How we are paid..

The options for paying for financial planning advice have, over time, become increasingly complex. However, on a more positive note, they have also become ever more transparent.

Traditionally, most Independent Financial Advisers have worked on a commission basis. For example, as a result of the advice given, the adviser might arrange a life assurance policy or a mortgage on behalf of a client. From this, the insurance company or lender would pay a commission to the adviser for the products sold.

Whilst this model can work in certain situations, it has some major drawbacks, the most significant one being that the adviser will only get paid if a commission paying financial product is sold.

The alternative is for the client to pay a fee to the adviser based on the time spent, which is the basis on which most similar professionals such as solicitors act. This has the advantage of ensuring that the advice given would be truly unbiased, as the adviser would be paid irrespective of whether a product was sold. However, for many clients the thought of being presented with a larger than anticipated bill is very uncomfortable.

At Coast to Coast we believe that our payment options solve both of these problems. Our options vary according to the type of advice required, which is why we offer an initial meeting without charge or obligation so that we can ascertain your advice requirements.

This is important as certain types of advice lend themselves towards a commission payment route (e.g. arranging a mortgage) and some towards the fee payment route (e.g. investment or taxation planning). From our initial meeting we can then work out what our costs might be and then agree to work on either a commission or fee basis (or maybe a mixture of the two) according to the type of advice required. Where the fee option is selected, we will endeavour wherever possible to work on a fixed fee basis so that there are no unexpected bills.

On each subject page of this site, you will find some information on the payment options we offer, which vary according to the type of advice required. We would ask you to read these to get an idea of how paying for advice works.

Finally, and we think that it is worth repeating – our initial meeting is without charge or obligation, and during this meeting we will discuss the relevant payment options if you wish us to act for you.