about our services and costs

1. The Financial Services Authority (FSA)

   The FSA is the independent watchdog that regulates financial services. This document is designed by the FSA to be given to consumers considering buying certain financial products. You need to read this important document as it explains the services you are able to gain access to via our firm and how we get paid for providing them.

2. Whose products do we offer?

   Investment Products

   We offer products from the whole market.

   We only offer products from a limited number of companies.

   We only offer products from a single group of companies.

   Investment Products

   We offer products from a range of insurers.

   We only offer products from a limited number of insurers.

   We only offer products from a single insurer.

3. Which service will we provide you with?

   Investment Advice Services

   We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs.

   We offer a full financial planning service or alternatively can provide specific advice on:

   • protecting yourself and/or your loved ones in the event of death, serious illness or disability
   • retirement planning – before, at and after your chosen retirement age
   • investment planning and savings advice

   We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.

   We will provide basic advice on a limited range of stakeholder products and in order to do this we will ask some questions about your income, savings and other circumstances but we will not:

   • conduct a full assessment of your needs;
   • offer advice on whether a non-stakeholder product may be more suitable

   Insurance Advice Services

   We will advise and make a recommendation for you after we have assessed your needs for life assurance, critical illness insurance, mortgage protection and/or income protection insurance.

   We may ask some questions to narrow down the selection of products that we will provide details on. You will then need to make your own choice about how to proceed.

4. What will you have to pay us for our services?

   Free Initial Consultation

   All initial meetings are free and entitle new clients to a 1 hour consultation with a qualified financial adviser. This meeting allows you to tell us which areas of your financial planning you would like to discuss and gives both parties a chance to get to know each other without any further commitment. If you would then like us to provide you with further specific services, we will discuss how you would like us to be paid, (see below). Please be assured that you will never receive an invoice for work that you have not previously agreed to pay.

   Investment Services Payment Options

   You will pay for our services by way of a fee, commission or a combination of a fee and commission. We will discuss your payment options with you and answer any questions you may have. We will not charge you until we have agreed with you how we are to be paid.

   Paying by Fee
   

   Whether or not you buy a financial product, you will pay us a fee for our advice and services, which will become payable on issue of our written reports and/or recommendations. If you pay a fee but we are also entitled to receive a commission from the product provider when you buy a financial product, we will discuss with you how any commission payments that we expect to receive will be treated. We may agree to pass on a proportion of, or 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; increase your investment amount; or refund the commission to you.

   Fixed Fee Financial Planning Reports and Reviews
   

   We are often able to offer our clients fixed fee financial planning reports as an alternative to engaging our services on an hourly rate basis. If you choose to deal with us in this way we will confirm what we will charge you before beginning work. As an example, we typically charge £350 for a Personal Financial Summary Report. We will tell you if you have to pay VAT.

   Implementation Fees - Lump Sum Investments & Pensions
   

   If you ask us to implement advice we have provided to you, we will typically charge an implementation fee based on the amount invested, (subject to a minimum charge of £250). Implementation fees are commonly paid for directly, out of the amount you are investing, or via offset of commission if applicable.

   At our discretion, we may decide to waive the cost of any ‘fixed fee’ financial planning report that we have previously prepared for you in recognition of you asking us to implement the advice we have provided.

   
   

   Should you prefer us to work for you on an hourly rate basis, our fees are as follows. We will tell you if you have to pay VAT.

   Our typical hourly rate charges are:

   Managing Director	£175	Per hour
   Senior Adviser	£150	Per hour
   Financial Adviser	£125	Per hour
   Product Research and Illustrations	£100	Per hour
   Administration	£50	Per hour

   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. In many cases we are able to provide a fixed fee quote rather than hourly fees, (see above).

   Paying by Commission (paying for our services via product charges)

   If you buy a financial product, we may be entitled to receive commission on the sale of that product from the provider. Although you pay nothing to us up front, that does not mean our service is free. You would still be paying us for our services albeit indirectly via product charges. Product charges pay for the product provider’s own costs and any commission payable to us. Product charges normally reduce the amount left for investment or increase the annual costs you have to pay. If you buy direct, the product charges could be the same as when buying through an adviser, or they could be higher or lower.

   The amount of commission we receive will vary depending on the amount you invest, the type of product you purchase and (sometimes) how long you are investing for or your age.

   For example:

   • If you invested £15,000 in to a life insurance company investment bond we might receive an initial commission payment of 4.25% of the amount invested (£637.50) and 0.5% of the value of the fund each year (roughly £75).
   • If you were to invest £100 a month into a personal pension (over a term of 25 years) we might receive an initial commission of £576 immediately.
   • If you were to pay £50 per month for a whole life assurance policy, we might receive £583.27 immediately and a further £1.25 per month from month 38 onwards.

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

   The above example commissions would not include payment for any ongoing service such as an annual review or additional advice.

   If you choose to deal with us on a commission payment basis, reviews of your financial affairs are available to you on the same basis as outlined in the section above entitled ‘reviews’.

   Paying by a Combination of Fee and 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 above entitled "Paying by fee" and "Paying by commission (through product charges)"

   Insurance Services Payment Options

   A fee - For advising on & arranging a non-investment insurance contract, we will charge a minimum fee of £350. The actual fee payable will be dependent on the work involved but will be agreed before we start work.

   No fee - instead, subject to a minimum initial commission payable of £350, you can elect for us to receive payment for our services via commission as outlined in the section above entitled ‘paying by commission’.

   By a combination of a fee and commission - if the amount of commission payable to us for advising on & arranging a non-investment insurance contract for you is less than our minimum implementation fee of £350, at our discretion, you may be asked to top up the commission payable to us to meet this minimum by way of an additional fee.

   You will receive a quotation which will tell you about any other fees relating to any particular insurance policy. If you elect to pay by a fee, 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. If you know that you want to put a specific type of non-investment insurance contract in place but do not want to engage our advice services, you may find our online services at www.money-minder.com more appropriate for your needs.

   Reviews – Applicable to Fee Based and Commission Based Clients

   We typically charge our investment clients an ongoing annual fee of between 0.5% and 1% of the value of the total investments under our management. Subject to us receiving an annual fee income of at least £350, from year 2 onwards, investment clients (single or joint), are entitled to request at least one formal review in any 12 month period. This review is used to discuss and arrange any changes that might be needed to help them to meet their short and long term financial goals.

   For many clients, the annual fee income that we receive from the investment and/or pension portfolios that they have invested with us will often be enough to cover the cost of any portfolio rebalancing and/or fund switching recommendations that have been agreed as a result of a review. If this is not the case we will discuss and agree any additional fees that might be payable before we start work.

   Annual fees are commonly paid to us directly from your investment portfolio as part of an agreed regular adviser payment or via fund based trail commissions. Annual fee income helps to fund our normal day to day business running costs in order for us to be able to provide our clients with ongoing and easily accessible information and services.

   If you do not have sufficient funds under management with us to cover the cost of a regular annual review but would like one, you can choose to pay for this service either monthly, quarterly or annually by standing order. Alternatively a review can be paid for on an ‘as and when required’ basis and at the time of delivery.

   Our minimum charge for a review of your financial affairs is £350 per review. At our discretion, we may decide to reduce the cost of such a review by offsetting any regular annual fee income that we receive from investments you own that are under our management.

5. Who regulates us?

   Money Minder Financial Services (UK) Ltd, The Old Ale House, 41 Boston Road, Sleaford, Lincolnshire NG34 7ER is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority, 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HS. Our FSA Register number is 425451.

   Our permitted business activities are advising on and arranging:

   • Pensions, Savings and Investment Products & Non Investment Insurance Contracts
   • Advising on Pension Transfers and Opt Outs.

   You can check this on the FSA’s Register by visiting the FSA’s website www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/register/

6. What to do if you have a complaint

   If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us:

   In writing: The Compliance Officer Money Minder Financial Services (UK) Ltd, The Old Ale House, 41 Boston Road, Sleaford, Lincolnshire NG34 7ER.

   By phone: Telephone 01529 300300

   If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

7. Are we covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)?

   We are covered by the 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.

   Investment

   Most types of investment business are covered for up to a maximum limit of £50,000.

   Insurance

   Insurance advising and arranging is covered for 90% of the claim, without any upper limit or For compulsory classes of insurance, insurance advising and arranging is covered for 100% of the claim, without any upper limit. Further information about compensation scheme arrangements is available from the FSCS.