WHO WE ARE: Heathcote Financial Planning is a trading name of The Mortgage
and Protection Partnership Ltd. Registered in England and Wales number:
8734287. We are Authorised & Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
under number 612049. You can check this on the Financial Services Register by
visiting www.fca.org.uk/register/ or by contacting the FCA at 12 Endeavour
Square, London, E20 1JN or telephone 0800 111 6768 (freephone).
Email: info@heathcotefp.co.uk
Web: https://heathcotefp.co.uk/
Tel: 0333 3356087
This document sets out the basis on which we will conduct business with you and
on your behalf. It is an important document, and we would ask you to read it
carefully and if you are unsure of any of its terms please ask.
The terms of this Agreement come into force immediately on acceptance (implied
or actual) of its terms by you and will remain in force until cancelled by us or you
or replaced by a later version.
1. THE RANGE OF OUR ADVICE AND FINANCIAL PLANNING OBJECTIVES
Your adviser is independent and acts on your behalf as your agent. Your Adviser
is therefore able to provide unbiased unrestricted advice on retail investment
products based on a comprehensive and fair analysis of the market.
We are permitted to give advice on and arrange savings and investment products,pensions, mortgages and non-investment insurance contracts that are regulated by the FCA under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000; this agreement pertains to investments and pensions only. We may advise on other financial products not regulated by the FCA under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) does not apply to these products.
In order to provide you with personal financial advice and recommendations
suitable for your particular circumstances we will undertake a data gathering
exercise, more commonly known as a ‘fact find’ to gather the appropriate
information to assess your needs and a copy of this document is available on
request. We will then be able to set out clearly your financial planning objectives
based on your stated objectives, acceptable level of risk and any restrictions you
wish to place on the type of policies you are willing to consider.
Details of your stated objectives will be set out in a Suitability Report we will
issue to you to confirm our recommendation. Unless confirmed in writing, to the
contrary, we will assume that you do not wish to place any restrictions on the
advice we give you.
You hereby acknowledge that in the event of the firm assisting you in the
completion of any investment or insurance application or policy proposal forms
that you will in any event continue to bear full responsibility for the accuracy and
completeness of the information entered on such forms.
Therefore, you understand that inclusion of incorrect information or omission of
any material facts may result in the insurance, investment or policy to which the
application or proposal relates to being potentially inappropriate, adversely
adjusted, made void and/or any claim(s) made against it being refused.
The advice we give you will be based on the information you have given us and
your stated investment objectives including the degree of risk you will accept. It
is your responsibility to advise us on any changes.
We will forward to you all documents showing ownership of your
investments/contracts as soon as practicable after we receive them. All such
documents may be sent by post, and this would be at your risk.
We will outline from the outset whether our advice will cover your entire
financial planning needs (Holistic Advice) or focus on specific areas (Focused
Advice) giving consideration to any restriction you place on our advice.
We require our clients to give us instructions in writing, or we may confirm our
understanding in writing (by post or by email) in order to avoid possible
disputes. This will usually be in the form of a proposal or application form. We
will, however, accept oral instructions in certain instances provided they are
subsequently confirmed in writing.
2. CLIENT CLASSIFICATION
The type of client category will determine the levels of protection afforded to
you under the Financial Services and Market Act 2000. The firm proposes to
classify you in accordance with FCA rules as a Retail Client and the regulatory
protection available to you will be the highest available. This agreement is
personal to you and not assignable. We may accept instructions from and give
information to third parties or your other advisers on your behalf where you
have confirmed we may do so. We cannot accept any responsibility for errors in
information supplied by such persons.
In the event of an unresolved dispute you will have a right of referral to the
Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and may be entitled to benefit from the
maximum protection available under the Financial Services Compensation
Scheme (FSCS). It should be noted that not all Retail Clients are eligible claimants under the FSCS.
Where you are a trustee, director or officer of any trust, corporation or LLP
requiring advice you warrant to us that you have full authority to act on behalf of
the same and there are no restrictions on the limits of our advice of which we
have not been made aware. We will not be responsible for advising on
compliance with your trust, trustee, director or officer obligations.
Where there is a recommendation for a discretionary service, you may appoint
us as your agent for the purposes of procuring and entering into an agreement
for a Discretionary Investment Manager (“DIM”) to provide services to you, the
Client.
In the event of an unresolved dispute where we have acted as agent on your
behalf, you will not have a right to refer the DIM to the Financial Ombudsman
Service (FOS).
3. THE COST OF OUR SERVICES
You will pay for our services by either a fee or a combination of fee and/or fee by
payment facilitation through product charging. We will discuss your payment
options with you and answer any questions you have. We will not charge you
until we have agreed with you how we are to be paid. For payment options
relating to investment advice, please refer to paragraph 14. For payment options
relating to protection products, please refer to paragraph 15. For payment
options relating to mortgage advice, please refer to paragraph 16 and general
insurance, please refer to paragraph 17.
Value added tax may be payable on some or all of the work we do. We will
inform you if VAT is applicable.
4. INVESTMENT AND PENSION ADVICE
When paying by fee, you will pay us for our advice and services (whether you
buy a product or not) at an amount or a rate agreed before we commence any
work. Our fees may include VAT. Where this is the case, you will be informed and
invoiced accordingly.
Our hourly rates are:
Director £150 per hour
Financial adviser £100 per hour
Pension Transfer Specialist £200 per hour
Any other specialism £150 per hour
Administration £50 per hour
These fees are indicative only and in any event are subject to review annually on
1st January. In cases that we deem to be complex in nature, our fees may be higher than our stated rates. However, we will always provide you with a
breakdown of our estimated fee and agree this with you prior to undertaking
any work.
Our fees as a percentage of the funds invested are:
Amount Invested % Fee
Up to £100,000 2%
£100,001 – £250,000 1.5%
£250,001 and above 1%
For example:
An investment of £100,000 would cost £2,000
An investment of £200,000 would cost £3,500 (2% on the first £100,000 and 1.5% on the remainder)
You may wish to set a fixed amount of fees that cannot be exceeded without
further reference to you, in which case please speak with your Adviser. Where
charging a fixed fee we will provide you with a fee agreement showing the actual
fee that will be payable for the agreed service being provided. Where charging
an hourly rate we will provide a letter of engagement to indicate how much we
might charge in total.
5. ON-GOING SERVICES & FEES – INVESTMENTS AND PENSIONS
YOUR PAYMENT OPTIONS
SETTLING YOUR ADVISER CHARGE THROUGH A SINGLE PAYMENT
You will be required to settle the payment of our fees on completion of our work.
We accept cheque or bank transfers. We do not accept payment by cash. You will be provided with a receipt upon payment.
SETTLING YOUR ADVISER CHARGE BY INSTALMENTS – PAYING BY INSTALMENTS THROUGH YOUR RECOMMENDED PRODUCT
If you buy a financial product, you can choose to have your adviser charge
deducted from the product through instalments. Although you pay nothing to
us up front, that does not mean that our service is free. You still pay us
indirectly through deductions from the amount you pay into your product.
These deductions will pay towards settling the adviser charge. These deductions
could reduce the amount left for investment.
HOW YOUR PAYMENT PLAN WORKS
Total cost for advice £600
Total monthly premium payable into your plan £250
Length of repayment period 12 months
Monthly payment for advice £50
Of the £250 monthly premium paid for 12 months, £200 is invested and £50 is
payment for advice.
On month 13, the £250 monthly premium will be invested in full.
PAYING THROUGH OTHER ARRANGEMENTS
You can choose to pay your adviser charge by standing order on a monthly,
quarterly or annual basis. The adviser charge can be paid up to a maximum of
12 instalments on the 1st day of the month from your bank account. The
adviser charge will be taken in equal instalments.
KEEPING UP WITH YOUR PAYMENTS
If you fail to keep up repayments of the adviser charge, we will terminate our
relationship.
You may elect that we are remunerated by fees and offset fees (paid by a
product provider) the actual amounts will depend on the service provided to you
but will be in line with the arrangements set out above in section headed
“investment advice”.
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 OFFER AN ONGOING SERVICE WHERE WE REVIEW YOUR ACCOUNT.
This service is provided at a charge of 0.5% of the value of your investment per
annum (paid monthly) and can be either deducted from your investment or paid
by direct debit. This service can be cancelled at any time.
Where we agree to provide you with a service that includes an ongoing review of
the suitability of the investments we have recommended, we’ll carry out this
review at least annually unless agreed otherwise.
To do this we will need to make contact with you to assess whether the
information we hold about you remains accurate and up to date. We’ll issue you
with a report setting out the results of our assessment and, if relevant, any
updated recommendations.
We will make at least three attempts by different means to contact you, so it is
important to keep us up to date with regard to any changes of contact details
such as a change of address, email or telephone number.
We may, where appropriate, recommend holding some, or all, of your
investments with a discretionary fund manager (DFM), a professional investment
manager appointed to monitor your portfolio and make investment decisions on
your behalf. In such cases we’ll explain the respective responsibilities of
ourselves and the DFM in relation to your investments.
In some circumstances we may need to act as your ‘agent’ in relation to the part
of your portfolio held with a DFM. This means that you won’t have a direct
contractual relationship with the DFM and the DFM will instead treat our firm as
its client. Before setting up this type of arrangement we’ll explain the
implications to you.
Whilst our fund managers will deal with the day to day management of the
funds and any switching deemed necessary as part of that process, we will also
carry out internal quarterly reviews on the performance of our chosen fund
manager.
Additionally, if we do not feel our chosen Fund Manager is acting in your best
interests, we will recommend a change of that fund manager.
If we do not get a response to our request for a meeting on two consecutive
reviews, we will switch off any fee being received and change your status to
transactional (as described in the following table (Service Level 5).
If you do not require ongoing service, you will be classed as a transactional
client (Service Level 5) and there will be no ongoing costs levied by ourselves.
As a result of this you will be liable for any investment decisions and if you
require advice at any time there will be a cost involved and we will have no
responsibility to provide any additional services.
6. SERVICE LEVEL OPTIONS
There are five service levels, and each service level is described below. Please
note, you can choose to move within the service levels if you so wish. However, it
is important to understand that given the service provided within each service
level is different, any change to the service level will be valid for a 12-month
period.
WHAT YOU GET
*this means that for the level 5 clients who are not paying for ongoing servicing,
we will contact each year and ask if you want a review. If you choose to have a
review this will be carried out a cost of £750.
** when funds are switched from an existing non-tax efficient investment to an
ISA.
What does it cost?
With an ongoing service charge of 0.5% this means that you will pay:
£5 per £1,000 invested
£50 per £10,000 invested
£500 per £100,000 invested
What does the Review entail?
At a review we will (this is not an exhaustive list:
- Assess personal circumstances
- Assess any changes to objectives, needs, circumstances and how any such change could affect your financial plans going forward
- Reassess Attitude to Risk
- Reassess Capacity for Loss
- Review holdings performance against objectives
- Discuss valuations and investment Commentary
- Recommend any changes to portfolio as and when necessary
- Discuss any additional needs you may have
Any cash top up investments will be charged as described on the previous page;
however, any new switches or transfers will be charged at the normal rate as
described on page three.
There is a minimum ongoing servicing fee of £1,000 which can be deducted from
your investments or paid direct by Standing Order.
Your ongoing service can be cancelled at any time by informing us in writing.
Please note that we do reserve the right to charge you for services received that
are pending payment.
Please note that the fee is based on the plan value which means that although all
clients within a particular service band are charged the same percentage, the
actual cost may vary depending on that fund value.
7. PURE PROTECTION PRODUCTS
If you buy a protection product you may elect that we are remunerated by
commission. The commission is paid directly by the provider. Although you pay
nothing up front that does not mean our service is free. The commission paid to
us forms part of a ‘product charge’ which you pay when you purchase the product.
Product charges pay for the product provider’s own costs and any commission
payable to third parties.
You may elect that we arrange for the protection premium to be discounted by
the commission that otherwise might have been payable under the policy
recommended. In this instance you will need to pay a fee appropriate to cover our
advice and work, in accordance with paragraph 14.1 above.
The amount of commission we receive will vary depending on the type of policy
and (sometimes) the term of the policy or your age, as in the following example:
If aged 40 you took out a Life and Critical Illness policy with a sum assured of
£100,000 and premium of £45pm we would receive commission of approximately
£1000 and from year 5 onwards £13.50 per annum.
If aged 30 you took out a Life and Critical Illness policy with a sum assured of
£100,000 and premium of £22pm we would receive commission of approximately
£450 and from year 5 onwards £6.70 per annum
8. MORTGAGES
Our Fees for Mortgages Advice
In accordance with the regulatory requirements, for providing mortgage advice
there is:
A fee of £300 for arranging a mortgage is payable on completion. We will also
be paid commission from the lender.
Refund of fees
Fee charged on completion. No refund…
9. GENERAL INSURANCE
For general insurance advice we do not charge a fee as we will receive commission from the insurance provider.
We may also receive commission or other form of benefit from working with the
issuer of a security, a product provider or from another intermediary. We will
inform you before the transaction if we are likely to receive such commission or
form of benefit from recommending any product to you.
In respect of any regular premium policy which we may recommend, should you
subsequently cease to pay premiums on the policy and as a result of your
cancellation we are obliged to refund product charges or other commission that
has been paid to us we reserve the right to charge you a fee representing the
amount we have to repay, for a period of up to four years after commencement
of the policy. We will not charge such fee if you exercise your right to cancel in
accordance with the cancellation notice sent to you by the product provider.
10. CLIENT MONEY
For your additional security we do not handle client’s money. We never accept
a cheque made out to us (unless it is a cheque in settlement of our fees or other
charges or disbursements for which we have sent you an invoice). We do not
handle cash. Cheques for payment will be required to be paid direct to the
insurance provider.
11. ACCOUNTING TO YOU
We will make arrangements for all your investments/contracts to be registered in
your name unless you first instruct us otherwise in writing. You have a right to
inspect copies of contract notes and entries in our records in relation to
transactions on your behalf. In that request we reserve the right to give you copies of such documents rather than access to the original records.
We will forward to you all documents showing ownership of your policies as soon
as practicable after we receive them. Where a number of documents relating to a
series of transactions is involved, we will normally hold each document until the
series is complete and then forward them to you.
12. FINANCIAL SERVICES COMPENSATION SCHEME (FSCS)
We subscribe to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). You may be entitled to compensation from the scheme if we cannot meet our obligations. This depends on the type of business and the circumstances of the claim. You will find up-to-date details of the FSCS’s compensation limits, eligibility and details of how to make a claim on its website www.fscs.org.uk. As of December 2021, the limits are:
INVESTMENT
Most types of investment business are covered for 100% of the first £85,000 (per
eligible person, per firm).
PENSIONS
Most types of pensions with a provider are covered for 100% with no upper limit,
however for a SIPP operator or in relation to pension advice, this is limited to
£85,000 (per eligible person, per firm).
HOME FINANCE PRODUCTS MORTGAGES AND HOME PURCHASE PLANS
Advising on or arranging house purchase finance is covered for 100% of the first
£85,000 (per firm).
INSURANCE
Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% to 100% of the claim with no
upper limit.
Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from
the FSCS.
13. COMPLAINTS
If you should have any complaint about the advice, you receive or a product you
have bought, please write to or call Stephen Heathcote, 15 Gloucester Road,
Ross-on-Wye, HR9 5BU, info@heathcotefp.co.uk, Tel: 0333 3356087
If following our subsequent investigation and response you are still not satisfied
you may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (www.financialombudsman.
org.uk; The Financial Ombudsman Service; Exchange Tower; London
E14 9SR). Full details are contained within our internal Complaints procedure,
which is available to you on request at any time.
14. CANCELLATION RIGHTS
The cancellation rights for each individual policy you have been advised on will be explained to you in your suitability report which we will give you before or at the time you confirm or carry out the transaction. Where the provider is already in
receipt of the investment proceeds and cancellation is requested within the
cancellation period, we will instruct the provider to refund the proceeds net/gross
of the adviser charging agreed.
15. MATERIAL INTERESTS
We are not connected to any product provider, but occasions can arise where we, or one of our other clients, will have some form of interest in business, which we are transacting for you. If this happens, or we become aware that our interests or those of one of our other client’s conflicts with your interests, we will inform you
in writing and obtain your consent before we carry out your instructions. There
may be occasions when we will be unable to act for one of the parties.
As a consequence of such potential conflicts arising, we have put arrangements
in place to ensure our clients are treated fairly. We have also implemented a
conflicts of interest policy to help us manage such risks, which you may access on request.
16. RISK WARNINGS
Relevant risk warnings will be advised to you throughout the financial planning
process and in your suitability report.
The value of investments may go down as well as up, and you may not get
back the amount invested. Levels of income from investments may fluctuate.
We cannot be held liable for any depreciation in the value of investments
arranged for you. Non-readily realisable investments will generally have a
restricted market, and therefore it may be difficult to deal in that investment or to
obtain reliable information about its value.
For insurance products, your insurance policy may lapse if you do not keep
up to date with regular premium payments and you may not be covered if a
claim is made.
For mortgages please be aware that your home may be repossessed if you
do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
17. TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY
You or we may terminate our authority and/or this agreement to act on your
behalf at any time without penalty. Notice of this termination must be given in
writing and will take effect from the date of receipt. Termination is without
prejudice to any transactions already initiated which will be completed according
to this client agreement unless otherwise agreed in writing. You will be liable to
pay for any transactions made prior to termination and any fees which may be
outstanding.
18. GOVERNING LAW & JURISDICTION
Liability – You agree to indemnify us in relation to any acts, proceedings or claims
which we incur directly or indirectly as a result of our acting under this agreement
save that this indemnity shall not apply to the extent it arises out of our
negligence, fraud, breach of this agreement or our regulatory responsibilities.
We reserve the right to amend this agreement at our discretion where changes in
regulation or law necessitate by giving you notice in writing. You will also be given
the option to accept our new agreements or terminate our authority. This
agreement shall be governed by and construed according to English law. Any
disputes shall be determined in the jurisdiction of the English Courts.
Where a formal written notice is required by this agreement then it shall be in
writing (not email unless agreed in advance by the parties) and sent by first class
post and deemed effective two business days after posting.
19. ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING
We may be required to verify the identity of our clients, to obtain information as
to the purpose and nature of the business which we conduct on their behalf, and
to ensure that the information we hold is up to date. For this purpose, we may
use electronic identity verification systems and we may conduct these checks
from time to time throughout our relationship, not just at the beginning.
20. CLIENT’S CONSENT
This is our client agreement upon which we intend to rely. For your own
benefit and protection, you should read these terms carefully before signing
them. If you do not understand any point, please ask for further
information.
This Client Agreement will be updated as and when required and will be sent
to you. We may not necessarily ask for a signature on the update.
I/We understand and consent to the terms of this client agreement
Signed for and on behalf of the firm:
Adviser Stephen Heathcote
Signature
Date of issue