PWS broadly charges fees in two ways: a fixed fee to produce your financial plan and a fixed ongoing fee to review this plan. Your fees will be determined by the complexity of your financial situation and the services required.

Our fees are designed to be fair and easy to understand. There are no exit charges, hidden fees, or funny business. Most importantly, you get the chance to test the quality of our work before you pay us a penny.

We suggest an informal meeting, to begin with, at no charge. This helps both parties establish whether we are a good fit to develop a professional working relationship. We can discuss our fees in detail here.

Initial fees

Our minimum fixed fee for producing a standard financial plan involving a basic review of each area of planning (retirement, estate planning, etc.) is £3,500. This involves the following:

• Discovery meeting: who PWS is, your situation, your goals, and agreement on scope and cost.

• Analysis & recommendations, which normally include:

  • Risk-profile assessment
  • Product and fund due-diligence
  • Consultation document detailing our advice
  • Meeting to go through recommendations

• Implementation, covering paperwork, provider liaison, fund switches, and progress updates.

A case could be classed as somewhat complex if one of the following areas of complexity is involved:

• 5 or more legacy plans to analyse
• Lifetime cash-flow forecasting
• Retirement income strategy design
• In-depth tax planning (e.g., carry-forward)
• Lifetime-allowance intricacies post-abolition
• Detailed inheritance-tax or trust planning
• Interaction with third-party DFMs, businesses, or charities
• Non-ISA investments (GIAs, bonds)
• Long-term-care planning
• Advice to children
• More frequent investment counselling.

If this is the case, we would classify you as a somewhat complex client, and our fee would be £5,400. If more than one complex area is involved, we would classify you as a complex client, and our fee would be £7,500

So, if someone had a financial situation that involved more than five legacy plans to review, we would charge £5,400. If it also involved in-depth tax planning, our fee would be £7,500.

Your financial planner will advise you on the fee level given your situation. We only ask for payment after the work has been done and you are 100% happy with your financial plan.

Ongoing fees

Naturally, aspects of your finances and your life will change over time. Once the initial financial plan is in place, our ongoing advice and services aim to keep you focused on meeting your goals. For most clients, this includes:

• Ongoing updates to your financial plan.

• Help with paperwork and other administrative matters.

• Access to your financial planner via email and telephone during office hours.

• Regular planning meetings with your financial planner.

Our fee is worked out as a percentage of funds that we advise upon based on the complexity of a client’s situation. For a standard client our fee will be 1.00% on assets up to £200,000 and 0.50% thereafter.

Where one complex area of advice is involved, we would classify you as a somewhat complex client, and our fee would be 1% on assets up to £500,000 and 0.50% thereafter. A somewhat complex client would meet with their financial planner one to two times a year.

If more than one complex area is involved, we would classify you as a complex client, and our fee would be 1% on assets up to £500,000 and 0.50% thereafter. A complex client would meet with their financial planner two to three times a year.

The following examples give an insight into what the ongoing advice costs could be (figures are rounded and could be different in reality):

• If someone had no complex areas of advice (standard client) and had £500,000 invested with us, their fee would be 0.70% of their assets, which equates to £3,500 pa.
• If someone had one complex area of advice (somewhat complex client) and had £1,300,000 invested with us, their fee would be 0.69% of their assets, which equates to £9,000 pa.
• If someone had more than one complex area of advice (complex client) and had £2,900,000 invested with us, their fee would be 0.67% of their assets, which equates to £19,500 pa.

Additional Costs

In addition to our fees, additional charges may be associated with the funds we recommend, the structures or pensions we invest in, and/or the wrap platform (also referred to as custodian fees).

Where applicable, we will inform you of the costs affecting your investment and pensions. The specific amount you will pay depends on the portfolio you are invested in, the exact services you ask us to provide and the amount you invest with us.

The following examples give an insight into what the total costs could be (figures are rounded and could be different in reality):

• If someone had no complex areas of advice (standard client), had £500,000 invested with us, and invested this money into a standard portfolio, the additional costs could be as follows: costs of the portfolio 0.30% (£1,500) and wrap costs 0.25% (£1,250). Including the PWS fee of £3,500 per annum gives a total cost of ownership of 1.25% (£6,250 on a £500,000 investment).
• If someone had one complex area of advice (somewhat complex client), had £1,300,000 invested with us, and invested this money into a standard portfolio, the additional costs could be as follows: costs of the portfolio 0.30% (£3,900) and wrap costs 0.15% (£1,950). Including the PWS fee of £9,000 per annum gives a total cost of ownership of 1.14% (£14,850 on a £1,300,000 investment).
• If someone had more than one complex area of advice (complex client), had £2,900,000 invested with us, and invested their money into a standard portfolio, the additional costs could be as follows: costs of the portfolio 0.30% (£8,700) and wrap costs 0.10% (£2,900). Including the PWS fee of £19,500 per annum gives a total cost of ownership of 1.07% (£31,100 on a £2,900,000 investment).

We will always aim to deliver an overall level of costs that is below the average cost associated with wealth managers across the country. We will also aim to deliver to add far more value than a simple wealth manager could deliver via robust financial planning.