Fee-Only Planning

What we do

Fee-Only Planning Ltd. has a non-profit educational role and provides papers, books and self-study courses for the individual in the UK and Europe, and MasterClasses in Financial Planning for the practitioner and business owner.

We also provide a complete system solution for the Fee-Only firm, at a fixed annual fee for software.

About our CEO

Rob Noble-Warren won the first Financial Planner of the Year competition in the UK, is one of three people to be qualified in financial planning at the CFP™ level in both the USA and the UK, and is also a Chartered Tax Advisor with the Institute of Taxation in the UK.

Writing for the consumer magazine 'Bloomberg Money', and with a tax column in 'Real Adviser', Rob has provided a consistently high standard of work, combining writing skills with in-depth experience.




Everything you wanted to know about choosing a financial advisor

When it comes to looking after your savings, investments and pensions, you can:-

The DIY approach seems easy enough, but you will find that there are few rewards for going directly to life companies, banks and unti trust companies. As likely as not they will simply pocket the commission that they would have paid to an introducing IFA anyway. The IFAs and their supporting life companies and institutions protect the commission system in this way. Going to a stockbroker is a reasonable option, if you have more than £50,000, and you are comfortable with stocks and shares. But the stockbroker also earns commission every time you buy and sell, and so has an incentive to 'trade' your money. The second reason to take care with stockbrokers is that they will tend to advise on shares they know, which will be in the UK share market. Most of the growth that is happening in the 21st century is outside the UK share market. A wealth manager will advise on your best moves professionally and impartially, but wealth management private client services have until the last 20 years required that you demonstrate substantial capital before they will let you in the door.

Now, there has been a development where private client wealth management has become available to people with £100,000 and more in their portfolio and pensions.This has been achieved mainly by fee-only advisors.

Fee-Only Advisors

In the decade 1970-1980 a group of advisors in the UK and USA decided that there was a market for independent advice which never took any commission. They developed services which, being free of the need to protect the commission system, soon drove down the cost of investing and managing for their clients. But these services remained ones that had to be found, since there was no 'fat' in the products for marketing costs.

A decade later came the 'Self Invested Pension' where an individual can buy a pension plan for £250 directly and avoid paying £2,000 through a life company. This was followed by the 'Self Selected Individual Savings Account' where an individual can now buy an ISA for no fee, and avoid paying £300 through a unit trust company.

In the meantime fee-only advisers were extending their range beyond the affluent client into the 'high net worth' client by taking on expertise in asset managemet, in tax return services, company formations and sales, and formulating a distinct style of coherent planning aimed at achieving a lifestyle. They had become 'wealth managers'. 

How much do Fee-Only Advisers cost?

In broad terms, a fee-only wealth manager will be charging 1% per year on your investible assets, and this benchmark should include all dealing and custody costs, and financial planning; tax preparation and asset management. This compares very well with the average 3% taken by fund managers for a lesser service, which is to simply invest money in one given market (without any leeway to invest elsewhere). It also avoids completely the initial commisson, annual and exit charges made by life companies by the simple expedient of not using their products.

The difference between Fee-Only and Fee-Based Advisors

Fee-only advisers have no commission earnings. Commission-based advisers (IFAs) have all their earnings from commission; and fee-based advisers (also IFAs) have 90%+ of their earnings from commission. This means that the fee-based advisor is charging a fee for an IFA service, and charging roughly the same amount they would have earnt in commission - whereas what you might reasonably have expected is a completely different set of advice. This knowledge - how much the firm earns in commission - is behind a recent submission to the Financial Services Authority to disclose annually the mix of commission and fees for UK registered firms as is already the case with the Securities and Exchange Commission for firms registered in the USA.

Do I want a fee-only advisor?

Perhaps not. A fee-only wealth manager will assume you want to develop and protect a lifestyle, and you may simply want to put your savings and pensions somewhere where you hope they will grow. If you are in two minds about it, this questionnaire (below) will give you feedback on what type of advisor you have a preference for, as you fill in the profile questionnaires: -

Find out what advisor is right for you with our Fee-Only Portable FactFindT