Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Essentials

Thank you for considering Planning for Life.

Please read this page carefully.  It provides important information about our services and their cost. It will enable you to decide if our services are right for you.

You are also welcome to refer to other material provided by Planning for Life such as the Path to Freedom leaflet as well as the rest of this website.

We will ask you to sign our Client Agreement when you appoint Planning for Life. This sets out the essential rights and obligations of Planning for Life and its clients. Click here to download a copy of the Client Agreement or go to our Services section where you can find documents for each service that we offer.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Essentials

We are boutique life and financial planners. We work with clients to achieve their life and financial goals. We help them develop and implement strategies to achieve their goals through an objective planning process and professional management of their invested assets.

The Services we provide

We provide three separate but linked services:

  • The Strategic Life and Financial Planning service for new clients
  • The Implementation Service for new clients
  • A range of Continuity Programmes, which are our main, on-going services for existing clients as set out in our published service standards.

As part of these services we may make recommendations about your existing financial products and new products. We will do this only after we have made the thorough assessment of your goals, needs and financial situation that is the foundation of our service.

Recommendations will be in writing and form part of your life and financial plan.

It is your responsibility to provide us with the full and accurate information we need to enable us to give you the most suitable advice about your finances and investments.

Who regulates us?

Planning for Life is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to provide investment advice. The FSA is the independent watchdog appointed by the Government to regulate financial services. Our FSA number is 448184 and you can confirm details of our firm from the FSA register atwww.fsa.gov.uk/register or by contacting the FSA on 0845 606 1234.

We are permitted by the Financial Services Authority to provide advice and arrange deals in the following types of investment: shares, investment trusts, collective investments ,ISAs and PEPs, warrants, government and public securities, investment life assurance (regular and single premium), personal pension schemes and stake-holder pension schemes. We are pension specialists and advise on pension transfers and opt-outs. 

We do not provide advice on mortgages, equity release or non-investment based life insurance.

Are we independent?

Yes, we are independent because:

  • We are committed to aligning our interests with those of our clients and our ethos is built upon ensuring that we treat our clients fairly at all times

  • We offer products and investments from the whole of the market, and these will normally be held on a single third party custodial and administration service platform

  • Our remuneration is agreed with you prior to conducting any business with you, and is not dependent on the purchase of financial products

  • We abide by the rigorous Code of Ethics and Professional Practice of the Institute of Financial Planning.  A breach of this Code could result in our expulsion and loss of our Certified Financial Planner® licence

  • Planning for Life is wholly owned by the business managers eliminating any bias from shareholders or financial backers able to influence the advice that we might give.

Independence is more than choosing products from the whole of the market. It is about our professional and ethical approach to doing business that puts the client first.

What and how you pay for our services

We will charge a fee for our advice and services, irrespective of whether you buy a product.

Our fees will take the form of an invoice for our time spent on delivering our Strategic Planning and Implementation services, and a retainer for the continuity programmes. Our typical time charges vary from £240 per hour (Principal) to £65 per hour (Administration).

We will confirm the amount and method of payment of our retainer fee before we carry out any business with you, and advise you if VAT is payable.

You may elect for us to receive product based commission to reduce fees. This will have an impact on the performance of the product.

Other related costs

Our recommendations may lead to you incurring other related costs that are not charged by us. These could include charges for recommended services or products, and taxes.  We will always disclose these costs to you, but it is your responsibility to pay them.

Commission

Occasions may arise where we receive commission from product providers outside of our agreed fee structure. This may happen where we obtain servicing rights to an existing investment or policy (which enables us to monitor the progress of the product) and these rights come with built-in commission. This situation is rare, but we reserve the right to ignore small commission payments of less than £25 when calculating fee reductions.

Initial meeting

In order to help you decide whether our services are appropriate for you we will invite you to attend an initial Exploration Meeting with us. This meeting, which can last for between one and two hours, is

  • Absolutely free

  • In strict confidence

  • Without any obligation on your part or ours

During this meeting we will give you a short presentation about our services, then ask you to talk about yourself and what you hope to achieve from a relationship with us.  Finally we will set out for you the precise nature and costs of the services that we would provide to you.

Your status

We always classify clients as "Retail Clients" as defined by the Financial Services Authority; you therefore benefit from the highest level of protection available under the regulatory regime currently in force. We do not normally allow clients to reclassify (and thus loose the highest level of protection.

Confidentiality and privacy

We treat all information about our clients in the strictest confidence.  We will not disclose your personal information to any individual or organisation except in so far as it is necessary to provide our published service to you.

We will write to you specifically about your affairs as and when necessary and will send you regular and occasional interim newsletters.

Discretion and dealing

We do not have discretion over your financial arrangements. We will only deal in or arrange financial products for you after making a recommendation to you and receiving your instruction to proceed.

Investment administration

We will provide access to the Transact investment custody and administration service provide by Integrated Financial Arrangements where we look after your investments for you. We do not oblige you to hold your assets on this platform, but unless there are sound financial reasons for not doing so we will reserve the right to levy an additional charge to cover the extra administration. We will advise you of Transact's fees prior to commencement.

We research and monitor the market for investment administration services and we believe that Transact is a suitable service for our clients, but we cannot be held liable for default of Transact.

Where you appoint a discretionary portfolio manager, wealth manager or private bank the institution will normally administer your investments under a separate client agreement. 

Communicating with us

We are happy to receive your instructions orally, in writing or electronically; we ask you to confirm oral instructions in writing

We will communicate our plans and advice to you orally, in writing or electronically. We are always be willing, at your request, to confirm in writing recommendations originally given orally or by email and will be willing to inform you of the basis on which we make judgements leading to the advice we give. 

Client money

We do not handle client money.  Investments and financial products that we purchase for you will be registered in your own name or as instructed.

Conflict of interest

We offer independent advice, but occasions can arise where we, or one of our other customers, will have some form of material interest in business that we are transacting for you.  If this happens, or if we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other customers conflict with your interests, we will inform you and obtain your consent before the we carry out your instructions.

What to do if you have a complaint

If you wish to register a complaint please contact us by writing to Planning for Life, 2 Bondgate, Helmsley, York, YO62 5BR, or by calling us on 01439 770 105.

If you cannot settle your complaint with us you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. 

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS): if you have a complaint that is upheld you may be entitled to compensation from the FSCS if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim.

Most types of investment business are covered up to a maximum limit of £50,000.

Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.
   

Copyright © 2009 Planning for Life Ltd.

Planning for Life is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, registered number 448184.

Planning for Life Ltd is registered in England, no 5144684. Main and registered office: 2 Bondgate, Helmsley, York, YO62 5BR, telephone 01439 770 105, email admin@planningforlife.ltd.uk.