UNDERSTANDING OUR FEES

TYPES OF ADVICE

When you compare the charges from different financial advice firms it’s important that you’re comparing like with like.

Chase de Vere typically provides face-to-face financial advice.

Chase de Vere provides independent financial advice. This means that our advice is completely unbiased and that we can recommend all retail investment products from across the market, depending on which are the most suitable for you.

There can be a huge difference in the advice and service offered by different financial advice firms. You need to determine the right mix of charges and service to meet your needs.

BEFORE YOU COMMIT

You need to understand how much you are paying, how you are paying it and what level of service you are getting in return. This will allow you to determine whether you are getting good value.

To help you to understand this, we offer an initial consultation which is without charge or obligation. We use this to get to know you and your needs better, explain our services, our fee structure and your payment options, and to answer any questions you may have.

In addition to our Terms of Business, which details the terms and conditions of our service, you will also be presented with a Client Services Agreement, which sets out specifically the service to be provided and the associated fees. At this stage you can decide whether you wish to use our services. If you decide not to, then no fees will be charged.

Only following your signed agreement will we begin to carry out our service.

To ensure that we are fully transparent, our fees are reiterated in a Client Services Engagement letter, and then again in your Suitability report.

FEES EXPLAINED

We provide you with different options to pay for our financial advice. The right approach for you will be determined by your preference and your circumstances.

There are three main options:

1. Percentage fee

We will charge you fees based on the value of investment and pension assets that we advise you on. The maximum fee that we levy for financial advice is an initial fee of 3% and an ongoing annual advice fee of 1.08%. In some circumstances, such as for those with larger investment amounts, we will charge less.

For example, if we are advising you on investments and pensions worth £100,000, we may charge you an initial fee of up to £3,000 and ongoing fees of up to £1,080 per year.

2. Hourly rate

In some circumstances, it may be more appropriate to charge based on the time taken to provide you with financial advice, rather than a percentage of your total investment. The standard hourly rate for our independent financial advisers is £250 per hour, for our paraplanners it is £175 per hour and it is £80 per hour for our administrative staff.

If you require specialist financial advice, such as on complex pensions, estate planning, long term care or equity release, the hourly fee for our technical experts is £400 per hour.

For example, a review to evaluate your occupational and private pensions and recommending a pension funding strategy may take between 5 and 8 hours for an adviser to complete, depending on the complexity of your situation. The cost for this would be between £3,400 – £4,150 based on an hourly rate for advice of £250, 10 hours of paraplanning time and 5 for administration.

3. Fixed fee

In some cases, you may be able to agree a fixed fee for advice. This would be agreed with you at outset. This fee is based on our estimate of how many hours it will take to provide the advice. You will not pay any extra if it takes longer than anticipated, as long as the scope of the advice remains the same.

For example, if you require advice on whether to take out an Equity Release Mortgage, we’d charge a fixed fee of £4,500. 

Payment options

You can pay your advice fees either by cheque, bank transfer or a deduction from your investment(s).

You can also pay the ongoing annual advice fee by direct debit.

Your adviser will discuss the most appropriate method with you.

Initial advice fee

• Professional, independent and personalised financial advice
• Detailed situational assessment to inform your planning decisions
• All necessary communications with you, your product providers and your personal representatives as required
• Comprehensive written financial planning report
• Implementation of recommended strategies

Ongoing advice fee

• Comprehensive regular reviews by your adviser, plus a full written report
• Proactive monitoring of your investments, pensions and other financial products
• Access to your adviser and support team by phone, email or face-to-face
• Regular financial commentary and bulletins
• Completion of all necessary administrative tasks
• A trusted independent financial adviser who is on your side

Discretionary Model Portfolio Service

In addition to our financial advice service, we provide a discretionary investment service, which may be suitable for some of our clients. This may be appropriate for our clients who don’t want to be actively involved in the ongoing management of their portfolio and are happy to hand these over to the experts in our Portfolio Management team.

Our investment portfolios are run to strict risk criteria, so that you know we are focussed on never taking more, or less, risk than you expect. We will also report to you regularly on your investment performance.