Who are you regulated by?
Fox Payne Associates is an appointed representative of Openwork who are regulated by the financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You can search the financial services register to see whether or not a firm is regulated and we can confirm that our FCA registration number is 215499
https://register.fca.org.uk/s/
You should always check that any company that you intend to invest through is approved and regulated by the FCA as this will help ensure that should anything go wrong you are properly protected and have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
What experience and qualifications do you have?
Overall, the consultants working for Fox Payne Associates have extensive experience in offering advice across the whole range of areas that most people will need to access. This will include retirement planning and investment advice, inheritance tax planning, the use of specialist investment products, mortgages and protection.
All advisers are qualified up to at least diploma status and some are qualified to chartered status. As appointed representatives of Openwork we are also required to adhere to their strict quality standards which include staying up to date on all relevant technical knowledge and work is quality checked on a consistent basis to ensure standards are maintained and all advice is appropriate.
What type of advice do you offer?
Our service is basically a financial planning service designed to help you identify and define objectives and then design a plan that will help you meet them. A large part of our work involves retirement and investment planning both in accumulating the necessary level of funds to provide you with a comfortable retirement but also the best way to access those funds when the time comes and to invest any surplus money in a tax efficient and effective way where you feel comfortable with the level of investment risk you are taking.
We also offer protection and mortgage advice.
Fees, pricing and transparency
We aim to charge a fair and reasonable fee taking into account the nature of the work and other factors. When we meet, we will provide you with our standard proposition document and talk you through how that works but this is only ever a guide to the arrangement that we may eventually put into place. Some matters are simple and straightforward to arrange but when we negotiate a fee with you, that sum will reflect factors such as the skill with which the work required is carried out, the nature and complexity of the matter, the size and value of the matter and the risks and the value provided to you of any saving achieved.
When you instruct us, we will provide you with a fee estimate for the steps it is agreed we will take on your behalf which will include all of our costs required to do the conduct and implement the business.
When implementing an arrangement with a provider we will also provide you with explicit costs of the providers own arrangements and the cost of any fund management.
Can the cost of your fees be deducted from my investment?
Yes it can and in most cases that is the way that people choose to do it particularly with retirement planning as any contributions receive tax relief under present rules. There may also be other advantages to this especially when you have particularly large retirement funds exceeding the lifetime allowance. However, you may choose to pay a separate fee if you wish which may be appropriate if you wish to maximise allowances such as ISA allowances, although the allowance is increased to allow for the payment of fees from the product.
In the case of insurance policies, no fee is charged as the provider will pay a commission and the cost of this has been inbuilt into the premium quoted.
How do you assess my financial needs?
We will want to have a thorough discussion with you and will need your full cooperation in providing all the necessary information in regard to your current financial circumstances. The initial fact finding stage can be time consuming as it is really important to gather all details and this will allow us to establish a clear picture of what your present situation is. We will also discuss with you and test your objectives.
So for example; with retirement planning we will want to clearly establish when you want to be in a position to stop work and what your subsistence and ideal income needs would be in current value terms at that point, we would then look at what money you have already managed to save, assess how much risk you are willing to take with your investments and then calculate using a range of agreed assumptions how much of your present income you need to set aside for the future and then agree the best way to do that. We would also take into account any risks to that plan such as you dying or being unable to work and make sure that if possible you can cover those threats through an appropriate protection plan.
How do you assess whether a product or investment has the right level of risk for me?
We will ask you to complete a special questionnaire that we have designed which will allow us to talk to you about your investment experience, capacity for loss and help you understand the difference that the different levels of investment risk can make to your long term returns. We will take into account your age and circumstances – so for instance if you have a very long time until you need to access your investment you are likely to be able to take a higher level of investment risk than someone who needs to access the funds in the near future.
As we have an ongoing service agreement this is checked at least once a year so that any adjustments required are made in a timely way.
How will I receive the advice?
Your advice will be given to you face to face and in a report.
Once our recommendation is completed, we will prepare a draft letter outlining our recommendations based on our understanding of your objectives and needs. We will discuss this with you either face to face or over the phone having sent it to you to ensure that you are happy that our advice reflects our discussions and your needs. Once we have reached final agreement we will prepare all the necessary paperwork to implement the recommendation.
Ongoing service and costs
We offer two levels of service as detailed in the attached proposition document (link to pro document). For most people the most appropriate services is the Wealth Management service and importantly this allows for a annual review which revisits all the reasons for the recommendation, takes account of any changes in your circumstances or general changes to the investment conditions and checks that you are still on course. If there has been changes this will ensure that any intervention that needs to be made is made in a timely and appropriate way. Life is not certain and in our experience has a habit of throwing in a curve ball which is why we consider this individual attention to be vital to the success of a financial plan.
The benefits are that it gives you a sense of confidence and certainty while you just get on with all the normal issues and pleasures of living your life.
Who will look after my advice?
You will be allocated a personal financial adviser who will look after you. This will allow you to build a highly personal relationship. However, we all know that things can change and one day your adviser may want to retire or he or she could get too ill to work or they may just wish to move to a different career. This is why we always have detailed notes of your discussions so that should your adviser be unavailable then another consultant at the practice will be able to easily see what is going on and what needs to be done and can pick up the relationship without you being inconvenienced. In our view this is one of the major reasons for a client to engage with a financial adviser who works within a larger practice that has robust systems and a record of success.
In many cases we appoint a “number 2” adviser and in all cases if you are on the Wealth Management service, you have open access to practice staff.
How do I know I am getting the right advice?
We will explain the reasons for the advice that we are giving in detail, but you will be able to see that it matches your stated objectives. As an additional safeguard, Openwork are committed to ensuring that the financial advice you receive is suitable for your needs based on the information that you have given. Openwork guarantees to act in accordance with all consumer rights in the event of any dispute. We intend to deliver high quality, suitable advice and if we don’t Openwork will put it right.
The value of investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the original amount invested.