how your money can last as long as you do, and beyond
› Keep on track and aligned with your life goals
› Feel confident by providing a second opinion and sounding board
What if?
With your financial plan in place, you’ll hopefully feel confident about your money and excited for the future. Financial planning is an ongoing and interactive process, so our work doesn’t end there. Your plan needs to be flexible, customisable, and reviewed regularly.
We’ll be on hand whenever you need us, ready to answer your questions and provide reassurance and recommendations accordingly.
Your life, goals and family’s needs will change over time, which is why we’ll offer ongoing reviews to help you stay on track, avoid any unwanted surprises and reach your financial goals.
Our fees
We believe the smartest way to charge our clients is to make our pricing as bespoke as our service.
Your history, hopes, dreams and future are unique to you alone. We need to know who you are and what you want from life to determine exactly what you need from us. With so much variation from one client to the next, it wouldn’t make sense to charge everyone the same fee.
We also don’t believe in charging you a percentage of your portfolio, making it impossible to gauge from the outset how much you’ll pay over the course of our relationship.
We’d like to have a short conversation to get to know you better first. We promise not pressure you into making a decision. All you need to do is tell us about yourself. We’ll listen, before letting you know how we can help and how much it will cost.
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Once we’ve formed a high-level picture of the planning required to get you from A to B, we’ll calculate an initial fee.
This can be particularly helpful if you’re looking for one-off advice to solve a specific money problem, such as working out if you’re going to be ok in retirement, making the best of your resources, finding the right insurance for your family or consolidating your pensions.
This initial fee will provide you with everything you need – exploratory discussions, talking you through our findings, and helping you to implement our recommendations. It is totally inclusive and there are no extras.
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If you’re looking for a trustworthy financial planner who’ll be at your side for many years, we’ll quote a monthly fixed fee. This monthly fee covers anything you could need throughout the year. Whether that’s making an adjustment to your pension contributions, setting up Junior ISAs for your children or grandchildren, or helping you invest money inherited from a long-lost aunt.
Whether you need one-off advice or an ongoing service, we take every aspect of your finances into account before making any recommendations. You might initially get in touch for help with your pension, only to end up with a fully funded ISA, carefully curated estate, and an additional stream of income in retirement. Most of our clients make back the money they spend on our fees many times over.
We believe in flexibility and wouldn’t dream of tying you into any lengthy contracts. If you decide our support isn’t quite right for you, we can either adapt or end the service. No questions asked.
We also offer flexibility in how you pay your fees. Most clients pay us directly from their bank accounts, but it’s also possible to pay via your pension or investments if you’d prefer.
To find out exactly how much our service will cost you, get in touch and tell us about yourself. You don’t need to know exactly what you need. That’s our job! Simply tell us what’s troubling you or what you’d like to achieve.
Once we’ve got to know you a little better, we can develop a personal proposal.
Our guides
An Introduction to Smarter Financial Planning
Our Investment Philosophy and Process