Are you independent?
Yes, we are ‘whole of market’ Independent Financial Advisers based in Leeds, and we are free of provider and large company influence.

Are you regulated?
We are a Directly Authorised firm with the regulator, the FCA.

What are your qualifications?
Our team holds a variety of qualifications, including the Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning from the Chartered Insurance Institute. Russell is a solicitor with many years’ experience, and Dee has a Business Management Degree. While qualifications are an important starting point for giving advice, it is experience that truly counts when managing a person’s life savings. Our senior IFA, Alan, started in 1996, before the Financial Planning Certificate existed. He now holds the Diploma and possesses many years of knowledge from having invested tens of millions of pounds for clients.

When was the business founded?
The business was founded in October 2012. The founder, Alan Lazenby, decided that the old commission system was not working. When the new system, called RDR, arrived, he felt that a fee-based advice service was now the perfect model, both ethically and practically. We have been fully committed to this approach from day one. Alan started his career in 1996.

Do you have professional indemnity insurance?
Yes, all regulated IFA firms need to renew their Professional Indemnity (PI) cover every year to remain registered with the FCA.

What services do you offer?
We offer full financial planning and wealth management. This means we advise on people’s pension and investment goals, help set and maintain plans and goals for them, as well as advising on Inheritance Tax solutions, and family and business protection.

What is your approach?
As IFAs, we take a holistic approach to advice. This means a client might have a retirement need and, at the same time, wish to save for their children’s future education. Therefore, our main area of expertise is using the right products with the right advice to achieve the results our clients desire for their wealth. The majority of our clients are professionals and business owners, although we also look after individuals with an inheritance and guide younger aspirational clients to create plans that will help them become high-earning professionals and business owners.

How often do you review my plan?
If a client chooses an ongoing service with us, the frequency of plan reviews will depend on both the size of the investment and the complexity of their situation. All clients have at least one face-to-face meeting each year with us; many have two. Additionally, all clients can access their adviser in various ways, including via phone, email, and our secure client portal messaging service for extra confidentiality.

Will I always deal with the same adviser?
We normally assign you one adviser, but to ensure continuity, you may see another adviser if your primary adviser is on holiday or ill.

What is your fee structure?
We operate a cap and collar fee structure, which means we have a minimum and a maximum fee. This can be based on the size of the investment or the complexity of your needs, so it’s best to speak with an adviser first to discuss your requirements.

Are your fees transparent?
Our fees are simple to understand and extremely clear; we pride ourselves on making the complex simple.

Are there any hidden costs?
We are a Yorkshire IFA based in Leeds, and we understand that our clients dislike hidden costs or surprises!

Do you charge for an initial meeting?
We do not charge for an initial meeting. This is because your time is also valuable, and we cannot assess if we can help you or if we are the right fit for you without meeting you first. Therefore, your initial meeting with us is at our expense.

How do you choose where and what to invest in?
We are very careful! We employ a complex process and research methodology when choosing where and what to invest. We utilise many sophisticated tools, pay for consultants, and meet managers regularly to understand their perspective. While we could write many pages on this, it’s best to have a face-to-face chat as we can get quite ‘geeky’ on the topic.

How often are portfolios monitored?
Clients’ portfolios are monitored daily by the director team. We also review investments every quarter during our Central Investment Committee meeting. Furthermore, we hire a fund manager to provide support and to sense-check all investments and their performance against a range of benchmarks.

Do you offer ethical investments?
The term ‘ethical’ has now largely been replaced with ‘sustainable’. This is a complex area of investing, and we have several clients who have areas they would prefer not to invest in. We use sophisticated software tools to filter out investments that go against our clients’ ethical concerns.

How often will I hear from you?
We try not to be a pest, because many clients worry if they receive too many calls from their adviser. We have various forms of contact, and some of these are sent out on a quarterly basis. If there is a major global issue that we feel might warrant discussing with clients, we use our portal to send an update on that issue to ensure they receive a professional viewpoint, as the media tends to be inaccurate on financial matters and can cause unnecessary anxiety. Our role is to stop our clients worrying about money, so they can enjoy life without that concern. Therefore, we use our communications to inform, educate, and alleviate.

When can I expect a response to my queries?
We tend to get queries at the weekend, lunchtime, or in the evenings. Our response time depends on when they come through. If it’s a phone call, we will try to put you in touch with an IFA there and then. If not, your details will be taken, and they will call you back once they are free. We receive emails from our website, and these are dealt with as soon as they come through, but sometimes you will have to wait until we are open for us to get back to you.

Do you have testimonials?
We have a testimonial page with videos from clients, and we also have Google reviews you can read. However, if you would like to talk to one of our clients, we’d be happy to let you have a chat with them; we have lovely clients who are very helpful to new investors.

How do you handle complaints?
We take such matters very seriously indeed. Our business is built on trust, and so the Managing Director will take the lead on any complaint in the first instance and look to rectify it. We are regulated and comply with the FCA and the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme). If a complaint cannot be resolved, the FOS (Financial Ombudsman Service) will support a client complaint. As you can imagine, every effort is taken to avoid complaints altogether, and where a complaint occurs, we deal with it in a swift and compassionate manner.

How long does the initial meeting take, and what is the process afterward?
The initial meeting takes around an hour or so, after which the client can proceed to the Discovery meeting within days. The time from the research stage to the presentation meeting, however, is more complex. This is because we need to gather a lot of information before we can give our advice, and that relies on a mix of clients having the information to hand and existing providers being efficient in returning our requests. It’s very much an individual timeframe due to these factors.

Why might an initial meeting not proceed to further stages?
There are two reasons why an initial meeting might not proceed. One is that the client has decided we are not for them, and we wish them well in finding the right adviser; it’s a very personal decision. The other reason is that we decided we cannot help or are not suitable, and if this is the case, we try to find the client the help they need. For example, if someone comes to us wanting to reduce debt, we would recommend that they contact the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). There is no charge for our time at the initial meeting; it’s there so we can both decide if we are the right fit.

Do you recommend other professionals, like solicitors or accountants?
Yes, we work with several professionals, and we are very careful to get to know the owners and their team. To recommend another professional means we put our reputation on the line, and our recommendation for our clients is important. Therefore, we cannot just use anyone; we need to know they are very competent and trustworthy. We do not have a commission arrangement with these solicitors or accountants we recommend, and we prefer to use local professionals we trust. Money should not be a consideration, in our view.