Consumer Duty & Compliance
Fair Value Statement
This document is aimed at providing you with a brief overview of our firm and to introduce our services.
Character Financial Services is a firm of Chartered Financial Planners based in Westerham, Kent and an appointed representative of Best Practice IFA Group Limited, a network that promotes a high level of market standards through the provision of resources, technology, training and support.
In this document, we intend to illustrate how we assess value and whether there is fair value between the total price of the service and the benefits and their quality that our clients receive.
Our service proposition has been designed to meet the needs and objectives of our clients and to ensure fair value is received by engaging with our service.
We work with clients who are accumulating wealth, already in retirement and/or those who are accessing their benefits.
The Value of our Service
- Working with a professional financial planner provides expertise and peace of mind.
- We build multi decade trust-based relationships with our clients. We get to know what really matters most to them and their families. What they are trying to achieve in life and help them to achieve it.
- Our relationships are often the longest standing relationships our clients have. They lean on us for so much more than the financial plans we cultivate and manage for them. This doesn’t happen without trust.
- List the marketing communications you provide to clients, including generic and targeted communications, and how they add value.
Summary
A holistic plan can cover any and all topics, depending on the specifics of your financial situation. The emphasis is on shaping a plan that takes into account what you want to achieve financially, what you value or prioritize most, and what options you might have in terms of workable solutions. Holistic advisors try not to leave any stone unturned so that you can have complete confidence in your financial plan.
We do not simply focus on an investment solution but cover aspects such as tax planning, trusts and passing money to children and grandchildren effectively.
Considering all areas included in the assessment of value, we believe the service provided is demonstrating value overall and our service proposition along with this value statement has been approved by our network, Best Practice IFA Group Ltd.
| Advisory Services – Tax Efficiency | |
| What advisory services do you deliver as a Financial Planning Firm and what do you feel is the value your clients derive from each of these services? | Making sure we consider tax reliefs and allowances, enables clients to maximise their after-tax wealth. If you don’t take advantage of annual tax reliefs, then you could quite literally be paying more tax than you need to. We can evidence the amount you have potentially saved through our planning. |
| Advisory Services – Market and Product Research and Analysis | |
| What advisory services do you deliver as a Financial Planning Firm and what do you feel is the value your clients derive from each of these services? | To recommend the most suitable solutions for our clients, we use professional tools to conduct research and analysis of provider and product solutions. This ensures we can make recommendations to best meet your needs and goals. We invest in the necessary technology that allows us to source appropriate solutions for our clients. |
| Advisory Services – Corporate Services | |
| What advisory services do you deliver as a Financial Planning Firm and what do you feel is the value your clients derive from each of these services? | We provide our clients with advice regarding Group Life and Critical Illness Cover, Private Medical Insurance and Income Protection solutions. The value of this service for the individual employee can be through tax efficiency and tangible cost savings as opposed to trying to implement personal solutions. |
| Advisory Services – Advice for Entrepreneurial Families | |
| What advisory services do you deliver as a Financial Planning Firm and what do you feel is the value your clients derive from each of these services? | Business advice – key man insurance / shareholder protection planning – designed to protect the business in the event of the death or critical illness of an individual who is essential to the business. Continuity of trading via a tax efficient solution is very important. Relevant life for Directors and the value which can be added i.e. tax efficiency / business deductible expense / savings can be illustrated in £’s and pence and can be significant. Referrals to professional services firms and how this adds value to clients – Leveraging years of experience cultivating trust-based relationships with professional services firms, particularly solicitors. There is a significant investment by us in the time and energy required to develop these connections and our clients benefit from working with tried and tested services. |
| Non-advisory Services – Other services | |
What non-advisory services do you deliver as a Financial Planning Firm and what do you feel is the value your clients derive from each of these services?
| Consider other non-advisory services you offer and how these add value to your clients, such as: Life Goals Planning To help clients consider their short / medium / long term goals in life and provide financial solutions to help them in their plans to achieve these goals. Financial Coaching Financial Coaching can add value at various times throughout the financial planning journey and help you to make considered financial decisions. Amounts to invest to meet your goals How and when to release capital or take income Reassurance in volatile market conditions Understand how markets work and the journey you can expect Understanding legislation and tax changes Financial coaching – professional sense check – behavioural guidance – we help to take the emotion out of financial decision making and helping clients avoid falling into common mistakes. Education Planning Many clients want to support their children through university and we can help you put in place a financial plan to meet these costs in full or in part. This will provide you with the knowledge and peace of mind that this very important goal is in hand and will be reviewed year on year to make sure you are on track. Market Briefings and Investment Updates Our clients receive at least an annual review and we make contact if there are any significant changes such as budget announcements or market developments. Maintaining professional competency – Annual CPD As a Financial Planner, each year we evidence the learning activities we have completed to maintain competence in our role and improve our knowledge This allows us to continue providing suitable and up to date advice to our clients, year on year. |
| Your Firm’s Investment Proposition (and Philosophy) | |
| What is your investment proposition how does is add value to your clients? | Philosophy and Investment Research Methodology Our investment proposition is researched to provide the most suitable investment solutions to cater for your needs. We choose to outsource investment management to professional money managers. Our skill is in selecting which ones to blend together to build portfolios aimed at meeting your goals. We have the time and professional skillset to monitor your investments and the investment managers. To make sure we stay on track to meet your goals. We tend to your investments while you give all the other things in life your full attention. We adopt a blend of active and passive investment management strategies in our client solutions because we believe both have a place depending on a clients circumstances We use industry benchmarks as a measure of market performance. Our investment proposition is researched to provide the most suitable investment solutions to cater for your needs. This ultimately gives our clients great comfort that their investments are being managed by investment professionals and their financial plans are being looked after by highly qualified financial planning professionals. This is the value that a relationship with our firm provides. It’s what our clients pay for. Discretionary Fund Management / Multi Asset Portfolios etc. We recommend discretionary investment management solutions for clients. We believe this can add value where a client wants a specific person managing their money that they can have a relationship with. Our approach means that our time is focused on you. We let the professional investment managers monitor the markets on a day-to-day basis. We feel this combination delivers you the best value. Centralised Investment Proposition We have built long term relationships with industry recognised DFMs and providers on whom we conduct regular due diligence. This gives clients the peace of mind that their money is in good hands. We believe this approach allows our financial planners the greatest opportunity to spend their time and energy focused on you and your family’s goals and objectives, where we add the greatest value. Rebalancing Auto-rebalancing of your portfolio on a regular basis, to reset your investments back to your agreed initial investment mix. We will also proactively consider the tax consequences of these actions and will ensure we are taking advantage of any tax reliefs or allowances that you are entitled to. This is a proactive investment management service which helps to keep your investments on track to meet your goals and saves you money through utilisation of your annual capital gains tax allowances. Helps to ensure your investments and selection of funds / asset classes remain aligned to your chosen attitude to risk and capacity for loss. Helps to reset your investments on a regular basis back to your strategic investment plans, by adjusting dynamically for swings in markets. |
| Technology | |
| What technology do you use and how does this add value to the client? | One of the reasons we chose to work with Benchmark, was their technology. Something they have won numerous awards for. Ultimately backed by Schroders, we have every confidence that the security of our client’s information within Benchmark’s client management technology systems, is in very safe hands. This decision is something we know our clients expect us to get right. It’s incredibly important to them and a reason they feel safe working with us. Our client management systems create adviser efficiency – this means we can spend more time working with clients on the issues that are important to help develop their financial plans. Client technology such as an online portal. The features of the client portal include interactivity, convenience and security. All of these add value and real time access to information and valuations. |
| Your Staff / Adviser Training and Development Programmes | |
| What staff / adviser training do you have in place and how does this add value to the client? | We have regular team meetings which helps us to deepen knowledge and professionalism within your staff and business. This ensures that our client’s experience is linked to maintaining quality and value. CPD programmes – maintaining professional knowledge, regulatory and tax change / updates / implications to client solutions. |
| General Value Statements – Working with your Firm / a Financial Adviser – Tangible and Intangible Benefits | |
| General value adding statements | Working with a professional financial planner provides expertise and peace of mind We build multi decade trust-based relationships with our clients. We get to know what really matters most to them and their families. What they are trying to achieve in life and help them to achieve it. Our relationships are often the longest standing relationships our clients have. They lean on us for so much more than the financial plans we cultivate and manage for them. This doesn’t happen without trust. |