Our initial meeting will give us both the opportunity to introduce ourselves. It will allow you to describe the advice you require and for us to provide you with a clear understanding of how we might be able to help. We will discuss the costs of our services, agree with you our fees and answer any other questions you may have.

We will provide you with our Client Agreement. This explains the services we provide and it will form the basis of our professional relationship.

All information that you provide is kept confidential.

Gathering Information

Sometimes this is a continuation of the initial meeting but generally it is a separate meeting where you provide us with additional information about yourself and your current financial situation.

We ask you to bring with you proof of ID, information about your employment, income, expenditure, assets and liabilities. We will ask you to provide your contact details and information to enable us to provide comprehensive advice.

We jointly discuss your personal and financial goals, understand the time frame for results and discuss, if relevant, how you feel about investment risk and your capacity for loss.

Our clients range from sophisticated investors and the significantly wealthy to smaller investors who may require only the financial equivalent of a helping hand – which is why we pride ourselves on delivering a service tailored to your individual needs. As part of this, we recognise the importance of risk. Specifically, we appreciate it is easy to get caught up in the advantages of a product – its potential for income or capital growth and its returns – while overlooking how much risk you’re prepared to tolerate.

We prefer to spend a little more time talking about risk. Let’s be realistic. Discussing the prospect of losing money rather than making it might sound negative, but your attitude to risk is a key part of the product-selection process. In keeping with our fundamental belief that different financial questions demand different answers, our process is as flexible.

Formulating and Actioning a Plan

We will analyse the information provided to assess your current situation and determine what you must do to meet your goals. Depending on the services requested, this would include analysis on your assets, liabilities and cash flow. It could include investment, taxation or insurance advice.

You may of course already have a number of existing pensions, investments and life assurance plans. As part of our planning process, with your agreement, we will obtain up to date information from each provider on your behalf, free of charge.

We will then offer our financial planning recommendations and investment advice that address your goals, based on the information you provided. We use various market leading systems to help us choose from the thousands of funds and the many products in the market place.

With our research comes experience and therefore advice. We will make recommendations based on what we think is best for you to meet your stated goals.

If you decide to proceed, we will then implement the recommendations and where appropriate set up a suitable investment administration platform.

Annual Review

On an annual or half yearly basis we will review your financial plan and your investment strategy taking into account any changes to your personal circumstances e.g. retirement, receipt of an inherited lump sum, a requirement for additional income, or the desire to make a gift of money etc. This review aims to ensure that you are on track to achieve your goals and identify what changes to your plan are required.