Fees and Commissions

We are fee based for investment work. For life insurance and mortgages we offer the choice of commissions or fees.

Our fees are competitive particularly when compared with commission options. We realise that some clients find it difficult to pay fees and we can arrange payment of our fees in alternative ways as described below.

Commissions

Although this option is no longer available for investment advice, mortgages and life insurance can be arranged such that we get paid by commission.

Although the commission route involves no direct expenditure by the client, they do ultimately pay for it in product charges. The other disadvantage of the commission route is that IFAs only get paid for arranging a particular policy or mortgage. If there is only a nominal commission (or indeed no commission) on a product or there is no need for a product to be recommended, the commission route is unprofitable for us and we would normally agree a fee for the work to be carried out.

IFAs have in the past taken the rough with the smooth and accepted this position on the basis that unprofitable work is subsidised by others. We do not feel that this is necessarily equitable or fair in some cases.

Fees

Fees are a transparent way of paying for our services and we are happy to work on this basis. We work from a fixed price menu of options and give a fairly firm estimate of the costs of any work that we are to carry out on your behalf. See our charges here

Offsetting Fees

We can operate a commission offset arrangement for fee based clients which generally reduces or eliminates the fee payable. Clearly, if we have agreed a fee with the client and then receive commission we need to account for the commission to the client since we are not entitled to keep it. It is up to the client to decide if the product is enhanced or the fee offset by commission received.