How We Are Paid

Introduction

LifePlanning Solutions offers you an initial meeting to understand in broad terms; your needs and objectives and to agree with you that our services are right for you going forward. Prior to undertaking any work on your behalf we will agree with you how we will be paid for our advice and services.

The Initial Meeting

This meeting usually lasts for around one hour. LifePlanning Solutions will meet the cost of the initial meeting subject to you completing an initial pre-meeting questionnaire and returning it to us 3 days prior to the initial meeting. If the initial pre-meeting questionnaire is not received, the cost of our initial meeting is £100 payable at the initial meeting or before.

The Overview Report

After our initial meeting, if required and agreed, we will prepare a report to summarise the meeting and our recommendations. The cost of preparing this report is £150 payable at the end of the first meeting.

Thereafter payment for our advice and services can be by a fee, by commission or by a combination of both as described below.

If we agree that you will be charged a fee, we will confirm this in a separate fee agreement. Our firm does not charge VAT.

LifePlanning Solutions offers a transactional advice service and an advice and ongoing review service and we will agree which level of service is most appropriate to your needs.

In the transactional service basis, we will provide the following;

• A full explanation of our company, how we work and a written explanation of the services that our company offers, so that you will fully understand the level of services and advice you can expect from us.
• A financial review in order to understand and agree with you; your needs and objectives based on a comprehensive review of your current financial position.
• Completion of a detailed risk analysis assessment to fully understand your attitude and tolerance to risk.
• Research the market place to ensure the most appropriate provider is recommended.
• All our advice will be confirmed in writing.
• We will forward any policy documents(s) to you as required.
• Your investments will not be kept under review, and we will not provide any ongoing advice, of course you are welcome to ask us to provide further advice, but we will charge separately for this.

The advice and review service includes the above along with the offer of annual face to face review meeting and an annual policy statement showing the value of any investments we have arranged for you.

Investments

Payment by Fee

If we agree that you will pay for our advice and services on a fee only basis, then regardless whether you buy a product or not, you will pay us a fee for our advice and services, which will become payable on completion of our work. If we also receive commission from the product provider when you buy a product, we will pass on the full value of that commission to you in one or more ways. For example, we could reduce our fee; or reduce your product charges; or increase your investment amount; or in rare circumstances we may refund the commission to you.

If the fee is time based our typical charges are based on the rates indicated below for all planning, research, reports and administration work. We can also agree a fixed fee for the work we do by individual negotiation.

    Financial Adviser         £125 per hour

    Administration            £25 per hour
   
We may charge you for travelling costs for a home visit.

If the fee is on a fixed fee basis our typical charges are based on the rates indicated below for all planning, research, reports and administration work.

Our typical charges are based on the value of the monies being invested for example:

Fee – up to 3% of the value of the investment money’s. For example, researching, advising and arranging a £100,000 investment could be £3000.

Fee – up to 3% of the value of the investment money’s. For example, researching, advising and arranging a £7,200 ISA investment could be £216.

Research and arranging a Personal Pension or Annuity - £500

Please note that the above fees are for guidance only. You may be asked to pay more or less depending on our assessment of the work involved.

With your prior permission, we reserve the right to charge up to a maximum of 1% per annum of your investment or fund value to meet the costs of ongoing policy servicing.
 
Sometimes we may also earn a small ongoing commission which we will normally arrange not to receive. Where it is not possible to stop this due to providers systems we will factor this into the cost of providing you with ongoing service items such as annual statements. We will confirm to you how much we will receive in your quotation, which will tell you about any other fees relating to any particular insurance policy as well.

Paying by Commission (through product charges)

Where advice has been provided that has resulted in the purchase of a financial product, we will normally receive commission from the product provider. While you will not pay us anything directly this does not mean our service is free. The commission is derived from the product charges taken by the provider, both initial and ongoing, and these charges reduce the amount allocated to the investment.

The amount of commission we receive will vary depending on the amount you invest and (sometimes) how long you invest or your age; for example:

•    If you invest £7,200 in an individual savings account (ISA) we would receive initial commission of 3% of the amount invested (£216) and 1% of the value of the fund (roughly £72) every year.

•    If you invest £10,000 in an investment bond we would receive initial commission of 3% of the amount invested (£300) and 1% of the value of the fund (roughly £100) every year.

•    If you invest £100 per month into a personal pension (with a term of 25 years) we would receive commission of 3% of the first 12 months premiums (£36) and 1% of the value of the fund (roughly £12 in year 1) every year.

•    If you transfer £10,000 in to a personal pension we would receive initial commission of 3% of the transfer (£300) and 1% of the value of the fund (roughly £100) every year.

•    If you purchase a £10,000 annuity we would receive commission of 1.5% of the amount invested (£150).

We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier. The fund based commission received will include the payment for any ongoing service such as periodic or ongoing review. Ongoing administration outside of the review meetings is without further cost.

We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier.

Paying by a Combination of Fee and Commission (through product charges)

We will charge you a combination of fee and commission. The fee will not exceed the rates shown in this document. We will agree the rate we will charge before beginning work and we will tell you if you have to pay VAT. The fee will become payable on completion of our work. You may ask us for an estimate of how much in total we might charge. You may also ask us not to exceed a given amount without checking with you first. We will tell you how much the commission will be before you complete an investment, but you may ask for this information earlier.

We charge a consultation fee of up to £150, and, if you buy a financial product, we will also retain commission within the amounts set out in the section headed "Paying by commission (through product charges).

We will charge you a combination of fees and commission. The actual amounts will depend on the service provided to you, but will be in line with the arrangements set out in the sections headed "Paying by fee" and "Paying by commission (through product charges).

We charge an annual fee as described in the fee information set out above. If we arrange for you to purchase a financial product, then we will also retain commission which will be in line with the arrangements set out in the section headed "Paying by commission (through product charges).

Non Investment Insurance

Payment can be made by fee, commission or a combination of both as shown above.

You will receive a Client Specific Illustration which will detail any other fees relating to your particular insurance policy.

We may also be remunerated by fee or commission as noted above. You will receive a Client Specific Illustration which will detail any other fees relating to you particular insurance policy.

General

Please note that there is a possibility that other costs, including taxes, could be incurred related to transactions in connection with investment business that are not paid via the firm or imposed by it.

For certain transactions that we recommend to you, LifePlanning Solutions will accrue a notional entitlement under a Discretionary settlement.  The value of this entitlement does not impact on the overall charges applied to your investment, and the actual cost to you will be disclosed as required by the Financial Services Authority.

In addition to the above, for certain transactions that we recommend to you, we will also receive a royalty payment from the provider as part of the annual management charge.  This payment will be made on an annual basis and again will not affect the charges applied to your contract as disclosed to you at the point of application.  We will be happy to provide you with details of the payments as they relate to your investment should you request these.